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And now for your patently obvious rhetorical question of the day

Courtesy NetRightDaily:  “If Republicans oppose Obamacare, why do they keep voting to fund it?”

Of course, NRD doesn’t necessarily treat the question as rhetorical.  After all, a column that poses the question and then simply posts a smirking emoticon giving teabaggers the finger isn’t going to fill space.  But we know they probably would if they could.

Instead, they explore the question a bit, even taking the tack of pretending to a kind of puzzlement [emphases mine]:

[ObamaCare]  legislation will cost $710 billion […] through 2019 alone, including a massive expansion of Medicaid and insurance subsidies via the state exchanges.

By the time it is fully implemented, it will cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion — every decade. But, the taxpayers won’t have enough to cover the entitlement, so it will be borrowed, at interest, for perpetuity.

Yet the true cost will be felt by millions of Americans caught in the individual mandate compelling the purchase of health insurance they can no longer afford. It will be felt by those unable to find full-time work because the law compels businesses to slash hours below 30 a week to avoid the employer mandate.

It will be felt by hundreds of thousands of unemployed young people with tens of thousands of student loan debt who will not qualify for Medicaid and will be forced to pay fines under the individual mandate.

That is why Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has joined with Cruz recently starting the DontFundIt.com website to gather signatures from regular Americans to demand that Congress act to gut the law by cutting off its funds.

The push would stop implementation by prohibiting funds to be used by agencies and departments in implementing the law’s provisions, and by amending the existing statute to roll back the expansion of Medicaid and the introduction of insurance subsidies under the exchanges.

But the only way it will work is if House and Senate Republicans insist on attaching such a measure to must-pass legislation such as the continuing resolution or the debt ceiling. In their letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Lee and Cruz warn they “will not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare.”

For some reason, however, this effort is not being supported by Senate or House Republican leadership. Whatever their good intentions in attempting to repeal the law, they appear more than willing to fund it.

The GOP establishment is being cheered on by the likes of Karl Rove, Larry Kudlow, and Bloomberg.com contributor and National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru. Perhaps they just believe the strategy will not work. In a Bloomberg column, Ponnuru blasts the Lee-Cruz plan as being futile.

“The chance that Democrats would go along — would give up on their signature legislative initiative of the last decade soon after having won the presidential election and gained Senate and House seats — approaches zero percent,” Ponnuru wrote.

— Ponnuro being of the school that says shutting down the government to oppose an unpopular bit of legislation is a losing proposition, politics being all and all being politics. And we must worry about Team R’s positioning.  Certainly moreso than something less competitively juicy as electoral scoreboard gambling.

Senior Editor of Bill Buckley’s National Review.  Another Rovean chimp, dancing to the siren call of electoral power and standing athwart the will of the people yelling “why not just let us here in DC doing the thinking, you crass, populist, unhelpful Hobbits — whom I’d be willing to bet an ivory-tipped crochet mallet  couldn’t identify an escargot utensil if one fell into your Dockers-clad lap!”

Which is kind of what NRD says, only far more professionally:

Of course, [Ponnuru] ignores the recent history of government shutdowns and debt ceiling standoffs. When House Speaker Newt Gingrich used government shutdowns in the 1990s, the result was balanced budgets.

One finds a track record of remarkable success in favor of the government shutdown model to actually achieving reform in Washington, D.C.  And one finds absolutely no success in the model apparently preferred by Ponnuru, which is to do nothing. He believes that should Republicans roll back Obamacare, they have to “replace” it with some other big government scheme, as if the private health system that was in place just a few short years ago was an untenable alternative.

Yet, Ponnuru believes Republicans will lose a shutdown battle: “First, Republicans are less popular than the Democrats and thus all else equal will lose partisan finger-pointing contests. Second, the executive has natural advantages over a group of legislators in a crisis atmosphere. Third, people will be naturally inclined to assume that the more anti-government party must be responsible. Fourth, some Republicans will say that government shutdowns or defaults are just what the country needs, and those quotes will affect the image of all Republicans. And fifth, the news media will surely side with the Democrats.”

In short, Republicans will face electoral consequences in 2014 if they shut down the government to defund Obamacare. But even if that were true, the odds of achieving something significant on rolling back the health care law shoot up dramatically with a shutdown. If they do nothing, nothing will assuredly be the outcome.

[…]

With leaders like these, Obamcare will become as permanent as every other government program Republicans swore they opposed and then did nothing to get rid of. The Lee-Cruz strategy may be the only way.

