"You've Got One Side of Capital Hill Investing In Failure"

"Failure to Launch"

I miss Ronald Reagan.

He'd know what to say at a time like this.

I'm thinking that it would be something like, "Well, there you go again..."

It's funny (and tragically predictable) how themes from the past revisit us in the present day.  Democrats, Progressives, and Liberals in general are like old dogs - clinging to well-worn and gummed-up bones regardless of how ratty, and smelly they are simply because 'they own them'.  Speaking of 'owning them' - Dems, Progs, and Libs own, "Health Care" now.   

The thing that's 'not quite so funny', however, is that in 2013, we have NO Reagan to look the Opposition in the eye and say, "Well, there you go again..." and then go on to clarify what his actual position was, following the misrepresentation of the opposition.

No Republican leader in the House or Senate stands ready to face this generation's 'Jimmy Carter', and tell him that he...  Is full of 'it'.  

(Yes, I'm being really nice here with the choice of words, because for some reason I cannot fully explain, I am in an unusually good mood today.)

Meanwhile, what is President Obama (currently completing 'Carter's Third-Term') saying about US (or them, as in Republican Leadership, if you prefer)?

Funny that you should ask... 

Hold my hand.  We're going in.

Photo Credit - AP

Washington Examiner, November 19, 2013:  Obama: GOP 'invested' in health law failing 

President Obama on Tuesday laid part of the blame for Obamacare's problem-riddled rollout on Republicans, saying that “one side of Capitol Hill was invested in failure.”


Recalling how he and his supporters had to “fight tooth and nail” to get the law passed by a slim margin in Congress, Obama said his administration should have anticipated that dynamic would create a “rockier rollout – that one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure and that makes the iterative process of fixing glitches and fine-tuning the law” difficult.

...

“We probably underestimated the complexities of building out a website that needed to work the way it should,” he said.


Obama also singled out the federal government’s information procurement process.


“I probably could have identified earlier the way the federal government does procurement and does IT is just generally not very efficient,” said Obama.


“What we probably needed to do on the front-end is blow up the way we do procurement for IT,” he said.


The troubled rollout of the healthcare.gov website intended to register consumers in Obamacare's new insurance exchanges and the president's broken promise that the public could keep their current health plans even under the new law threaten to undermine support for the law.

Perhaps we need to have a few defining moments before we proceed?  I do this only because I want to be COMPLETELY accurate in interpreting what the President said at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council.

 

According to the President, Republicans have 'Invested in Failure' as it pertains to the Affordable Care Act.  O-k-a-y...

From a historical perspective, Republicans have NOTHING TO DO with the Passage of or Implementation of ObamaCare.  

Trust me, I even looked it up online to make sure I wasn't making this stuff up...

LOOK!  A source!:   Wikipedia


Republican House Members Voting for ObamaCare = 0
Democrat House Members Voting for ObamaCare = 219 

Republican Senators Voting for ObamaCare = 0
Democrat Senators Voting for ObamaCare = 58
Independent (Democrat) Senators Voting for ObamaCare = 2
 

 

Adding the total number of Republicans in the House and Senate who voted FOR ObamaCare equals (shoot, I don't even need to pull my shoes off for this one)...

Zip.

Zero. 

None.

Null.

Nobody, no how, no way.  

So how can the President blame hapless Republicans - because the Bill which HIS Party rammed through the House and Senate via the 'Nuclear Option' is 'stinking up the place'?  

And how exactly does he justify his assertion that Republicans are somehow involved in 'screwing the health care pooch'?

In two very unique ways:

1. The President says that he, "should have anticipated that dynamic would create a “rockier rollout – that one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure and that makes the iterative process of fixing glitches and fine-tuning the law”, and,
2. “I probably could have identified earlier the way the federal government does procurement and does IT is just generally not very efficient,” said Obama.

Yeah, okay.

First, addressing Item 1 above, the Law is being enacted by HIS Administration.  Could someone please get me a count of EXACTLY how many Republicans work for HIM regarding the implementation of the ACA? 

Second, regarding Item 2, did he just BLAME the failure of his hallmark 'massive Federal bureaucracy expansion' on a procurement-related failure of a 'massive Federal bureaucracy'?

Yes, I believe that he did.  

The only thing Republican Leadership is guilty of is for being naive and gutless in not expressing their concerns (outrage?) regarding this legislation over the past four years to the extent that it needed to be conveyed (to the American People).  

Oh, I guess I can also toss in the fact that they keep 'dissing' members of their own Party who went to DC to do what their constituents requested that they do...  

Repeal ObamaCare.

So, Mr. President, if we use the BING-provided definitions of 'Investing' and 'Failure' to describe YOUR Law, and lay blame where it belongs, if there is, "One side of Capital Hill investing in Failure"?


It is YOUR side which has invested in failure (or, if you prefer, the 'catastrophe', 'disaster', 'fiasco', or 'disappointment') of your crowning legislative achievement.  

You wrote, funded and implemented this 'Failure' on YOUR terms because you told Republicans Members in Congress that 'You won' and you didn't need THEIR input regarding the running of your government.

Congratulations, you are a WINNER!  

You own it baby!

Enjoy the fruits of your hard-won victories surrounding your valiant health care battle against the will of the majority of Americans!

It looks good on you...

Just THREE more years.

Buh-bye!

.
And then...  Hello Sexy!!!

Hillary Clinton - circa 2012

No aging required for the requisite Hillary Clinton Presidential image!

You'd people had better get with the program if you want to avoid this particular 'man-made disaster'.

See ya later Big Guy...