Persuasive Essay
For our first major essay assignment, we had 3 weeks to research, write, and polish a persuasive essay on the most difficult and complex political questions of our lifetime. After an in-depth look at the issues of our choice, we choose the best of the two political candidates for America's future.
Healthcare: Obama vs. Romney
Since the Wall Street crash of 2008, our economy has been in shambles. In order to fix our economy, we must elect a leader who is task-oriented and willing to break the economy down into its components. With healthcare being the biggest contributor to the national deficit, it is imperative that the issue is fixed immediately, so that we can take the first step towards an improved economy. Healthcare must be our nation’s predominant concern, and we must elect a leader who recognizes this priority. Although Romney’s plan to revise healthcare was successful in Massachusetts, Obama has made healthcare accessible and affordable on a national level.
Healthcare will always be expensive, but cutting the unnecessary system costs will help bring the overall price down. In order to get America out of debt, the government needs to cut spending. A MyGovCost.org fact check validated Obama’s statement that social insurance programs “are the biggest driver of our federal deficit,” especially the health components Medicare and Medicaid. The site then goes on to explain University of Michigan’s Professor Robert Dittmar’s analysis of the deficit, stating, “Government spending on medical expenditures outstripped revenues by $775 billion, which represents 58% of the 2011 Federal deficit.” Obama has already begun to fix this problem. Through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” taxpayers will stop overpaying private medical insurers such as Medicare Advantage. this method and a variety of other restrictions, the ACA plans to reduce Medicare funding by $716 billion, without stripping seniors of their general health insurance or their benefits (Waldman, 2012). Just by reducing Medicare costs, Obama has helped to significantly reduce the Federal Deficit.
Of course no health reform will ever be perfect, but Obamacare will improve the problems associated with America’s health system. While Obamacare has outlined rules and standards that will be in full effect by 2014, Romney has settled for an ambiguous plan to revise one of the nation’s most pressing issues. Instead of offering his own plan, Romney wants to give the states the power. His website, MittRomney.com, affirms that, “States will have both the incentive and the flexibility to experiment, learn from one another, and craft the approaches best suited to their own citizens.” This method makes it too easy for Romney to deprioritize healthcare. By handing over power to the states, he will rid himself of one of the biggest responsibilities as president: to improve our healthcare system. Today, over 50,000 adults die from diseases that are easily preventable by vaccinations, including the Flu, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Pertussis, etc. To put this number into perspective, more adults die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases than in car wrecks (DeNoon, 2009). Under Obamacare, preventive care, such as life–saving screenings and vaccinations, will be made free (Kaiser, 2010).
Romney’s most consistent idea for healthcare is to repeal Obamacare on the grounds that it will be a “disaster for the federal budget and the constitutional principles of federalism. (Corasaniti, 2012)” According to the NY Times fact check, however, repealing Obamacare would decrease spending, but even more so revenue, resulting in an increased federal deficit of $109 billion in the next decade. As Obama stated in the first presidential debate, “The problem is he [Romney] hasn’t stated what he’d replace it [Obamacare] with other than saying we’re going to leave it to the states.”
Mitt Romney likes to focus on jobs. In fact, one of the five major parts of Romney’s platforms is to “champion small business,” with the only mention of healthcare in his entire platform consisting of “replacing Obamacare with real health care reform that controls cost and improves care.” He also claims that Obamacare will dissuade employers from hiring people, yet the ‘Health Reform Explained’ video mentions that small businesses will get tax breaks specifically so they can hire more employees without worrying about health care costs. Obama has recognized our situation as a nation in need of revival. While Romney focuses mainly on job creation, Obama has found a way to create jobs through healthcare. The ACA has awarded 250 million dollars in funding that will go towards the support and training of the estimated 16,000 new jobs created to accommodate the increased demand for healthcare (Fact Sheet, 2012).
