“A Pox on all your houses” seems the most appropriate statement. It’s no wonder America’s confidence in their political leaders is in the tank.
Look where things stand – once again we have a crisis coming down to the wire. There is absolutely no leadership from the White House. In fact, the President goes to play golf while he lets the crisis fester.
In the Senate, they’re going to take their marbles and go home. No, No, No seems to be their only mantra.
And why did the House wait until the last minute to attach conditions to a continuing resolution. It jams them against the wall in terms of communicating what they’re trying to do. Basically at this point, nobody is listening and the media certainly isn’t going to help.
The fact remains that we’re out of money. This administration keeps incurring more and more debt. Just as with the recent financial crisis – eventually everything will collapse – and then what? Finger pointing and casting blame won’t solve the problem and everyone is to blame.
The reality is the President has the biggest megaphone. As the House attempts to repeal Obamacare, did anyone really think it would work? Republicans are the minority party in this deal. You have to be more creative. While the President can summon all of the media for a speech, how to you counter that?
So why bother trying to delay implementation of Obamacare for a year? To what end? It is going to collapse because it’s impossible to implement. In shear political terms – having Democrats’ major policy initiative fall apart in an election year gives Republicans a significant campaign issue. The fact that Republicans are trying to fix key parts, shows that they made the effort .
Finally, Republicans are attempting to eliminate the exemptions that allow Congressional staff and White House appointees – including the President, to be exempt from Obamacare. This is the key political issue here. It reinforces the “us versus them” imperialism that is pervasive in DC. Talk about a potential PR disaster for those who vote against it! It’s definitely an issue to run on – and winning a majority in the Senate is the only way to make real reforms stick.
My recommendation – pass a short term continuing resolution – buy yourself a couple of months. Demand immediate negotiations and stake out the position that you will not increase the debt ceiling without significant budget reductions. All of this must be wrapped up in a policy that all Americans are subject to Obamacare – no artificial exemptions. The message must be kept simple. Then when Americans wake up to the disaster called Obamacare , remind them who tried to fix it – election day will only be a few months away.