clinical social work association

Our Government Relations Committee has been carefully tracking the eight attempts in Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act over the past four months. We are pleased that none of the proposed attempts has been passed by both Houses.

One of the major drawbacks to the process from CSWA’s point of view has been the partisanship that has led to only the majority party crafting the bills that were considered. Bipartisanship is the only way a reasonable bill to improve the ACA can be developed. Both Houses now have working groups that will be trying to accomplish this. It remains to be seen whether leadership will support these groups.

I want to draw your attention to part of a speech given by Sen.John McCain (R-AZ) on July 25 that supports the importance of bipartisanship eloquently.

“…I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood.
 
Let’s trust each other. Let’s return to regular order. We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. That’s an approach that’s been employed by both sides, mandating legislation from the top down, without any support from the other side, with all the parliamentary maneuvers that requires…. 

What have we to lose by trying to work together to find those solutions? We're not getting much done apart. I don't think any of us feels very proud of our incapacity. Merely preventing your political opponents from doing what they want isn't the most inspiring work. There's greater satisfaction in respecting our differences, but not letting them prevent agreements that don't require abandonment of core principles, agreements made in good faith that help improve lives and protect the American people...” To read or see the whole speech go to

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/john-mccain-speech-full-text-senate/index.html