Marc Theissen, NRO:
This view is clearly shared by many Senate Republicans, who are falling over themselves to introduce targeted measures that would eliminate various individual provisions of Obamacare, with the goal of repealing the bill plank by plank.
This may seem like a good idea. But in today’s Washington Post, I argue that by pursuing piecemeal repeal Republicans are walking into a trap Obama set in his State of the Union address. There is no way to repeal Obamacare plank by plank — Democrats will never agree to repeal the provisions that make the legislation such a monstrosity. But they will go along with peripheral changes, like the 1099 repeal. In fact, they will steal the least objectionable Republican ideas, introduce them as their own, and take credit for “fixing” the flaws in the bill (as Sen. Debbie Stabenow did on 1099). By going along with such “fixes,” Republicans will only succeed in lifting pressure for full repeal. And they will help vulnerable Democrats get reelected in 2012 — by allowing them to claim on the campaign trail that they are working to “repeal” the worst parts of Obamacare while keeping the parts of the law that Americans support. Before they know it, Republicans will discover that they have been drawn into a strategy of “fix and save” instead of “repeal and replace.” And they will find that they helped Democrats save Obamacare by stopping Republicans from taking control of the Senate in 2012.
Not only that, Mr Thiessen, but by taking this approach they continue to institutionalize the idea that the federal government can indeed take over control of health care, provided it does so in ways that aren’t so ostentatiously unconstitutional — and that use certain mechanisms of the free market.
It’ll be like GM, only with lollipops after the government pricks you!
The GOP can tell us they gave repeal the old college try — and were able to “fundamentally alter” the legislation to keep it “primarily” free market driven by removing “the most damaging pieces”; the Democrats can show they were willing to compromise, and that the “basic outlines and ideals” of the legislation remain in place for you, the American people, who continue to demand reform, and who are wary of “big insurance”; and we as a country will have in place the framework for a huge new government bureaucracy that history practically screams will expand its size, scope, and reach as the years go by, until one day somewhere down the road, the left, having re-formed the courts, manages a major ruling that allows them to implement a single payer system — which the GOP will have lent some credence to by legitimizing the framework for federal control over health care.
But hey. That’s, like, years from now. Meantime, who wants to help with “comprehensive immigration reform”…?
(h/t newrouter)
step one we can have lots of fun
we’re lucky that GOPers have proven they dont much like lots of money flowing into the federal government to spend spend spend so they’ll definitely do the right thing i trust them implicitly they wear flag pins so.
I read or heard something the other day to the effect that the failed attempt to put the House’s ObamaCare repeal into a bill before the Senate, meant McConnell “has kept his promise.”
Whereupon Yoda whacked the speaker/writer with a lightsaber, growling, “Godammit you numbskull! I keep telling you THERE IS NO TRY!!!”
We build the shit house plank by plank, brick by brick.
GOP (stinking of manure): “Lookee here! We found the pony!!!!”
And what a compacted wisdom tooth this phrase is: “comprehensive immigration reform”
The GOP in the Senate may not quite have the oomph to kill the thing en toto, but the House can sure defund the crap out of it. And should, at the first opportunity. “Oh, you insist on doing this? Fine, pay for it yourself. Budget: ZERO.” is a very good tack to take.
I personally say, no deal, no cover; focus on repeal. This will be a central issue in the 2012 election, to be sure.
Keep the political pressure up.
I should emphasize that there was ONE attempt to get repeal through the Senate — and that ONE attempt was supposedly enough to cover McConnell’s promise.
Also, it wasn’t McConnell or any of his aides saying this, AFAIK, but some media shitface.
Restating the obvious: Politics are asymmetrical. There’s virtually no such thing as legislation that produces a net negative effect — that rolls back creeping, inevitable collectivism.
It’s all leftism by now because it rolls ever onward, increasing the individual’s burden and reducing his liberty by a like amount. Leftism is itself a disorder of the intellect and a denial of history, human nature, principle, and reason. Leftism is theft and should be outlawed, but of course, when the government steals, it’s fine. It’s beneficial.
Given these simple truths, tactics and strategies are limited but clear. Compromise is simply defeat. And time is short.
Restating the restatement of the obvious: we’re fucked.
cranky-d : Oh, I think we were fucked a long time ago. This may qualify as sloppy seconds.
If they keep at it, next thing you know we’ll be pulling a train.
But at least it will be one of those high-speed ones. For the shovel-ready-ness!