US health care decision is only a small victory for the administration

In response to the US Supreme Court’s finding that President Obama's health care laws are constitutional (28 June), Dr George Conyne, an expert in American political history at the University of Kent, said:

‘The Supreme Court decision represents only a small victory for the administration. The Court's decision does not mean the country will now see his plan a good or wise policy; only that it is legal. But ironically, it was never going to be a major issue in this year's political campaign because the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney presided over the enactment of a very similar programme when he was governor of Massachusetts.'

‘However, now that the Court has upheld it, conservatives can attack it as “too much government”, knowing that Romney will never propose anything even like it for the United States. But those attacks will not be of great consequence because the American public is unhappy both with Obama's plan and the current state of health care in the United States, and the Republicans who attack the president are not offering any proposals to fix the system most believe is broken. As a result, the presidential campaign will soon return to its main theme: job creation and the future of the economy. Those are the issues that concern Americans and on those issues the President will be judged.’

Dr Conyne lectures in the University’s School of History. His research interests include American constitutional, political and diplomatic history, as well as the founding of the nation, the American Civil War, the Progressive Era, the Civil Rights Era, and contemporary US political history.

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 10:52am 29 June 2012