opinion
The black napping chairs in the library are my best friend and worst enemy
KANSAN.COM/NEWS | MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2017
Today I got back a paper I forgot I turned in, all I had written on it was "No" and I got 100%. It's quite possibly the most college thing to ever happen to me.
Fun fact: the udk got verified on twitter before the WeRateDogs account
I love college! I talk to dogs more than I talk to humans!
The intro of Moves by Big Sean sounds like a dying whale
The paint fumes in this room are taking me on a trip I didn't know I was taking this spring break.
My drug of choice is monster.
I went to every single one of my classes this week I want an award.
I'm living my spring break through other people's Snapchat stories
It should be considered a talent to somehow accidentally slam your car door on your foot twice in one day.
Carbonated water just tastes like a burp.
Going to the store on gameday is very similar to going on thanksgiving because it's so crowded.
Is it just me or does Donald Trump Jr. look like a really, really, REALLY unattractive version of Jason Sudeikis?
Is now an acceptable time to black out?
On any given day I ask myself, "Just to f--- with Brownback, how can I be more gay than I already am?"
How do I make 'garbage person' a personal brand?
just got back to my suite, one of my suitmates had BIFM on and was crying
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.
Associated Press
Liston: Legislative 'buck' doesn't stop with Trump
RYAN LISTON
@rliston235
After House Republican leaders pulled their health care bill from the floor without holding a vote, blame was placed on everyone from the Democrats to House Speaker Paul Ryan to President Donald Trump. Many
in the media who cast or insinuated blame on Trump were quick to revive the phrase "the buck stops here," which was popularized by President Harry Truman during his tenure and means that responsibility ultimately ends with the president.
Trump does need to take some responsibility for the failure of the GOP health care bill. One of his major campaign promises was to repeal and replace Obamacare early on in his term, despite his insistence that he did not make such a claim. He pressured the GOP into hastily crafting a bill that could have thrown between six and 24 million
people off of healthcare according to the Washington Post.
Yet in this case, as with many other governmental functions, the buck does not stop with the president. Trump should not be the only person held responsible for the failure of the health care bill. To say that the buck stops with Trump in this instance allows other parties to take a smaller share of the blame.
Ryan should be criticized for his role in constructing and bloviating about the GOP healthcare bill. Republicans in general should be criticized for attacking Obamacare for the past seven years without
having an effective replacement plan. The buck stops with all of them. They are all responsible.
Presidential power is limited by checks and balances. With most governmental functions, the president does not have autonomous power, so the buck does not stop with them. Our politics are shaped by the struggles, compromises and interactions of people within the government and throughout the country. No president can or should be allowed to mandate all aspects of government.
Although blaming a president for governmental failures can be tempting, everyone should take a critical look at the key figures involved with the issue. When we identify who contributed to a problem and the systems that allowed that problem to arise, we can effectively address the problem. In terms of healthcare, realizing that Trump, Ryan and the GOP are all to blame should lead constituents to oppose the reelection of these officials and to criticize any further attempts to damage healthcare.
Ryan Liston is a sophomore from Lawrence studying journalism and political science.
Munoz: Health care debacle a cautionary tale
▶ VINCE MUNOZ
@vmunoz_18
Paul Ryan stopped a vote on Friday, March 24 about his own bill the American Health Care Act, because it lacked enough support from members of his own party in order to pass. Congressional Republicans have had seven years to craft an Affordable Care Act replacement bill that a majority of their members could get behind, so why did they choke now that they finally have a unified government?
The answer presents a cautionary lesson to Democrats as much as to Republicans.
Republicans oppose the ACA by tying it to Obama, rather than trying to provide
an alternative to the bill. If Democrats continue trying to sink every piece of legislation by tying the policy to Trump, rather than providing clear alternatives, they will find themselves unable to govern once win back Congress and the White House.A brief overview of how the ACA was passed and the Republicans' response to it will demonstrate this.
Former Obama speechwriter and foreign policy advisor, Ben Rhodes, best summarized conservatives' conundrum. In a quote tweet from Edward-Isaac Dovere saying, "House Rs voted over 60x to repeal Obamacare while Obama was president. They voted o times on it under Trump, and are now ready to move on." Rhodes adds, "Almost makes you think it wasn't ever about the policy itself."
Therein lies the GOP's problem: they opposed the man, not the policy. This was both out of political convenience and because of how the ACA was made. Despite contemporary narratives, the Obama Administration and
senate Democrats effectively hijacked the idea from a 1989 Heritage Foundation report. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that promoted the individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer healthcare. Moreover, other aspects of the bill were taken from Mitt Romney's 2006 Massachusetts reform.
Conservatives may control the levers of policymaking now, but they are unable to govern because they opposed Obama, not his ideas."
This gave Republicans a difficult choice, either support the bill providing Obama with a major bipartisan political victory ahead of a crucial midterm election or oppose the policy while abandoning their past position.
Republicans put party
In the short term, this turned out to benefit the party beyond their wildest dreams. Many pundits wrote off the GOP's chance of victory in 2010, but they managed to flip the House of Representatives following a massive loss two years earlier.
before country and chose the former.
Conservatives may control the levers of policymaking now, but they are unable to govern because they opposed Obama, not his ideas. The same mistake could cripple progressives in the future. Trump's ideology started well before he ran for president and it will outlast his administration. After all, figures like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Milo Yiannopoulos have been at the fringes of American politics for years trying to find the right vehicle to spread their beliefs. They won't stop after their next election loss; in fact, they're just getting started.
If Democrats want to both take back control of Washington and be able to reverse damaging policies, they need
to prepare alternatives in real time rather than procrastinate as the GOP has. Beyond that, they need to address interparty differences as they go along. For example, Bernie Sanders announced that he will introduce a single-payer bill to congress shortly, but if he doesn't engage with party moderates, his bill could suffer the same fate as the AHCA.
Clearly, it's not enough to be a party of no. Democrats have the luxury of watching the GOP learn this the hard way, but four years is a long enough time to forget this. Party leaders should keep President Trump accountable, but they also need to be preparing for their next chance at governing. Ignoring this lesson for political victories in the short term will doom the Democrats to the same fate as today's Republicans.
Vince Munoz is a junior from Topeka studying political science and strategic communications.
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