One of the most interesting things about Romney’s stance on Obamacare is that he’s opposing something that was inspired by his own actions in Massachusetts. Romney’s health reform “provided citizens with access to affordable health insurance.” With 98.1% of MA citizens having medical insurance, and the amount of employers giving their employees health insurance up 6% (Collins, 2012), it’s disconcerting as to why Romney would oppose something so fundamentally similar to his own reform. Romney claims that his ideas won’t work on the national level, but now that Obama has found a way to make it work on a level for which the president must operate, Romney opposes it. Currently, 1 in 7, or 45 million Americans, are uninsured. This number is so high because health insurance is currently so expensive. If 98.1% of adults nationwide had health insurance, an increased demand for quality healthcare would drive down healthcare costs, proven by a study conducted by The University of California Irvine and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. When 26,000 uninsured residents of Richmond, Virginia were given access to healthcare similar to Medicaid, “The total annual health care costs per enrollee fell from $8,899 in year one, to a startling $4,569 in year three—an almost 50 percent decline in the cost of health care per individual (Ungar, 2012).”
Obama has put a health care plan into action that will provide 3.6 million more people with life-saving health insurance (CNN, 2012). With healthcare being the biggest driver of the national deficit, and America’s economy in its worst state since the Great Depression, healthcare must be recognized as one of the nation’s most imminent problems. While Romney remains unassertive towards healthcare and looks instead towards commerce, Obama realizes what must first be fixed on a domestic level. America needs a leader that will recognize the needs of the American people as a nation, not a leader that will give power to the individual states in lieu of formulating a national policy.
Hannah Quick
Annotated Bibliography
CNN Wire Staff, Tom Watkins, and Caleb Hellerman. "Ryan Cites Unlikely Outcome under Obamacare - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/politics/fact-check-lose-healthcare/index.html>.
The creator of this document was analyzing the validity of Ryan’s statement that 20 million Americans will lose their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act that 7.4 million seniors will lose their coverage. In the end, the study disproved Ryan’s statement using several studies. The site seems to be biased towards Democrats, but still lays out the counterarguments that Ryan correctly stated.
This source will help me to clarify what most people are misinformed about concerning Obamacare: that employment-based health care will actually not decrease, but instead have a net increase of 3 million people gaining health care. Through this source, I’ll be able to disprove a counterargument. The site is, of course, going to have a bias or at least leave some facts out so I’ll have to make sure I cross-check the fact checkers’ facts.
Collins, Ben. "RomneyCare â“ The Truth about Massachusetts Health Care." Mitt Romney Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://mittromneycentral.com/resources/romneycare/>.
Corasaniti, Nick, Jon Huang, John Niedermeyer, and Josh Williams. "The First Presidential Debate." The New York Times. N.p., 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/04/us/politics/20120804-denver-presidential-debate-obama-romney.html#/?annotation=0b9973d6b>.
This NY Times article analyzed statements made by both Romney and Obama in the first presidential debate, specifically their assertions and attacks. By checking the numbers and facts each candidate presented, the article was able to prove and or disprove certain statements. This source alone would help me build a sound argument, because it is one of my least biased sources, and has enough evidence to help me support my statements. Although this source is one of my least biased, it still seems to lean in favor of left-wing principles. In order to get a fair idea of Romney’s health care plan, I have looked at the Romney website in order to balance the scale.
This source will help me the most by disproving Romney’s biggest arguments against Obamacare, such as the extent of control entitled to the Medical Cost Control Board. It will also help me highlight the weak points of Romney’s plans to repeal Obamacare, which would result in a deficit increase of $109 billion in the next decade. This source will be one of my strongest, because it is credible, and can’t twist the words of either candidate because the transcript of the speech is available for everyone to see.
DeNoon, Daniel J. "Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Killing American Adults." WebMD. WebMD, 24 July 2009. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.webmd.com/vaccines/news/20090724/us-adults-dying-of-preventable-diseases>.
Eyermann, Craig. "MyGovCost News & Blog." MyGovCost.org. MyGovCost.org, 26 Oct. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://www.mygovcost.org/2012/10/26/is-medicare-spending-the-biggest-driver-of-the-deficit/>.
"Fact Sheet: Creating Jobs and Increasing the Number of Primary Care Providers." Fact Sheet: Creating Jobs and Increasing the Number of Primary Care Providers. Healthcare.gov, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://www.healthreform.gov/newsroom/primarycareworkforce.html/>.
"Healthcare: Repeal and Replace Obamacare." Mitt Romney for President. Romney for President, Inc, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mittromney.com/issues/health-care>.
The purpose of MittRomney.com is purely to gain support and/or money from the American people. The most valuable thing on the website is Romney’s platform, which will help clarify Romney’s stance on health care, specifically Obamacare. An argument based solely on this source, however, would not be credible, as it is one of the most biased sources currently on the Internet.