And for people like Ponnuru and the rest of the GOP establishment boosters, that’s a feature, not a bug.  Because perception trumps all.  And Dems are better at manufacturing perception.
We’ll just have to deal with it.  But no worries:  just call it “pragmatism” or “realism,” then tell yourself you’re a nitty-gritty, real-world thinker — not some silly True Believer who Simply Doesn’t Understand How Washington Works.
And rather than trying to change how it works, merely acknowledging how it works and resigning yourself to it — this is the mark of true intellectual bravery.
Which I suppose gives us a nice rallying cry to set ourselves apart from the progressives, at least.  Here, give it  shout:  “NO WE CAN’T!”
Rolls off the tongue as smoothly as an orange tear down Boehner’s leathered cheek…

35 Replies to “And now for your patently obvious rhetorical question of the day”

  1. guinspen says:

    Because they’re matchstick men.

  2. Crapgame13 says:

    The ones that don’t like big government can’t see the game being played.

    It’s *SUPPOSED* to fail and bankrupt the insurance companies so that the “only” cure since a “free market” solution didn’t work is single payer.

    Instead these morons just sit there and think “people will come to our side once they see it won’t work”….thinking foolishly that fact won’t be misreported or they won’t get blamed.

  3. William says:

    That last paragraph sums up the problems of the GOP for the last twenty years perfectly, Crapgame.

    And it’s how I learned to always spend life hard and strong. Cause that strategy only works for the fat and weak.

  4. Ernst Schreiber says:

    No offense, but I think the ones who can’t see the game that is being played are the ones who think the Republicans don’t see the game being played.

    Obama pretends not to be responsible for the policies Democrats pretend are intended to “help people” and Republicans pretend to oppose.

  5. William says:

    I don’t know Ernst. I feel like they’re both stupid AND pretending to be stupid in order to play the Washington game.

    It’s like that Taco ad, can’t we have both?

  6. BigBangHunter says:

    *** Armed and Daaaaangerous ***

    – ZOMG, ZOMG, ZOMG The Z-man got a gun!!!!!!eleventyone!!

    …Ummm, ok, so fucking what?

  7. geoffb says:

    Just east of Dallas.

  8. leigh says:

    Pretty much the response of the po-lice who let him go with a warning. About speeding, BBH.

    Heh.

  9. dicentra says:

    I feel like they’re both stupid AND pretending to be stupid in order to play the Washington game.

    They’ve been promised something in return for their cooperation, and they’re happy to be bought by the Real People In Power.

    The crap about “people will come to our side once they see it won’t work” is a ruse to fool US. They know damn good and well that the truth will not out—that’s what they’re COUNTING ON.

    When the momentum behind power consolidation accelerates—such as it has during the past five years—these sewer rats hasten to JUMP ON BOARD THE SHIP.

    We’ve been assuming that the GOP is simply too stupid to live: maybe it’s time we realize that they long-ago sold out and were covering up their corruption by feigning stupidity.

    To fool the base. To fool us.

    And as we know, it’s easier to fool someone than to convince him he’s been fooled.

  10. William says:

    No, I do hear you Di. That’s the pretending to be stupid, and I certainly agree is all part of the plan. The delightful mix of cynicism and flat out evil that is our elite on both sides.

    But John McCain voting against the “Build the Wall” amendment after that political ad? To me, that’s just true stupid. He’s so eager to betray his base, he doesn’t even do it halfway well.

  11. BigBangHunter says:

    – John McCain was a super-asshole when he disobeyed direct orders and got hiself shot down – twice – so why people ever thought he’d be anything but an asshole as a politician I will never understand.

  12. Ernst Schreiber says:

    John McCain voting against the “Build the Wall” amendment after that political ad? To me, that’s just true stupid.

    Not as stupid as returning him to the Senate in the first place. Look at it from his perspective: this is probably his last term, so what does he have to worry about after being re-elected?

  13. Libby says:

    While these stupid RINOS are are busy deciding the best way to save face while compromising, Obama is threatening the GOP with racial unrest unless they completely surrender. How “unexpected.” Reminds me of how early on in his presidency Obama told the bankers whom he had been publicly denouncing that “he was the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks.”

    “If we don’t do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Income inequality will continue to rise,” Obama said in an interview published Sunday by the New York Times. “Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot. If the economy is growing, everybody feels invested, ” he said.

  14. leigh says:

    You know, Obama, enough with the threats. Bring it, you pussy.

  15. eleven says:

    I never though I could hate McCain this much.

    I *voted* for that clapping clown.

  16. steph says:

    Mr. Crapgame (if that’s your real name) sez:
    It’s *SUPPOSED* to fail and bankrupt the insurance companies so that the “only” cure since a “free market” solution didn’t work is single payer.

