This headline from the WaPo neatly sums up where we, as the GOP, are: "Cruz pushes GOP into traffic and walks off." I'm sure that Cruz honestly believes that the ACA is not good for America but that isn't why he did what he did. It was all political. A classic case of good cop bad cop between him and his brother-in-arms Rand Paul. Rand got all of the cred amongst the base without any of the stink. This is about 2016, not the ACA as evidenced by the fact that shortly after launching this kamikaze act, Cruz was nowhere to be found.
So, where does all of this leave us? On hold until January. We will do this whole thing over in January but I hope it'll look slightly different. Surely some of the tea party folk will rail about the ACA but that shouldn't be where the fight is. Like it or not we already have universal health care. The problem is that we deliver it in such a way as to ensure it is as costly and least effective as possible. Don't believe me? Go to your local ER and ask for care. They'll see you without a credit card. No, the fight should be about the budget. We need to do serious entitlement reform and it needs to be structural. Just extending the eligibility age until human mortality fixes the problem isn't a structural solution. We need to do that and we need to refine the sequester cuts – and this is where the Republicans can hammer the Democrats. The hammering needs to be done as a matter of principal but it needs to happen.
See, fresh from their victory this time around, the Democrats are going to over-reach on the budget situation in January. They're going to kick, scream and demagogue the hell out of those budget cuts. Further, they're going to depend on "outrage" from the American people to sustain them during this dark time in the valley. They can look for relief but the American people won't be coming to their aid. Quite the opposite. The Republicans stumbled badly with their strategy on this whole debt limit/shutdown calculus and the popularity of the Republican party went down. It should, the Republican leadership in Washington have been exposed for the craven cowards they are: power has become more important than principal….but the basic idea that the Federal government needs to get their act together probably polls at about 85%. People disagree with what that looks like but it's enough of a starting point that the R's and the D's can get to some middle ground.
The republicans need to stick to their knitting here and not embark on crazy flyers – traditionally when you polled the people about who was the "business" or "management" party they would point at the republicans. With good reason, we've been the business and management guys for quite a long time. Is it any shock that when the business guys start acting like petulant brats that the public punishes them? I don't see why not. However, this is pretty simple to fix: the leadership needs to get in a room with the TEA party folks and not come out until they have some middle ground. Now, surely this has happened more than once but they must forge a deal of some sort and part of that deal needs to be an eyeball to eyeball between the tea party and the leadership. The reason that this hasn't happened yet is that there's an implicit threat from the Tea party folks that, unless they get their way, the leadership will all be facing primary challenge from their right. The leadership's response needs to be "take your best shot punk" instead of knee knocking acquiesce and move on with it. It's an embarrassment.
The budget cuts need to stay, our entitlement system needs to be fixed and the ACA needs to stay in some form. The crazy cobbled-together version currently in place needs adjustment and the website? The Secretary of HHS needs to be canned yesterday! Why didn't the government go to Microsoft or Google and ask for their help? Last I checked, Silicon Valley was in California, not Canada.
UPDATE: I have received a few emails that indicate confusion as to why the GOP should even bother with the Tea party folk. The reason is quite simple: unless the gop is largely united on something, we're going to lose the next confrontation in January. Just like we did this time around. The contempt between the two factions in the GOP are killing it and that's why the leadership has to forge a deal. If either of the sides is unwilling to deal, well, this gets simple pretty fast.
October 24, 2013 at 12:42 pm
90% agree, and since I don't demand ideological purity from my fellow Republicans, well above my support/oppose threshold. If you are wondering about the 10%, keep wondering. I also adhere to the Buckley/Reagan rule.
October 24, 2013 at 1:46 pm
I very much like the Buckley rule.
October 25, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Andy, while I agree that the budget has to be a key area of focus (and Obamacare is going to weigh down that budget beyond our imaginings, having already gone from an estimated $978 B cost to $1.7 T), but there is absolutely more at play here.
The ACA is devastating our job market. They haven't even fixed the webpage and Americans in massive numbers have been moved to part time work in order for businesses to escape the massive cost. Layoffs in the healthcare sector are exploding (they led all other industries in September). Hundreds of thousands have been dropped from their current insurance plans and God knows how they're going to be able to be covered without a way to sign up.
