Obamacare: Republican Obstruction or Needless Blunders?

Obamacare: Republican Obstruction or Needless Blunders? | Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner, the author of the above article, makes a few relevant points, most of which focus on a) how sloppily and poorly crafted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its enabling regulations have been and b) how the policy fails to recognize and adapt to simple and understandable facets of basic human nature. Ignore these things and the usual result if somewhere between merely failure and an unmitigated disaster.

Where he errs, however, is faulting the Republicans for failing to go along with the Democrats/Progressives' obviously virtuous plan. Some where along the line Kuttner fails to make the connection that people who are elected to represent a different constituency and worldview are not just going to roll over and rubber stamp whatever comes along ... particularly if is conflicts with the worldview they hold.

Of course, the Republicans are going to do everything in their power to obstruct, make more difficult and derail a policy that they see as being the wrong approach. Are you telling me that Democrats are above doing exactly the same thing when they don't control the levers of power? Give me a break ... and you need to do a reality check on your assumptions if you think that even for an instant.

No, the problems with Obamacare is series of avoidable and unnecessary blunders on the part of the Obama Administration and their Democratic enablers in the House and Senate. No use trying to lay the blame on the Republicans. Unfortunately for them, the Democrats "own" this fiasco from start to finish.

Just as George W. Bush and the Republicans pretty much "owned" the Iraq War (although a host of Democrats were onboard for it) when it went South before the change of tactics in "the Surge", and Bush Jr. owned a big chunk of the Recession of 2008 (although a big part of it can be laid at the feet of Barney Frank, but that is another story), the Democrats now own what is happening with the economy, with the War in Afghanistan and with healthcare funding and financing muddle. (Oh, and the Iraqis own what is going down in Iraq right now, not the Americans or Obama)

However, in order to stay viable in elective politics, the Democrats will spend the next 10 months until November's mid-term elections thinking up ways to transfer what is their fault and they are to blame for to the hapless Republicans who never know when to just stand back and let their opponents keep digging themselves in deeper. Of course, since most of the people you see on most of TV news programs (sans Fox) and who write for the majority of news publications share the world view of the progressives and Democrats, those folks will do what they can to help along the Democrats. (Nothing really wrong with that, since it is their right to be that way, but it helps to give people fair warning.)

Anyway, before one begins to try to foist the blame for his or her own foibles and mistakes on someone else, it behooves one to re-examine his or own assumptions and seek to determine their validity before going on.

Besides, heck, I could be just blowing smoke here ,,, but I - after careful review (from my perspective) - don't think I am. What you think about it, is up to you.