This source will help me draw attention to the faults of Romney’s plan by using his own words. For example, I could explain why it would be a disaster if Romney gave the states time to experiment with health care policies and strategies. I will also be acknowledge that I used a source that goes against everything I’m trying to prove, so as not appear uninformed in my research. By pointing out the weak spots of Romney’s platform, I’ll be able to simultaneously highlight the benefits of Obamacare and discredit Romney’s strategies to resolve the health care issue.
"Issues - Health Care-Barack Obama." Obama for America. Obama for America, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.barackobama.com/health-care?source=primary-nav>.
This will help me level out the bias presented through Romney’s website. It will also help me explain Obamacare using Obama’s own words, so everything will be stated as accurately as possible. Just like Romney’s website, however, this source is incredibly biased and wouldn’t be credible on its own. It will be good to have the polar opposites as sources to compare and contrast views on Obama, and convince the reader why to vote for Obama.
This source will be me prove my point about the biggest benefits of Obamacare. I don’t feel this source is all too strong though, because it is so biased. Because of this, I will simply draw statements from Obama’s platform in order to outline his position, and back them up with facts from the fact-checking websites.
Kaiser Health Reform Source. "Health Reform Explained Video: "Health Reform Hits Main Street"" YouTube. YouTube, 17 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ilc5xK2_E>.
The Kaiser Health Reform is a source prides itself on providing, “Trusted, independent information on the major health issues facing our nation and its people.” This source will be perfect for me because it explains the current issues with health care, and how Obamacare will affect health care. It’s great for fairly analyzing the pros and cons of health care, with great facts to back up the analysis.
The Kaiser Health Reform will without a doubt be a strong source that will help me break down the basics of Obamacare in order to explain it accurately to readers and convince them of its benefits. The only thing I have to be careful about is that because the company is a beneficiary of Obamacare, it could be leaving out crucial facts in order to make sure Obamacare will appear desirable, so I’ll have to cross-check everything I use and make sure it’s accurate.
Robertson, Lori. "A Campaign Full of Mediscare." FactCheck.org. Annenberg Public Policy Center, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.factcheck.org/2012/08/a-campaign-full-of-mediscare/>.
Ungar, Rick. "Early Signs That Obamacare Is On The Right Track To Reduce Costs." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/03/12/early-signs-that-obamacare-is-on-the-right-track-to-reduce-costs/>.
Waldman, Paul. "Medicare Myths, Debunked." The American Prospect. The American Prospect, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://prospect.org/article/medicare-myths-debunked>.
Healthcare will always be expensive, but cutting the unnecessary system costs will help bring the overall price down. In order to get America out of debt, the government needs to cut spending. A MyGovCost.org fact check validated Obama’s statement that social insurance programs “are the biggest driver of our federal deficit,” especially the health components Medicare and Medicaid. The site then goes on to explain University of Michigan’s Professor Robert Dittmar’s analysis of the deficit, stating, “Government spending on medical expenditures outstripped revenues by $775 billion, which represents 58% of the 2011 Federal deficit.” Obama has already begun to fix this problem. Through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” taxpayers will stop overpaying private medical insurers such as Medicare Advantage. this method and a variety of other restrictions, the ACA plans to reduce Medicare funding by $716 billion, without stripping seniors of their general health insurance or their benefits (Waldman, 2012). Just by reducing Medicare costs, Obama has helped to significantly reduce the Federal Deficit.
Of course no health reform will ever be perfect, but Obamacare will improve the problems associated with America’s health system. While Obamacare has outlined rules and standards that will be in full effect by 2014, Romney has settled for an ambiguous plan to revise one of the nation’s most pressing issues. Instead of offering his own plan, Romney wants to give the states the power. His website, MittRomney.com, affirms that, “States will have both the incentive and the flexibility to experiment, learn from one another, and craft the approaches best suited to their own citizens.” This method makes it too easy for Romney to deprioritize healthcare. By handing over power to the states, he will rid himself of one of the biggest responsibilities as president: to improve our healthcare system. Today, over 50,000 adults die from diseases that are easily preventable by vaccinations, including the Flu, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Pertussis, etc. To put this number into perspective, more adults die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases than in car wrecks (DeNoon, 2009). Under Obamacare, preventive care, such as life–saving screenings and vaccinations, will be made free (Kaiser, 2010).
