The Other McCain

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

A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell

Posted on | September 24, 2013 | 27 Comments

by Smitty

But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach either President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts, it makes no sense to attempt to defund ObamaCare. That reason is that it cannot be done. The world is full of things that ought to be done but cannot in fact be done.

The reasons for making ever possible effort to defund ObamaCare, as I see it, are:

  • It’s an economic wrecking ball.
  • Fighting now, even if Ted Cruz is a modern Leonidas, plants the seeds. After the wrecking ball has made its rubble, the “Vote your way out of this” cry can arise. But where is the voice for that if the GOP isn’t trying now?
  • From a negotiating standpoint, if you don’t stake out your strongest position, how can you hope to compromise usefully, e.g. a one-year stay of swinging of the wrecking ball?
  • The sheer mendouchious twatwafflery of Nancy Pelosi accusing the ” target=”_blank”>GOP not arguing in good faith would be kinda funny, if there were not so much at stake.

Read the whole thing, which is a typically great Sowell column.
Whether or not the swing of the wrecking ball is delayed, though, 2014 will be a referendum on whether or not six years of no-talent rodeo clown governance was a swift idea.

Category: Barack Obama, Health Care

Comments

27 Responses to “A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell”

  1. MrEvilMatt
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:19 am

    A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell: by Smitty But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach e… http://t.co/WnNoonZcJE

  2. jwbrown1969
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:19 am

    A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell: by Smitty But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach e… http://t.co/2pf1eZVkQn

  3. Lockestep1776
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:19 am

    A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell: by Smitty But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach e… http://t.co/9fDPDVKrgY

  4. Citzcom
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:19 am

    A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell: by Smitty But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach e… http://t.co/U7jHAISGTS

  5. DarylT
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:27 am

    RT @smitty_one_each: A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell http://t.co/kUtyo9Ri3b #TCOT #TGDN #SenateMustAct #DefundObamaCare

  6. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 24th, 2013 @ 8:51 am

    Separated at Birth: Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and…?

  7. jsmithcsa
    September 24th, 2013 @ 9:11 am

    Sure it can be defunded. Support to the Contras was de-funded, so this can be, too.

  8. Bob Belvedere
    September 24th, 2013 @ 9:19 am

    We are engaged in a war to the death of the Republic with the Left and in war you can’t walk away from a battle that your enemy has started.

    Winston Churchill understood this concept:

    We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender….

  9. Dandapani
    September 24th, 2013 @ 9:39 am

    HTML Typo? “The sheer mendouchious twatwafflery of Nancy Pelosi accusing the ” target=”_blank”>GOP not arguing in good faith would be kinda funny, if there were not so much at stake.”

  10. Anon Y. Mous
    September 24th, 2013 @ 11:44 am

    Smitty: Thanks for linking to the Sowell piece. I agree with you that he got it wrong, but it is a good read. One little complaint: you linked to the final page of the piece. So, after getting to the bottom of page 2, and trying to go to the next page, I figured out I was at the end. Then I read the first page. I imagine the article would have been better if I read it in the proper order.

  11. Regular Right Guy
    September 24th, 2013 @ 11:55 am

    Love Thomas, but he’s obviously been cocktailing at Charlie Krauthammer’s again.

  12. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2013 @ 1:32 pm

    Long drive for him to do that.

  13. Kauf Buch
    September 24th, 2013 @ 3:00 pm

    Sowell is so DEAD WRONG on this one.

    Let’s follow his advice:

    Fine, so Republicans DON’T fight Obamacare funding. They fund it. Make cosmetic changes to the CR – or NONE AT ALL.

    What happens?

    A. Democrats get what they want and more.

    B. DEMOCRATS INVENT (if necessary) A REASON TO BLAME REPUBLICANS – and the media obliges.

    Smooth move, FOOL.

  14. WyBlog - Want to know why Ted Cruz is trying so hard to defund Obamacare?
    September 24th, 2013 @ 4:42 pm

    Want to know why Ted Cruz is trying so hard to defund Obamacare?…

    Yesterday Thomas Sowell asked essentially the same question, and Smitty raised the battle cry….

  15. JeffWeimer
    September 24th, 2013 @ 4:53 pm

    That’s Smitty so pissed off he can’t get an HTML link right. I’ve known him for nearly 30 years, and this is pissed off Smitty right here.

