Luke Hamilton
The Chicago Hindenburg Academy: now accepting new pilots
By Luke Hamilton
Last Friday, Representative Jared Polis, a progressive Congressman from Colorado, suggested that to fix the mess created by Obamacare's implementation, we need to accept amnesty for illegal immigrants. He favors the passage of House Resolution 15, which would provide a roadmap to citizenship for most immigrants who are here illegally. "If we can pass H.R. 15, people who are here illegally will have to get insurance on their own instead of forcing Americans to pay for their insurance," said Mr. Polis.
In other words, the key to fixing the mess caused by this progressive disaster is more progressive reformation. We just need to get more people under this system so that this system will start working. Apparently, the problem with the healthcare.gov website and hotline is that there is not enough traffic; so that increasing the number of people trying to enroll will decrease the wait-time. Who knew? In all seriousness, only a slavish ideologue would call for more of what caused the problem in the first place. It's the same caliber of cerebral fortitude demonstrated by the Vice President's famous affirmation that we must spend our way out of debt.
Putting aside the galactic amount of illogical chutzpah Representative Polis exhibits, his words underscore an important truth. The Democratic Spin-Machine will find a way to capitalize on this debacle. With the exception of Nancy Pelosi, they seem to be moving past the denial phase and are already looking for a way to spin this to their advantage. Among the ideas I imagine being tossed around the Obama War Room right now are Blame Bush, Healthcare is Racist, Website Designers Were Overly-Concussed Former NFL Players, It's All the Fault of Bush & Cheney, Sinister Plot Hatched by the Koch Brothers and Matt Kibbe and The NRA.
The truth is, as much as the utter failure of Obamacare feels like conservative Christmas come early, progressives will not let their crown jewel tarnish this easily. Obamacare goes far beyond the European socialist guise it was sold under; it is the vehicle for hard-left statist reformation. As Representative Louis Gohmert discussed recently, he recently found a provision in the Obamacare law which allows the President to create a commissioned and non-commissioned officer corps which will be tasked with being ready to "meet both routine and public health and emergency response missions." As Rep. Gohmert notes, "It says it is for international health crises, but then it doesn't include the word 'health' when it talks about national emergencies." What does this have to do with affordable health care? And why would we need additional government forces from the Department of Health and Human Services to deal with non-health related national emergencies?
Both the Commissioned Corps and the Ready Reserve Corps are in addition to the newly-bolstered IRS ranks, currently training with AR-15s. If you remember, AR-15s are the "military style" assault weapons which the President believes don't belong in the hands of non-military personnel. The fact that he trains his accountants with them means one of two things, either a) he no longer believes that non-military personnel should be prevented from possessing these rifles, or b) the IRS is now a branch of our military.
To say that they believe in this law and will fight for it using any means necessary is to acknowledge the Chicago school of politics which spawned the President, Valerie Jarrett, and other members of the Obamas' inner circle. When the questions get tough, the maxim of Chicago politicians is to find/manufacture dirt on your opponent to deflect attention. After all, it was his former chief-of-staff (now Mayor of Chicago) who famously quipped, "You can never let a serious crisis go to waste." Has there been a more serious structural crisis in recent memory? So the only question is, how will they distract the nation long enough to enact a "fix" for Obamacare? Thus far, the fingerprints on the steering wheel of this Hindenburg are solely Democratic and that can't sit well with DNC leadership.
The most troubling prospect would be if they decide to bring Boehner and McConnell into the fold. Thus far, the Speaker and the Minority Leader have had to drool in secret over Obamacare's progressive potential, as the heroic efforts of a conservative few in both the Senate and the House have held their feet to the fire. But neither man is on the side of Liberty, as demonstrated by their unwillingness to derail this monstrosity when their support might have done just that. The truth is that Obamacare represents enormous power over the lives of Americans and that appeals to progressives on both sides of the aisle. It is possible that this situation becomes so politically toxic to the President and his devotees that they are forced to bring the Republican leadership in both houses of Congress on-board in order to shore up support and position potential blame-targets for future failures.
A patriot would refuse, knowing that this millstone has the potential to set the progressive agenda back a couple of decades; but Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell will never be known for their stalwart patriotism. If the President, Senator Reid, and Secretary Sebellius sat down with Boehner and McConnell, offering them the opportunity to help "fix" Obamacare, I have no doubt that whatever paltry shred of conservatism still held by the Speaker and the Minority Leader would evaporate faster than a thrill can travel up the leg of Chris Mathews.
The President has no better option and given the gutless leadership demonstrated by Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, et al, he would likely succeed in recruiting their support, provided the carrot dangled is juicy enough. I fear that getting buy-in from the GOP in both houses would serve everyone nicely, except the American people still stuck under the onerous law they keep trying to fix. This is the hand for which Boehner has been waiting. He doesn't want to scrap Obamacare, he wants to steer it.
