The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘The Central Prob. of Obamacare Will Not Yield to Technical or Rhetorical Solutions’

Posted on | January 1, 2014 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

Thus asserts Micheal Gerson in the WaPoo.

The central problem of Obamacare will not yield to technical or rhetorical solutions. President Obama sold it to Americans as a plan with no losers. But it is a redistribution program, creating both winners and losers. And many of the losers in Obamacare consider themselves middle class. This realization may eventually lead a number of elected Democrats to favor serious revisions.

Two challenges I have with the first sentence in this paragraph:

  1. That anybody thinks the federal government should have this task at all is nuts. The best defense of ObamaCare is that it was the final step in the lemming march off the cliff of Progress.
  2. That anybody thinks the government ‘solves’ anything, ever, is daft. Government maintains problems; the actual solutions are in the glove compartment of Godot’s car, which, regrettably, has been delayed.

Progressivism is an old man, stricken with Alzheimer’s, on the cusp of dementia, that cannot grasp the reality of his time having passed. ObamaCare’s swath of economic destruction is going to continue to claim victims. As the year drags on, the employer mandate is going to loom, the Democrats are going to lie, and the codpiece media is going to protect them. Wash, rinse, repeat. That old man isn’t going to the retirement home easily.

The central problem for the GOP is a split political personality. For congressional Republicans, ideological timidity is a reasonable, short-term electoral strategy. For Republicans concerned about retaking the presidency in 2016, it is wholly insufficient. There is an urgent need to reposition the party among minorities, women and the young. Pointing and laughing at the failures of Obamacare will not be a sufficient governing vision.

Gerson has the right of it. That old Progressive coot needs to be put out to pasture. It’s time for reform. The inability to offer something, anything, in the way of reform, I would argue, has been the real driver in depressing conservative turnout in the last two Presidential elections. We need this ObamaCare horse boiled down for glue; the suspicion was that Romney was going to get his veterinarian on.

Don’t stand there holding the coats while the IRS stones the Tea Party, GOP: either

  1. have your Road to Damascus moment, and get on the reform bandwagon, or
  2. stand by to join the ObamaCare horse at the glue factory.

Jake Tapper reports that 40k new laws are kicking in today. I know some incumbents needing kicked out in November if that death-by-red-tape situation isn’t improved.

Category: Health Care, Republicans

Comments

13 Responses to “‘The Central Prob. of Obamacare Will Not Yield to Technical or Rhetorical Solutions’”

  1. tahDeetz
    January 1st, 2014 @ 10:47 am

    RT @smitty_one_each: ‘The Central Prob. of Obamacare Will Not Yield to Technical or Rhetorical Solutions’ http://t.co/rVT9gGTOpk #TCOT

  2. robcrawford2
    January 1st, 2014 @ 9:49 am

    40,000 new “laws”?

    I suspect I violated a few of them during the course of making breakfast.

  3. Quartermaster
    January 1st, 2014 @ 11:20 am

    The current GOP leadership is also a horse that needs to be boiled down for glue. Both parties have trashed this country because both parties are led by progressive idiots. The problem of the GOP leadership isn’t merely timidity. They mostly agree with the Dimocraps.

  4. ObamaCare 2014: It’s a big F’ing deal! | Batshit Crazy News
    January 1st, 2014 @ 12:06 pm

    […] Smitty is right, ObamaCare is not a system that is going to get fixed…it is now fundamentally f#&*@ed&#8230… […]

  5. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    January 1st, 2014 @ 1:06 pm

    ObamaCare will be the gift that keeps on giving to the Republicans.

    By giving it the voters good and hard.

    The only question is whether the GOP will pull defeat from the jaws of victory. Don’t underestimate our GOP Elites, they know how to lose!

  6. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    January 1st, 2014 @ 1:06 pm

    You (and most of us here) are a walking thought crime wave.

  7. Pat in Shreveport
    January 1st, 2014 @ 1:16 pm

    Linked at SIGIS. Happy New Year!

  8. Cube
    January 1st, 2014 @ 1:18 pm

    From their perspective, its not a loss if the public get sidelined but the same people remain in the Party leadership. “Oh, the Tea Party hobbits lose because we won’t stand up to the D’s? Boo freakin’ hoo. Now back to getting those sweet campaign contributions.”

  9. Hey its time for the Big Fat Gay Tournament of Roses Parade! | Batshit Crazy News
    January 1st, 2014 @ 2:20 pm

    […] But I want to celebrate 2014 by seeing the pretty unicorns pooping skittles! […]

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    January 1st, 2014 @ 2:22 pm

    http://batshitcrazynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tumblr_md3ogjFNzG1rblrd8o1_1280.jpg Talking about horses, this one will poop skittles and blow rainbows up your butt.

  11. Quartermaster
    January 1st, 2014 @ 2:23 pm

    We’re prolly actual criminals too. The Nazi regime enacted a web of laws so they could find something on anyone at need. Worked rather well for keeping the mundanes in line.

  12. theBuckWheat
    January 2nd, 2014 @ 10:48 am

    Government is a political animal. It has political incentives, rewards and demerits. It only engages in economic activity to the extent that the economics further political incentives. It is no more a “business” than a flying fish is a bird.

    Likewise business cannot be government. It is an economic animal. That is why we must have separation of business and government. When they collude, we have cronyism which is a corruption of government.

    Government cannot change the laws of economics by passing a law based in politics. Neither can it create wealth by printing money. Thus government can pass a law with the intent of “bending the cost curve of healthcare downward”, but when it mandates expensive features that people don’t buy on their own, supporters are shocked that premiums are higher.

    This is built to fail. The question will be how much it costs all of us before that truth becomes clear even to those who voted to pass the legislation. And that observation proves the mistake we make when we allow government to perform a function that previously was in the private sphere.

  13. Art Deco
    January 2nd, 2014 @ 11:07 am

    That anybody thinks the government ‘solves’ anything, ever, is daft. Government maintains problems; the actual solutions are in the glove compartment of Godot’s car, which, regrettably, has been delayed.

    Are we to take it that anarchism is now the orthodoxy at The Other McCain? Public agencies animate the regulatory architecture of society, produce public goods, regulate the use of common property resources, and contain the effects of externalities and monopoly. They also implement the ethic of common provision. These are not functions which can be replaced by private enterprise. Also, public agencies vary in their effectiveness. We need to improve the quality of personnel and the performance of these agencies as they go about their necessary tasks, as well as stripping away tasks which are socially injurious. And we need to be rid of throw-away lines. These just confuse people.