The National Health Service Bill
The progress of a bill through Congress has been the topic of numerous studies and an almost infinite number of political science papers. However, comprehending the legislative process is so essential to a political science career that every scrap of anecdotal evidence must be retrieved from those surrounding the legislative process. Fortunately, Eric Redman’s intriguing account of the passage of S 4106, the National Health Service Bill, is a well-organized narrative of the legislative process. Whether or not it resembles a “dance” is really more of a figure of speech than a literalism, but Redman has tried to represent the messy process of legislation in as elegant and orderly a manner as possible while still remaining true to his subject.The National Health Service Bill
One of the key problems in the “true” representation of Congress’s machinations is the multitude of unwritten rules and implied power structures that exist in the government and economy of the US. People in Congress must “learn the game”, a process that can take longer than the passage of the average bill! In this way, legislation is more like an immense and complex team poker game than a dance. Well-meaning legislation like S 4106 can be defeated routinely for a number of reasons, none of which imply that member of Congress are unaware of the ideals and dreams that drove them into politics in the first place. If congresspersons defeated the healthcare-for-the-poor bills like this one in the past, it was not because they wished ill health on the economically disadvantaged citizens of the US. Most likely the defeat of similar bills was due to improper coalition-building, bad planning in the distribution of funds proposed by the bill, or some other “political” reason.
