Americans are concerned about the economy… but are they concerned about financial reform?
By Micah Hanks
With yesterday’s passage of a new sweeping financial reform bill, some of the nation’s leading economists are expressing increased concern that the present administration’s policies will further inhibit economic growth as the US unsteadily dips in and out of recession. Many Americans, on the other hand, could be less concerned.
A variety of situations continue to worsen on a broad scale, ranging from the tremendous controversy over race issues and civil rights, political upheaval in anticipation of the November elections, and even record high suicide rates among active-duty troops and National Guard or Reserve forces. However, the factors hitting most Americans the hardest are economic, and when it strikes the pocketbook, they notice.
This acceptance that the state of the economy is not benefiting them overshadows measures such as the financial reform aimed at fixing the problem, and furthermore, will inevitably lead to confusion. The bill itself, at 2,300 pages, is full of information an already skeptical populace will eventually have to accept and, hopefully, understand. However, looking at the passage of Health Care Reform and its complexities, we’re reminded that this was hardly the case: wafting between notions of single-payer plans and public options, the final bill that passed contained neither, and stories of insurance agencies receiving calls about signing up for “free Obamacare” since its passage help illustrate people’s general confusion.
None of this is to say the Obama administration can be blamed entirely for American’s lack of interest or understanding, of course. Reuters reported yesterday that polls indicate 38 percent of Americans hadn’t even heard of the reform bill, with another 33 percent having heard of it, but remaining unaware of details pertaining to the legislation.
Perhaps the greater concern has less to do with the attention to details kept by the citizenry, however. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s infamous comment about passing Health Reform “so that you can find out what’s in it” causes concern about whether even those individuals who passed the bill have a clear understanding about its contents. We know now that the President, Speaker Pelosi, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano all commented on Arizona’s immigration bill S.B. 1070 prior to reading it. Hopefully, when it comes to legislation being passed, similar underlying circumstances won’t come to light in retrospect.
Image by Transplanted Mountaineer via Flickr.
