Posted on 04/02/2017 5:05:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
President John F. Kennedy once said, “Victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.” This remains true and was on full display when the first attempt at repealing Obamacare was pulled before a vote in the House of Representatives.
Since that moment, Republicans have reverted to their old ways and reformed into their default position – the circular firing squad.
A Republican’s critical aim is never more true than when directed toward another Republican. That’s why even when they win, they lose.
Adults don’t assign blame; they take responsibility. Since the failure of “repeal and replace,” finger pointing has become the name of the game.
Who is to blame for what truly was an embarrassing snafu? Everyone.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan never should have set a date for a vote before he had enough votes to win or even a final piece of legislation around which to rally those votes.
The speakership is a powerful, important position, but it’s not God. Simply declaring something will happen won’t make it happen. That arbitrary deadline doomed the bill, and it was unnecessary.
The Freedom Caucus burnt more calories complaining about the bill than articulating a position. It was a bad bill, but where were the alternatives? Where was the case for getting the government out of the health insurance business completely? There’s one to be made. I’ve made it, and it’s not even my job.
Moderate Republicans. Don’t get me started… OK, I’m started. The reason for the “replace” part of “repeal and replace” is moderate Republicans, from the speaker on down. Rather than stand up for constitutionally limited government, moderates ceded the concept of government manipulation of the health insurance market.
Obamacare is a failure not of construction, but of concept. A slightly more conservative version of a progressive idea is still a progressive idea.
President Donald Trump was down for whatever – as long as something passed, he’d declare victory and call it a day. Where was his bill? He’d just won the presidency on the promise of ridding the country of this colossal failure, yet he didn’t come to the table with even a framework.
He supported every version of what the House bill became. It’s easy for people to fall in line behind a leader walking a straight, logical line; it’s impossible to follow someone blowing in the wind because you never know where they’ll be from one moment to the next.
Congress is going to get only one bite at the apple. Screw it up, and Democrats will be back in control, and this time they won’t stop short of single-payer. After seven years of promises, a coherent, conservative alternative remained a bridge too far. It’s not over, it’s not too late…but it is getting close.
Democrats aren’t blameless here either. Not a single Democratic member of Congress is bothered enough by the millions of Americans hurt by Obamacare, the sky-high premiums, or the insane deductibles, to break with their party and admit their ideology’s folly. They’re Dr. Frankenstein swearing all is well while the monster destroys the castle around them.
The real problem is Washington itself. Something – maybe the air, maybe the fluoride in the water – strips people of principles and common sense. Each successive crop of politicians happily stands on the wreckage of their predecessors’ failed Utopian dreams convinced their version of those bad ideas will work because it will be them implementing them.
As the president tweets his anger at conservatives, and conservatives tweet their anger back, everyone is stuck in the mud trying to wash their hands of blame. There’s enough to go around.
Lost in all of this is a simple fact: Once a voter buys into the concept of good and charitable things flowing from government, why would anyone vote for the person offering 50 cents when they can vote for the person offering $1?
If Republicans aren’t making the case for liberty, for limited government, they’re making the Democrats’ case. No one was making an articulate case for liberty in this; making it tirelessly, in an unrelenting way.
Freedom sells. Since the failure of the AHCA, Republicans have worked harder to blame other Republicans for all the blunders than they ever did fighting for freedom’s cause.
Imagine if the GOP fought as hard against Democrats and for stripping their failed policies from the books as they have against each other. Maybe we’d all win for once.
With Ryan’s history of legislative ineptness (what has he ever accomplished?) and his well known political duplicity (constantly trying to undermine Trump) why rely on someone like him to to do anything? Management 101 says never allow someone who is incompetent and untrustworthy to do an important task.
End game?
Only the federal government can pay for medical care.
If you or a loved one is sick, and the government denies coverage/authorization, you can’t pay for the life saving medical procedure out of your own pocket, nor can you raise funds with GoFundMe or anything like that.
Unless you are a Congresscritter, of course...
The problem there is nobody and I mean nobody stepping up to the plate to offer themselves as an alternative to Ryan.
Remember originally Ryan didn’t even want the job.
deport ~ Correct in that it is a long process thru many hands, committees, votes, amendments, etc. before it even gets to somewhat of a final edition. The process, like it or not, is what we have as our government in the House, Senate.
True, but irrelevant.
One does not start the negotiations by giving the opponent 95% of what they want.
One starts the negotiations asking for twice what you'll settle for!
Is anyone surprised by this? Even the slightest bit?
That is certainly true. However, I just can’t understand how Trump allowed Ryan to blatantly lie to the American people, and evidently to Trump himself. Ryan kept saying that the votes were there when they clearly were not.
He also developed much of the bill’s content in a secretive manner, which infuriated the HFC. I realize that you cannot bypass the Speaker, but he had too much control over the bill. Might have been better for Trump to insist on a team approach that was more inclusive and that had a better chance of being perceived as independent of Ryan. It probably would have produced a more acceptable bill. It couldn’t have been worse than the epic disaster wrought by Ryan.
Hard to say what’s behind the scene. Dan Webster and Jason Chaffetz were both willing to replace Boehner.
To become a candidate for Speaker, he must have only bare-majority support from his party’s caucus, but then the caucus needs to be nearly united to elect their candidate in the whole House.
A Speaker needs 218 votes in the whole House. The GOP has about 246 votes. That means about 29 of the most liberal Republicans can block a conservative Speaker candidate, and also that around 29 conservatives can block a liberal candidate.
A lot of Congressmen don’t want the hassle of being held hostage by either or both ends of the spectrum. There’s little in it for them unless they can get more than their share of lobbyist money or government spending for their constituents.
I think Trump allowed Ryan to proceed for two reasons:
1) test him, “Can he perform?” & 2) he is the Speaker of the House, so for the present no alternative.
So Trump got his answer for 1) - Ryan can’t do the job!
But the answer to 2) is still a problem!
Yes I remember that. There were factions here on FR both promoting and warning on those two candidates.
Since Newt there hasn’t been a strong competent GOP Speaker of the House. I don’t think the “rank & file” want one, too many rice bowls would be broken. The Rats don’t seem to have that lack of discipline problem
Ain’t it the truth?
All these yobs who have voted for CRs year after year, campaigning on repeal and replace, voting in Ryan because none of them would take the job and having no bill of there own to offer....across the board the GOP of all stripes failed the voters....as usual
The Overton Window on this board has shifted significantly to the left in the last 4 months. It's just astonishing.
Trump will propose single payer in the next two years and the majority of the board will accept it.
“End game?
Only the federal government can pay for medical care.
If you or a loved one is sick, and the government denies coverage/authorization, you can’t pay for the life saving medical procedure out of your own pocket, nor can you raise funds with GoFundMe or anything like that.
Unless you are a Congresscritter, of course...”
EXCELLENT insight!!!! And worth repeating infinitely!!!
I could if I had all the secret spy info that 0vomit/Soros has on him.
This reminds me of Ross Perot. He was asked for his plan for the economy and he pointed to a plan by Paul Tsongas (a Democrat BTW). Perot and Trump have several things in common. They're both salesmen. They both seemed to be skilled at starting populist movements. They both think in terms of broad ideas and seemingly avoid, or have trouble in thinking about, policy details. And yet, paradoxically they both must have often had to focus on some details in their businesses.
If congress can't/won't fix it, he'll stack the court to fix it!
More than one way to skin a cat. Would you like the flied lice with that?
It’s a mystery to me why DJT did not move to fire Ryan (as speaker) while he was walking into the Oval Office following the Inauguration Ceremony.
The man has CLEARLY demonstrated his disloyalty to Trump.
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