  16. Finrod Felagund
    September 24th, 2013 @ 4:58 pm

    It astonishes me how much unwillingness there is to simply fight this thing on the GOP side. It’s a win-win for us: if we defund Obamacare, we win; if we don’t, we’re seen fighting tooth and nail to get rid of it just as the state exchanges are supposed to come online and people have the frustration of dealing with Obamacare up close and personal for the first time, which is a long-term win for us. Plus we’re smoking out those on the GOP side not willing to fight so that we can primary their sorry asses (McConnell, Graham, Cornyn, I’m looking at you).

    How is this not good for us no matter how it turns out?

  17. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 24th, 2013 @ 5:54 pm

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ar7nUbmkROg/UkHBtf6_ViI/AAAAAAAAbsE/fRT116f3g5g/s1600/Chicken+Cornyn+and+McConnell.PNG

  18. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 24th, 2013 @ 5:56 pm

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eX-lhd7BK-Y/UjoCdlkcFaI/AAAAAAAAbmw/Nc1Uf6Aen-A/s1600/Capture.PNG

  19. Adjoran
    September 25th, 2013 @ 1:46 am

    Sowell and others observe the funding for ObamaCare comes from the statutory provisions in that law itself, and from changes in the tax code, not from discretionary budget appropriations. So if you passed “defunding,” and it didn’t “defund” anything (beyond some very marginal expenses), what have you gained?

    Not that Harry Reid will ever let a bill he can’t win have a vote. Ever. He knows, as all the polls show, even Republicans will blame Republicans for a shutdown, and even those strongly opposing OC don’t favor a shutdown to beat it. So where is the wave of public support Cruz expects? We’ve got 6 days.

    The easiest and probably only way to beat it is to let it go forward. Delays only give them more time and excuses. Let’s see how Obama and his Kidz Klown Kollege buddies can implement what they promised.

    You want that wave of public support for repeal? Let them have a taste of it.

  20. K-Bob
    September 25th, 2013 @ 3:58 am

    If you pass a funding bill that directs no funds are to go to program x, then that means no funds go to program x, regardless of funding mandates.

    This congress, sitting now, controls the purse NOW. Not the one that passed OBoehnercare and got fired for it, nor any other prior Congress.

  21. K-Bob
    September 25th, 2013 @ 4:08 am

    So,…

    * The Dems break Congressional rules
    of procedure,
    * to pass an unconstitutional bill,
    * that the majority of the people did
    not want,
    * and which not one single member of
    Congress had a chance to read,
    * the implementation of which which is being
    abrogated illegally by the President,

    …and we’re supposed to follow some arcane concept of how defunding works (or doesn’t work), and sit back and let this thing become so entrenched the only way to remove it is via radical, possibly violent means?

    Yeah, I say let the ones who want that stand up and be known. Then we must do every thing in our power to make sure they never win another election.

  22. K-Bob
    September 25th, 2013 @ 4:10 am

    Mistaken, maybe. Many intelligent men are quite mistaken on this issue. But to call him a fool is a bridge too far.

  23. Da Tech Guy On DaRadio Blog » Blog Archive » The Lesson of Valcour Island
    September 26th, 2013 @ 5:48 am

    […] This has not been futile or sym­bolic this con­fronta­tion that has already ruled twit­ter where a lot of the low infor­ma­tion vot­ers live but it’s put the GOP on notice of the impor­tance of stand­ing up and fight­ing. As Smitty put it: […]

  24. Adjoran
    September 27th, 2013 @ 12:39 am

    Sorry, that is simply not the case.

  25. K-Bob
    September 27th, 2013 @ 1:38 am

    That’s the standard line. You can follow that line if you want. But no prior congress may tie the hands of any future congress. That’s a fact.

    For example, Congress can repeal the Social Security act any time, or it can totally defund it at any time.

    How do we know this? Because it was supposed to be fully funded and they stripped it clean, jack.

  26. Adjoran
    September 28th, 2013 @ 2:54 am

    Repeal requires both House and Senate AND the President’s signature – for Social Security (which was always pay as you go btw, never funded, it just ran surpluses for the first 50 years or so) or ObamaCare. The CR in particular deals ONLY with “discretionary spending,” and NOT with statutory spending or entitlements.

  27. FMJRA 2.0: Stripped : The Other McCain
    September 29th, 2013 @ 10:34 am

    […] A Rare Disagreement With Thomas Sowell […]