On Fox’s The Five last night, the subject of whom to blame for the Obamacare debacle came up. Bob Beckel thought the Republicans should apologize to the Democrats: Republicans had messed up Obamacare. Greg Gutfeld was incredulous, and told Bob to shut up.
Not good form, that. There’s no point in losing one’s cool, even if on a “hot-head show.”
After all, Beckel has a plausible point. Obamacare isn’t working. And Republicans have fought against it. Did Republican obstructionism really injure the new program’s rollout?
Is it the very essence of Obamacare to fail, or did opponents hobble it from the start?
Now, before we answer, consider what kind of a question it is. It relates to the bully’s ploy of knocking someone down and then kicking them on the ground, taunting “Weakling!”
A few months ago it became all the rage amongst “liberals” to taunt advocates of laissez faire (interestingly, an old liberal doctrine) for markets never having been made fully free and unsubsidized — for remaining just an unachieved ideal, not a live policy anywhere.
Why the failure of laissez faire?
Because its enemies keep on knocking the policy into oblivion, kicking its proponents until they cry “uncle.”
So, did Republicans similarly kick Obamacare into its current mess?
Well, they were unsuccessful in stopping its passage, or unfunding it, or even postponing it.
Some Republican governors (and activist citizens) have prevented the policy from insinuating itself into their states, as was their right. That’s it.
None of these things had anything to do with 1) the website failures and low enrollment, 2) the massive losses of promised continuance of existing insurance policies, or 3) the expected rise in insurance premiums.
Nice try, Bob. But no “uncles” here.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
8 replies on “Same Ol’ Blame Game”
Bob Beckel has the hardest job on TV. The show should probably be called Four Against One. Still, you are right, Bob is wrong. On this issue, anyway.
Wrong as usual! Had the REPUBLIKOOKS not refused to open state exchanges there would be no need for the federal exchanges.
Same old PUKES blocking anything linked to Obama.
If the Repubs could control the public to make them not sign up, they would have controlled them to not re-elect.
Incidently, did you know that the company that got the bidless, Obamcare contract, CGI, that Michelle’s college roommate is an executive for, also got the contract to register firearms in Canada? They spent over $600 million Canadian dollars to make a program to register 8 million firearms. That program still doesn’t work either.
I’m glad to see that thanks to JATR, the Intellectual Caucus is represented here.
Things harming the country, such as Obamacare, should be stopped, whether by Republikooks, pukes, or people who understand economics.
Well Puke Pickens, if you PUKES hadn’t supported two unpaid for wars that wasted 5 trillion dollars and killed hundreds of thousands, there would plenty of money for healthcare.
JATR: Since I’m a libertarian, not a Republican, your criticism has the wrong target. Non-interventionist foreign policy is a core component of libertarian ideology.
Whereas Obamacare does less economic harm dollar for dollar than spending that money on the military, it does cause harm.
All government spending necessarily diverts resources from relatively more efficient private (competing) hands to relatively less efficient (monopoly) hands.
How could this not result in less economic output, less growth, and lower average standard of living?
(I hope that’s a rhetorical question.)
Pickens: You mean the “private spending” by the banks that had to be bailed out to prevent a worldwide depression?
Rhetorical question!
Who did you vote for?
JATR: I voted for Gary Johnson.
This isn’t the right forum to discuss economic theory in depth, so feel free to contact me directly if interested: MarkPickens@hotmail.com
What a recession does is reallocate production from less appropriate to more appropriate areas. This makes for a closer match between what the economy produces and what people actually want.
In other words, “preventing depression” means the economy would continue to produce less of what people want and more of what they don’t want, the exact opposite of the goal.
(Corrections cannot actually be prevented, but they can be postponed, which exacerbates them.)
Unless banks can force people to deposit money with them, they are not monopolies, therefore they tend to be more efficient because they are subject to competition.
If taxpayer-backed deposit insurance was eliminated, along with bailouts, once adjustment was complete, the economy would be healthier.