Romney’s most consistent idea for healthcare is to repeal Obamacare on the grounds that it will be a “disaster for the federal budget and the constitutional principles of federalism. (Corasaniti, 2012)” According to the NY Times fact check, however, repealing Obamacare would decrease spending, but even more so revenue, resulting in an increased federal deficit of $109 billion in the next decade. As Obama stated in the first presidential debate, “The problem is he [Romney] hasn’t stated what he’d replace it [Obamacare] with other than saying we’re going to leave it to the states.”
Mitt Romney likes to focus on jobs. In fact, one of the five major parts of Romney’s platforms is to “champion small business,” with the only mention of healthcare in his entire platform consisting of “replacing Obamacare with real health care reform that controls cost and improves care.” He also claims that Obamacare will dissuade employers from hiring people, yet the ‘Health Reform Explained’ video mentions that small businesses will get tax breaks specifically so they can hire more employees without worrying about health care costs. Obama has recognized our situation as a nation in need of revival. While Romney focuses mainly on job creation, Obama has found a way to create jobs through healthcare. The ACA has awarded 250 million dollars in funding that will go towards the support and training of the estimated 16,000 new jobs created to accommodate the increased demand for healthcare (Fact Sheet, 2012).
One of the most interesting things about Romney’s stance on Obamacare is that he’s opposing something that was inspired by his own actions in Massachusetts. Romney’s health reform “provided citizens with access to affordable health insurance.” With 98.1% of MA citizens having medical insurance, and the amount of employers giving their employees health insurance up 6% (Collins, 2012), it’s disconcerting as to why Romney would oppose something so fundamentally similar to his own reform. Romney claims that his ideas won’t work on the national level, but now that Obama has found a way to make it work on a level for which the president must operate, Romney opposes it. Currently, 1 in 7, or 45 million Americans, are uninsured. This number is so high because health insurance is currently so expensive. If 98.1% of adults nationwide had health insurance, an increased demand for quality healthcare would drive down healthcare costs, proven by a study conducted by The University of California Irvine and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. When 26,000 uninsured residents of Richmond, Virginia were given access to healthcare similar to Medicaid, “The total annual health care costs per enrollee fell from $8,899 in year one, to a startling $4,569 in year three—an almost 50 percent decline in the cost of health care per individual (Ungar, 2012).”
Obama has put a health care plan into action that will provide 3.6 million more people with life-saving health insurance (CNN, 2012). With healthcare being the biggest driver of the national deficit, and America’s economy in its worst state since the Great Depression, healthcare must be recognized as one of the nation’s most imminent problems. While Romney remains unassertive towards healthcare and looks instead towards commerce, Obama realizes what must first be fixed on a domestic level. America needs a leader that will recognize the needs of the American people as a nation, not a leader that will give power to the individual states in lieu of formulating a national policy.
Hannah Quick
Annotated Bibliography
CNN Wire Staff, Tom Watkins, and Caleb Hellerman. "Ryan Cites Unlikely Outcome under Obamacare - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/politics/fact-check-lose-healthcare/index.html>.
The creator of this document was analyzing the validity of Ryan’s statement that 20 million Americans will lose their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act that 7.4 million seniors will lose their coverage. In the end, the study disproved Ryan’s statement using several studies. The site seems to be biased towards Democrats, but still lays out the counterarguments that Ryan correctly stated.
This source will help me to clarify what most people are misinformed about concerning Obamacare: that employment-based health care will actually not decrease, but instead have a net increase of 3 million people gaining health care. Through this source, I’ll be able to disprove a counterargument. The site is, of course, going to have a bias or at least leave some facts out so I’ll have to make sure I cross-check the fact checkers’ facts.
Collins, Ben. "RomneyCare â“ The Truth about Massachusetts Health Care." Mitt Romney Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://mittromneycentral.com/resources/romneycare/>.
Corasaniti, Nick, Jon Huang, John Niedermeyer, and Josh Williams. "The First Presidential Debate." The New York Times. N.p., 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/04/us/politics/20120804-denver-presidential-debate-obama-romney.html#/?annotation=0b9973d6b>.
