Next Wednesday, September 28, the College Republicans and College Democrats will host their second debate of the semester in the HUB’s Flex Theater at 7:00 p.m. Following a debate earlier this month about the controversial Iran Nuclear Deal and whether the US should raise the minimum wage, this second debate will cover President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the United States’ interventions in foreign matters.

The Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, has been a major discussion point on both sides of the aisle leading up to the 2016 election. A major point of the 2016 Republican platform is to repeal Obamacare citing the fact it’s “driven up prices for all consumers.” In its place they want to redistribute power to individual states allowing them to regulate their own local insurance markets with the goal to increase “access to affordable, high-quality healthcare, including those struggling with mental illness.”

College Republicans president Michael Straw voiced excitement at the notion of again taking the stage to discuss such important national issues.

“Obamacare is one of the biggest disasters this country has seen, it gives taxpayer money to insurance companies, it hikes rates, lowers choice, and is proven to literally crash if too many people are on the website at once. Hardly a reliable government program,” Straw said. “We are eager to debate with the College Democrats on how they can defend why the Affordable Care Act has helped Americans more than hurt.”

Democrats on the other hand want to continue to improve and build off of Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The 2016 Democratic Party Platform states that, “For too many of us, health care costs are still too high, even for those with insurance.”

Veronica Weyhrauch, President of the Penn State College Democrats echoed the same sentiment. “The Republican party likes to treat the ACA as a disaster without recognizing the millions of people that have benefitted from it,” Weyhrauch said. “The ACA has reduced the number of uninsured Americans while simultaneously expanding patient protections. If republicans want to repeal the ACA they should have to find a way to also preserve these benefits and protect those that were uninsured prior to the ACA.”

Nonetheless, the debate next week should prove to be an engaging and exciting one.