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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Obama Administration and Dems Can't Do Nothing Right

Before you jump on me for using improper English, permit me to explain myself. I'm not saying that the Obama Administration and the Democrats can't do anything right. With the exception of killing terrorists using drones, that's true of course but that isn't what I mean. My point is that with the government shutdown, they are supposed to be doing nothing and they are even screwing that up. Let's look at a few examples.

Once the government shutdown went into effect, the first thing the Administration did was deploy its "flying monkeys" better known as its cabinet secretaries to use their departments to inflict additional pain on the American citizenry. They went about shutting down facilities and services that cost the government nothing (at least in the short run) - things like the National Mall (that big open grassy area in downtown DC), the open air monuments such as the WWII Memorial, and the small parking spaces at the scenic overlooks along the George Washington Parkway which runs along the Potomac River. They even went to the trouble of closing bike paths, turning off the drinking fountains around the Mall, and turning off the "Panda Cam" at the National Zoo! Seriously? These actions actually cost additional money to prevent Americans from enjoying things that cost nothing to remain open!

Listening to the president and the Democrats talking about those "holding guns to heads", "terrorists", "holding hostages", "strapping bombs to their chests"and vows to not negotiate with terrorists, I thought for sure they were talking about Al Qaeda, the Iranians, President Asad of Syria, or President Putin of Russia. Imagine my astonishment when I found out that they were talking about their fellow Americans in the other political party and as a matter of fact they refused to even talk to them. The president however had no problem calling the new Iranian president, Rouhani. Apparently, Republicans are the real terrorists and they won't talk to them even to help end the government funding impasse. I would think that would be one of the few things they should have on their plate during the shutdown if they are truly interested in getting the government up and running again.

The Democrats began looking for examples of people were being hurt by the shutdown. They found that about 200 people were unable to take part in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) because it was shut down. This includes about 30 children being prevented from receiving their treatments for cancer. The joke was on them though because the Republican House sent an appropriation bill over to the Democrat Senate to fund the NIH but Sen Harry Reid (D- NV) refused to allow it to come to a vote. When asked about this by Dana Bash of CNN (a highly regarded member of the liberal media elite), Reid had a "Did I just say that out loud?" moment. Bash asked, "But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" Reid replied "Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own." He then went on to insult Bash saying, "This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you're irresponsible and reckless …" He spent the next several days backtracking. This wasn't the only funding bill that the Democrat Senate refused to approve. Reid led the Senate in blocking funding to keep open the national parks, pay for veterans benefits, and pay the National Guard. The Democrats would have you believe that the 12 federal appropriations bills have always been rolled up into a single omnibus bill. However this is only a relatively recent phenomenon so their complaint about being asked to vote on funding the government piecemeal is a bit disingenuous.

I think most everyone agrees that there is a lot of blame to go around for the government shutdown. But just as with the sequestration when the unguided tours ( read zero cost to the government) of the White House were stopped, President Obama and his minions in the Democrat controlled Senate once again demonstrate they can't do "nothing" right and are looking increasingly petty, mean, vindictive and spiteful doing it.
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Who Will Liberals Blame Healthcare Problems on Then?

The Republican House sent a bill over to the Senate that funded the entire government but contained language that defunded Obamacare. The Senate could vote to approve the bill and avoid a government shutdown but instead they most likely will strip out the defunding portion of the bill and send it back to the House. This would force the House to either accept funding of a disastrous program that 70% of Americans are firmly against, most of those in Congress who voted for it hadn't read (and probably still haven't) and could only get jammed through using a parliamentary procedure trick or can allow the government to shut down. If this happens, of course the Republicans will be blamed. Obamacare is universally acknowledged to be a train wreck in the making. It is already causing people to lose their current coverage, pay more for coverage, and work fewer hours as employers make them go part-time to avoid having to pay for the very expensive government mandated coverage. Except for a handful of States, health insurance premiums are expected to increase an average of 24%. The graph below by the Society of Actuaries gives another revealing view of the coming increases.

So much for the president’s promise that the average family will save $2500 a year!

When this legislation was passed, not a single Republican voted for it because no one was given an opportunity to read, let alone try to understand the 2800+ page behemoth. This program is riddled with problems that are causing all sorts of unforeseen negative consequences. It is a jobs killer. It is going to cost billions more than what we were promised. It is going to cause a doctor shortage as doctors retire or leave the field of medicine in order to not have to deal with the government bureaucracy. The system will be bogged down as thousands of new patients flood the system for their free healthcare for every sneeze or sniffle. "Why not? Don't cost nothin'?" The president has already (and illegally I might add) delayed implementation for his pals in "Big Labor" because the program isn't ready. Before it has even been fully implemented, Obamacare has missed 41 of its 82 legally required deadlines according to the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service. And yet, liberals insist on pushing forward with this ill-conceived law. So liberals, I ask you: When your medical insurance premiums skyrocket; when you have to wait months for routine procedures; when your 401K tanks because the economy is in ruins; when you lose your job because your employer can’t make a decent return on their operations because of the high cost of their mandated employer provided healthcare; when your kid can’t get the operation or medicine she needs because the government has decided her chances of survival doesn’t merit the expense or when you have to figure out how to live on a part-time salary because your hours get cut back to below 30 hours a week, who are you going to be able to blame? You won’t be able to blame the Republicans!