The Shutdown's Silver Lining

One thing is for certain, Dems, liberals, RINOs and the media scored a major victory over the shutdown. However, all sides better observe caution. Repubs, Tea Party, and conservatives should avoid too much self-flagellation and the left would be well-advised to resist the urge to gloat or perform too many end-zone dances. Remember 1992? Geo H.W. Bush had a 89% approval rating in 1991 following the Gulf War and went on to lose less than a year later. People tend to over analyze the importance of political victory and confuse winning battles for winning the war. Timing will mean a lot here. Repubs and conservative might actually benefit from these short-term set-backs in the following way:

1. Had the Repubs been able to roll-back Obamacare, liberals could have said, “Well it would have worked but those mean-spirited, racist, bigoted, homophobe Republicans kept us from being able to give you your free healthcare.” It might actually be better to allow the train wreck and then be legitimately be able to say “See we told you so. We tried to prevent this but we weren’t successful. Don’t blame us.”

2. All politics is local especially with regard to Congressional Representatives. Those who think that the Tea Party candidates will be voted out by the very constituents who sent them to Washington to do exactly what they did are kidding themselves. Purple district candidates might be vulnerable but then again, they always are.

3. Unlike with the economy where liberals were able to make a convincing but in my opinion false argument that this bad economy is still all Bush’s fault, there is no way that if Obamacare turns out to be the disaster conservative predict (and so far is on track to be) it can be blamed on the Republicans. Dems and liberals own this one “Lock, stock and barrel” and they spent the last 2 weeks providing a 24/7 video record of it. When people become truly pissed because they lose their jobs, are forced to go part-time, have their health insurance premiums skyrocket, deductible shoot up to $5000+, employer coverage is dropped, etc, etc, etc. Democrats will be politically bludgeoned to death like baby fur seals by their own words captured on video by their media lackeys.

Time will tell but the future is anything but certain. Upcoming milestones: 01Jan 14 mandatory enrollment begins; 15 Apr 14 first impacts of tax penalties hit; 04 Nov 2014 mid-term elections; 08 Nov 2016 next Presidential election!

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The IRS Debacle Widens and My Paranoia Grows

I'm sure many readers of my last posting where I closed by raising a concern that the IRS will be the agency enforcing parts of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare were thinking, "Mac has gone paranoid on us. There's no reason to think anyone will be treated differently." However, today we learned that Sarah Hall Ingram, the same IRS official who was in charge of the IRS division responsible for vetting tax exempt status applications during the period when it improperly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups for unfair, unusual, and illegal additional scrutiny has since moved on to be the head of the IRS division responsible for enforcing the individual mandate of Obamacare. Those under her will determine, among other things, who gets fined for not buying health insurance. I kid you not! Now who's paranoid?

IRS Scandal Just Another Example of Lack of Leadership

The IRS scandal which we are learning more and more about despite the best efforts of the Obama Administration to downplay it and blame 'low-level' employees is yet another window into Barrack Obama's lack of leadership ability. IRS employees in the Cleveland, Ohio office reportedly were delaying the approval of tax exempt status for groups they believed to be Conservative. It is also alleged that they passed confidential tax return information on to liberal groups to use as political ammunition. The story itself is significant and I will opine on that as well as the other major scandals that have all come to light in the last week soon but for now, the leadership implications are what I would like to address.

What was our first clue that our president and his fellow travelers don't understand what leadership is all about? For me, it was their claim that the president was 'leading from behind'. Unless one is a dogsled musher in the Iditarod, there is no such thing as leading from behind. Another indicator that Obama and those around him know little about leadership is their 'go to' response whenever they are faced with a problem: "We just learned about (insert the name of the latest scandal here) from news reports and it appears to be the actions of a few low-level employees." They say this as if it somehow absolves them from responsibility or accountability. I can only assume their logic is 'We can't be held accountable for every single person in our charge and you can't expect us to know everything that goes on in such a large organization.' Unfortunately that isn't how leadership works. As many a commanding officer in the Navy have found out much to their chagrin, the leader is responsible for the actions of subordinates, not only as a result of the direct orders they are given by their commander, but also for the implied direction that results from the 'command climate' established by the person in charge. If the leader has made their opinion on a matter clear to their subordinates or presented a position of indifference on a subject and a problem occurs as a result of an underling acting on the superior's perceived desires, then it is indeed the leader's fault - period!

From the minute he emerged onto the national political stage, Barrack Obama has demonized those who disagree with him politically. He has referred to political opponents as enemies and has falsely accused Republicans, Tea Party members, Conservatives and those for smaller government of wanting to starve children, throw granny over the cliff, let kids with autism fend for themselves - not to mention wanting dirty air and dirty water. When coupled with liberals' propensity for an 'Ends Justifies the Means' approach to governance based on their sense of moral superiority, it is easy to imagine an entrenched 'true believer' bureaucrat confusing the command attitude for policy and singling out 'enemies' for special attention. That may very well be what happened in this case but as one can see, the leader is responsible just as sure as if a direct order was given. This may also explain but not forgive the second part of their standard excuse. Since subordinates believe they are doing the bidding of their leader, when there is a problem, it never gets reported up the chain of command. Why would it? It is policy from the top, right? Or perhaps is doesn't get reported out of fear of being thrown 'under the bus' by those in charge. There are certainly enough examples of this to make it a legitimate concern.

If the scope of the problem remained confined to just those few employees in Cleveland and the president accepted responsibility and took action right away instead of trying the pass the blame, this incident wouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately, as we learn more, we are finding out this isn't the case. Hundreds of people and organizations are now reporting that they received similar unfair treatment, making the Administration's low-level employee claim appear to be not only the result of poor leadership but also the intentional actions of scores of leftist at multiple levels in the IRS 'doing the right thing.'

Is it any wonder why Conservatives are concerned that the IRS is the government's enforcement agency for Obamacare? Could information from your tax return (e.g. what charities you donate to - an indicator of your politics) determine whether you get treatment or that pain pill candidate Obama talked about?