    EXACTLY!

    That, My dear Watson, is the game that’s afoot.

    Instead these morons just sit there and think “people will come to our side once they see it won’t work”….thinking foolishly that fact won’t be misreported or they won’t get blamed. –

    Too true.

  17. newrouter says:

    we be saying ain’t nuthing wrong with the criminal/ illegals aliens?

    Jon Favreau on the Destructive Rise of the No-Government Conservatives

    oh hail proggtardia

  18. palaeomerus says:

    No one can feed their kids! We need the government to do it. We need to government to teach people not to rob banks and slaughter each other and burn down clothing stores because a community organizer shouted about it once.

  19. BigBangHunter says:

    – ….And this should surprise no one.

  20. newrouter says:

    @ page 63 of “The Power of the Powerless” – V. Havel

    ” Had this happened, it would have been a perfect example of small-scale work in action. Unfortunately the precise opposite occurred: the manager of the brewery, who was a member of the Communist Party’s district committee, had friends in higher places and he saw to it that the situation was resolved in his favour. S.’s analysis was described as a ‘defamatory document’ and S. himself was labelled a ‘political saboteur’. He was thrown out of the brewery and shifted to another one where he was given a job requiring no skill. Here the notion of small-scale work had come up against the wall of the post-totalitarian system. By speaking the truth, S. had stepped out of line, broken the rules, cast himself out, and he ended up as a sub-citizen, stigmatized as an enemy. He could now say anything he wanted, but he could never, as a matter of principle, expect to be heard. He had become the ‘dissident’ of the Eastern Bohemian Brewery. I think this is a model case which, from another point of view, illustrates what I have already said in the preceding section: you do not become a ‘dissident’ just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”

  21. happyfeet says:

    obamacare will kill people to where they are dead

    then ponnuru can scribble scribble about somesuch culture of death and make a pouty face

  22. geoffb says:

    It’s *SUPPOSED* to fail and bankrupt the insurance companies so that the “only” cure since a “free market” solution didn’t work is single payer.

    “Thousands of people will die every year” and “costs will continue to go out of control” under Obamacare, says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.

    The only solution is to nationalize health care through a single-payer system, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Public Citizen argued outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.

    Only solution? No just their final solution to complete power over all.

  23. Matt says:

    This continues to boggle my mind as well. Rush was talking about this yesterday and he seemed unable to understand it either. Obamacare is wildly unpopular with anyone who has seen its possible effects on businesses. Republicans should be focused (laser like) on this issue. They should be holding press conferences, they should have big charts with statistics, they should be getting information about its chilling effects on business hiring and work hours, into any media outlet that will run it. And yet, other than making some speeches in their respective legislative bodies, there’s barely anything going on. Rubio, idiotically, focused on immigration. Paul seems to be hung up on the NSA. I’m not sure what Paul Ryan is doing. But for anyone running for Congress or the Senate in 2014, the completely repeal of Obamacare IS the issue. Cruz and Lee understanding, I think, that even if their tactics won’t necessarily work, they’re at least raising awareness. But why won’t the Republican leadership, on the whole, focus on the issue? I know, I know, they’re spineless, rhinos, blah blah but that cannot possibly be the real reason. Its a winning issue. Why don’t they want to run with an issue thats a winner. Boggling.

  24. John Bradley says:

    Because they’d rather ‘lose’ and go back to being the Jr. Partner in a dramatically more powerful government than ‘win’ and keep the status quo.

    Every action that the House Leadership has taken since 2010 makes a lot more sense if you conclude that we really pissed them off by giving them the majority. I mean, in theory at least, they were now sort of obligated to do some of the crap they said they’d love to do (in 2007-2010), “but alas, minority status.”

    Though it didn’t take them very long to get over whatever brief twinges of obligation they may have felt, and gotten back to the serious and important business of telling us what idiots we were for voting for them. If not in so many words.

  25. […] And now for your patently obvious rhetorical question of the day | protein wisdom […]

  26. sdferr says:

    Why don’t they want to run with an issue thats a winner?

    For my own part I don’t understand the purported mystery when the very people suggesting there is a mystery have already asserted the answer they seek (by whom I mean particularly Limbaugh and his guest Sen. Lee). I mean, it’s just weird to first provide the answer and then claim not to understand the answer. Or possibly, not weird, but disingenuous. Or what?

  27. serr8d says:

    Rand Paul just sent to me a ‘personal appeal’ to sign a anti-union card check petition. Seems there’s multiple fronts on which we are losing.

    http://www.righttoworkcommittee.org/rp_cardcheck.aspx?pid=0801b

Comments are closed.