It sounds like you're recommending we need to reform entitlement spending riiiiight after we fix the implementation of the biggest entitlement plan ever concieved by man. Oh, and just wait until we legalize millions of foreign born illegals (i'm not saying you're in support of that). That should make the entitlement reform effort quite interesting.
Obamacare is only going to get worse so why should we throw in the towel and accept it? I would say there's a good possibility that the one guy, Ted Cruz, who had the guts to stand up and call out this travesty out for what it is may soon be looked at as the most prescient man in Washington.
The national conversation has quickly moved on from the quixotic madness of Mr. Cruz to a government that is so mismanaged and inefficient, they can't even get a website to work. Which of course is illustrating the conservative position in the first place: There is almost nothing that the government can do better than the private sector.
October 25, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Why is this something we shouldn't be fighting with every fiber of our being? http://investmentwatchblog.com/sick-millions-of-americans-losing-health-plans/
October 25, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Dan:
Well put. Maybe I didn't articulate my position very well and this is a bit of an odd topic for me to address here because I'm really thinking about this in terms of a business owner….which is not how I normally write.
Here's what I'm saying about the ACA: as a business owner, I want to provide my people insurance. I feel that it's something I can do. All I'm looking for is some kind of certainty in the market. From my perspective, the "free market" that preceeded the current mess wasn't much better: The last several (5-6) years have seen increases of almost 20% annually. That isn't sustainable. Somebody, somewhere set some sane rules I can live with.
When I say keep the ACA in some form, my main desire there is that a real free market be established for insurance. The rules are ridiculous and byzantine – only 3 (or whatever) companies can sell insurance in VA? – that's not a real marketplace. Get rid of these crazy state boards and let companies operate nationwide. The internet would level that playing field in about 15 minutes.
That's maybe not the highest level point of view but I'm down in the trenches everyday running a business and it is one of my biggest frustrations.
Thanks for posting and I hope this clarifies somewhat where I am….
October 25, 2013 at 1:22 pm
That does make more sense. The GOP (we) can only blame ourselves for letting the problems in healthcare devolve so dramatically that the government takeover folks had all the ammunition they needed to make the case that only they were interested in solving it.
I'm not saying that the GOP didn't submit tort reform bills in the past. That happened but we should've been making it a much larger priority from whatever bully pulpit we have (in primaries and election debates).
That being said, this monstrosity is not the answer and more and more Americans are waking up to that reality. Now we need to be ready with an alternative free market solution that will actually work.
Thanks for clarifying, Andy.
October 26, 2013 at 9:54 pm
On the website and picking the "fixer": is it not interesting the company chosen to take the lead now is also a company owned by United Health Care….who is now…
Cleaning house on its Medicare Advantage Plan to get a "better bottom line" and proceeding state-by-state (first was CT, now NY) to give doctors the ole pink slip till they get who they want to "best support care"…who also….
Is the company AARP has as the provider of AARP's Medicare Supplemental Policy. Good ole United Health!
P.S. Have to agree with you Andy, that parts of the Personal Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA – its full name) should remain. There are parts of it which are improving the Health Systems by forcing them to improve quality and focus on health, not just healthcare. The current abomination though of individuals losing their policies to force them onto an exchange that does not work is just not the way to run a business.
October 29, 2013 at 10:53 am
Speaking of Republicans (at a local level) 🙂
Andy, good vote on the Stormwater Utility last night! Your "no" vote based on the Feds mandated this, and they should pay for it and not for the local government to do, was simply outstanding!
Now, I am all for fixing our infrastructure so it works; however, I agree there needs to be more funding then just the State willing to make a grant….and that 50/50 level of that grant stinks.
October 29, 2013 at 1:03 pm
I would like to remind everyone that the "dreaded TEA party" only started because the republicans were spending to much money. The TEA (taxed enough already) party is now being blamed by the republicans for the government shutdown and the Obama bounceback. If the republicans would stick to their own principles, there would be no need for a TEA party. Do you remember the "contract with America". Out of the 10 parts of the contract with America, only one passed and that was welfare reform. Today, we need to look at welfare reform again but that topic is for another day. So, now we're back to "physician, heal thyself" as with respects to the republican party. That applies to national, state and local politics. Government can't solve everyones problems for them. Sometimes, the citizens have to fix their own problems.