This NY Times article analyzed statements made by both Romney and Obama in the first presidential debate, specifically their assertions and attacks. By checking the numbers and facts each candidate presented, the article was able to prove and or disprove certain statements. This source alone would help me build a sound argument, because it is one of my least biased sources, and has enough evidence to help me support my statements. Although this source is one of my least biased, it still seems to lean in favor of left-wing principles. In order to get a fair idea of Romney’s health care plan, I have looked at the Romney website in order to balance the scale.
This source will help me the most by disproving Romney’s biggest arguments against Obamacare, such as the extent of control entitled to the Medical Cost Control Board. It will also help me highlight the weak points of Romney’s plans to repeal Obamacare, which would result in a deficit increase of $109 billion in the next decade. This source will be one of my strongest, because it is credible, and can’t twist the words of either candidate because the transcript of the speech is available for everyone to see.
DeNoon, Daniel J. "Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Killing American Adults." WebMD. WebMD, 24 July 2009. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.webmd.com/vaccines/news/20090724/us-adults-dying-of-preventable-diseases>.
Eyermann, Craig. "MyGovCost News & Blog." MyGovCost.org. MyGovCost.org, 26 Oct. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://www.mygovcost.org/2012/10/26/is-medicare-spending-the-biggest-driver-of-the-deficit/>.
"Fact Sheet: Creating Jobs and Increasing the Number of Primary Care Providers." Fact Sheet: Creating Jobs and Increasing the Number of Primary Care Providers. Healthcare.gov, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://www.healthreform.gov/newsroom/primarycareworkforce.html/>.
"Healthcare: Repeal and Replace Obamacare." Mitt Romney for President. Romney for President, Inc, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mittromney.com/issues/health-care>.
The purpose of MittRomney.com is purely to gain support and/or money from the American people. The most valuable thing on the website is Romney’s platform, which will help clarify Romney’s stance on health care, specifically Obamacare. An argument based solely on this source, however, would not be credible, as it is one of the most biased sources currently on the Internet.
This source will help me draw attention to the faults of Romney’s plan by using his own words. For example, I could explain why it would be a disaster if Romney gave the states time to experiment with health care policies and strategies. I will also be acknowledge that I used a source that goes against everything I’m trying to prove, so as not appear uninformed in my research. By pointing out the weak spots of Romney’s platform, I’ll be able to simultaneously highlight the benefits of Obamacare and discredit Romney’s strategies to resolve the health care issue.
"Issues - Health Care-Barack Obama." Obama for America. Obama for America, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.barackobama.com/health-care?source=primary-nav>.
This will help me level out the bias presented through Romney’s website. It will also help me explain Obamacare using Obama’s own words, so everything will be stated as accurately as possible. Just like Romney’s website, however, this source is incredibly biased and wouldn’t be credible on its own. It will be good to have the polar opposites as sources to compare and contrast views on Obama, and convince the reader why to vote for Obama.
This source will be me prove my point about the biggest benefits of Obamacare. I don’t feel this source is all too strong though, because it is so biased. Because of this, I will simply draw statements from Obama’s platform in order to outline his position, and back them up with facts from the fact-checking websites.
Kaiser Health Reform Source. "Health Reform Explained Video: "Health Reform Hits Main Street"" YouTube. YouTube, 17 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ilc5xK2_E>.
The Kaiser Health Reform is a source prides itself on providing, “Trusted, independent information on the major health issues facing our nation and its people.” This source will be perfect for me because it explains the current issues with health care, and how Obamacare will affect health care. It’s great for fairly analyzing the pros and cons of health care, with great facts to back up the analysis.
The Kaiser Health Reform will without a doubt be a strong source that will help me break down the basics of Obamacare in order to explain it accurately to readers and convince them of its benefits. The only thing I have to be careful about is that because the company is a beneficiary of Obamacare, it could be leaving out crucial facts in order to make sure Obamacare will appear desirable, so I’ll have to cross-check everything I use and make sure it’s accurate.
Robertson, Lori. "A Campaign Full of Mediscare." FactCheck.org. Annenberg Public Policy Center, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.factcheck.org/2012/08/a-campaign-full-of-mediscare/>.
Ungar, Rick. "Early Signs That Obamacare Is On The Right Track To Reduce Costs." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/03/12/early-signs-that-obamacare-is-on-the-right-track-to-reduce-costs/>.
Waldman, Paul. "Medicare Myths, Debunked." The American Prospect. The American Prospect, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://prospect.org/article/medicare-myths-debunked>.