© Luke Hamilton
November 25, 2013
Last Friday, Representative Jared Polis, a progressive Congressman from Colorado, suggested that to fix the mess created by Obamacare's implementation, we need to accept amnesty for illegal immigrants. He favors the passage of House Resolution 15, which would provide a roadmap to citizenship for most immigrants who are here illegally. "If we can pass H.R. 15, people who are here illegally will have to get insurance on their own instead of forcing Americans to pay for their insurance," said Mr. Polis.
In other words, the key to fixing the mess caused by this progressive disaster is more progressive reformation. We just need to get more people under this system so that this system will start working. Apparently, the problem with the healthcare.gov website and hotline is that there is not enough traffic; so that increasing the number of people trying to enroll will decrease the wait-time. Who knew? In all seriousness, only a slavish ideologue would call for more of what caused the problem in the first place. It's the same caliber of cerebral fortitude demonstrated by the Vice President's famous affirmation that we must spend our way out of debt.
Putting aside the galactic amount of illogical chutzpah Representative Polis exhibits, his words underscore an important truth. The Democratic Spin-Machine will find a way to capitalize on this debacle. With the exception of Nancy Pelosi, they seem to be moving past the denial phase and are already looking for a way to spin this to their advantage. Among the ideas I imagine being tossed around the Obama War Room right now are Blame Bush, Healthcare is Racist, Website Designers Were Overly-Concussed Former NFL Players, It's All the Fault of Bush & Cheney, Sinister Plot Hatched by the Koch Brothers and Matt Kibbe and The NRA.
The truth is, as much as the utter failure of Obamacare feels like conservative Christmas come early, progressives will not let their crown jewel tarnish this easily. Obamacare goes far beyond the European socialist guise it was sold under; it is the vehicle for hard-left statist reformation. As Representative Louis Gohmert discussed recently, he recently found a provision in the Obamacare law which allows the President to create a commissioned and non-commissioned officer corps which will be tasked with being ready to "meet both routine and public health and emergency response missions." As Rep. Gohmert notes, "It says it is for international health crises, but then it doesn't include the word 'health' when it talks about national emergencies." What does this have to do with affordable health care? And why would we need additional government forces from the Department of Health and Human Services to deal with non-health related national emergencies?
Both the Commissioned Corps and the Ready Reserve Corps are in addition to the newly-bolstered IRS ranks, currently training with AR-15s. If you remember, AR-15s are the "military style" assault weapons which the President believes don't belong in the hands of non-military personnel. The fact that he trains his accountants with them means one of two things, either a) he no longer believes that non-military personnel should be prevented from possessing these rifles, or b) the IRS is now a branch of our military.
To say that they believe in this law and will fight for it using any means necessary is to acknowledge the Chicago school of politics which spawned the President, Valerie Jarrett, and other members of the Obamas' inner circle. When the questions get tough, the maxim of Chicago politicians is to find/manufacture dirt on your opponent to deflect attention. After all, it was his former chief-of-staff (now Mayor of Chicago) who famously quipped, "You can never let a serious crisis go to waste." Has there been a more serious structural crisis in recent memory? So the only question is, how will they distract the nation long enough to enact a "fix" for Obamacare? Thus far, the fingerprints on the steering wheel of this Hindenburg are solely Democratic and that can't sit well with DNC leadership.
The most troubling prospect would be if they decide to bring Boehner and McConnell into the fold. Thus far, the Speaker and the Minority Leader have had to drool in secret over Obamacare's progressive potential, as the heroic efforts of a conservative few in both the Senate and the House have held their feet to the fire. But neither man is on the side of Liberty, as demonstrated by their unwillingness to derail this monstrosity when their support might have done just that. The truth is that Obamacare represents enormous power over the lives of Americans and that appeals to progressives on both sides of the aisle. It is possible that this situation becomes so politically toxic to the President and his devotees that they are forced to bring the Republican leadership in both houses of Congress on-board in order to shore up support and position potential blame-targets for future failures.
A patriot would refuse, knowing that this millstone has the potential to set the progressive agenda back a couple of decades; but Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell will never be known for their stalwart patriotism. If the President, Senator Reid, and Secretary Sebellius sat down with Boehner and McConnell, offering them the opportunity to help "fix" Obamacare, I have no doubt that whatever paltry shred of conservatism still held by the Speaker and the Minority Leader would evaporate faster than a thrill can travel up the leg of Chris Mathews.
The President has no better option and given the gutless leadership demonstrated by Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, et al, he would likely succeed in recruiting their support, provided the carrot dangled is juicy enough. I fear that getting buy-in from the GOP in both houses would serve everyone nicely, except the American people still stuck under the onerous law they keep trying to fix. This is the hand for which Boehner has been waiting. He doesn't want to scrap Obamacare, he wants to steer it.
© Luke Hamilton
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