Clean Up to His Neck

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In Washington these days, in order to get anything done, you have to go along to get along, roll a few logs, scratch a few backs, and trade a few horses. But then, in order to get anything worthwhile done, you have to make everybody who matters angry. This is precisely what Ted Cruz has done.

There will be many inside the Beltway who will now insist that we must not learn the obvious lesson of these last few weeks. Washington is crammed full of people who need to learn something, and their entire livelihood and way of life depend upon them not learning it.This is why they are so slow on the uptake. They are not deficient when it comes to native intelligence. They are not lacking wit; they are lacking in motivation. We pay them trillions to stay unmotivated, and so we get what we pay for.

So step back and look at the events of the last month or so. Instigated by Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, the House Republicans linked the continued funding of the government to their proposed defunding of Obamacare, about which more in a minute. That effort repulsed, the House came back with a proposal linking the continued funding of the government to a delay of the individual mandate for Obamacare. The resulting impasse shut the government down for an interminable number of days, stretching into weeks. Having taken a highly visible stand, the Republicans then said uncle and agreed to kick the can down the road so we could do the whole thing over again in a few months.

Shutting the government down for the sake of a delay in Obamacare was represented as unconscionable. Delay Obamacare? Why, that was a lunatic notion, crazy talk, a scheme put forth by parliamentary madmen, a proposal picked up from the hate vibes emanating from talk radio, the heated vaporing of screed scribblers, not to mention the megalomaniacal brain child of the gentleman from Texas.

Ah, what a difference a week makes! It turns out that all the lunacy, crazy talk, heated scribbling, ad infinitum was actually going on wherever the programmers for healthcare.gov were gathering to work on their very expensive magic.

And Moses spake, and swarms of bad code came slithering up out of the Nile, and filled up every computer in Egypt, and every mobile device. And Pharaoh hardened his heart, and summoned techies from the Valley of the Silicon to his court, and commanded each of them, saying, “Thou shalt fix it! No one is more frustrated than I am at these glitches. Millions of glitches, and I would have them be gone.” And the techies sweated over their cauldrons all night, but all they could make was more bad code, which, when they approached unto the Pharaoh’s court in the morning, was all eaten for breakfast by the the bigger, badder code that Moses had made.

But the website debacle is just the beginning of sorrows. The web portal that everybody is having such a time trying to get through is actually preventing people from seeing the real problems. It is as though a honeymooning couple in Transylvania had their car break down near a castle on a dark, foreboding hill, and the sky was filled with the occasional fluttering bat, and off in the distance you could see the flash of approaching lightning. They make their way up to the castle door, but then, due to various circumstances that need not detain us here, they are utterly unable to get through the door, or get anybody to answer it. So they walked down the road a quarter mile and stayed at the Best Western.

When people actually get through the door, that’s when the real Obamascare will start happening to us. That’s when the American public, dressed in a filmy gown, will make her way tremulously through the hallways of endless medical exchanges, with the guttering candle of vanishing liberty held aloft in her right hand. So to speak.

And when she and her hubby make it outside, to make a mad dash for the road, that’s when it will start raining frogs, and dead cats, and trebled health care costs. But pay no attention to those who object to this kind of precipitation. A bunch of nuts.

So, anyway, back to Ted Cruz. He was harangued by all the Respectable Voices just a matter of days ago for taking a quixotic stand against that which was settled, inevitable, necessary, not to be denied or delayed, and which anybody who was not a certified nut job knew full well. And yet now, here we are, hours later, and Respectable Voices are now allowing that delaying Obamasnare might be the most responsible thing for us, ahem, to do. The only challenge will be doing this without lending credibility to Cruz, which (I am afraid) will be impossible now.

That man is standing in the middle of the credibility pond, which we thought had dried up years ago, clean up to his neck.

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solideo@juno.com
solideo@juno.com
10 years ago

It’s been so long since we’ve seen a Senator who sees a wrong and actually tries to right it that it’s hard to recognize the real deal when we see him….well, except down here in Texas, where we like our tea strong and bold. All kidding aside, may God have mercy on us and shed the scales from our eyes. May we see more men arise who, like the men of Issachar, understand the times and know what to do. And may we understand that He would be doing so in order that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives,… Read more »

Robert
Robert
10 years ago

I suspected that from Day One, he would be interesting

timothy
timothy
10 years ago

Its amazing what speaking the truth in boldness can do to the powers of darkness. I especially love that it forced them to reveal themselves–boy, do they ever hate that!
 

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

Shutting the government down for the sake of a delay in Obamacare was represented as unconscionable. Delay Obamacare? I think you are missing the point here.  The thing everyone had a problem with, and successfully portrayed in a bad light (approval ratings for Republicans are in the toilet now), was precisely the tactic of threatening shutdown and default in order to force policy concessions.  If the Republicans had focused on the problems with the implementation and counseled a delay without all the shutdown theater, they would have spared themselves the embarrassment of defeat and ignominy.  Think of it this way. … Read more »

Arwen B
Arwen B
10 years ago

@ Matt: Sure… except for the whole thing about the Democrats being the ones to threaten shutdown and make entirely overblown doom’n’gloom predictions about how it would destroy the country and cause instant cataclysm.

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

The Ds threatened shutdown only in response to the Rs refusing to pass a spending bill that funded Ocare.  Let’s be honest, that was an entirely understandable response, given that it is unorthodox, to say the least, to try to force policy concessions with budgetary tricks.  You don’t have to take my word for it though, just look at the polls.  People blame the Rs for the fiasco, not the Ds.  That doesn’t mean that the Ds weren’t being self-serving about it all, because they totally were.  But then what do you do when your enemies hand you a victory… Read more »

Eric the Red
Eric the Red
10 years ago

The problem with the Republicans is that they are wise as doves and harmeless as serpents.
 

St. Lee
10 years ago

Why did the phrase “useful idiot” just come to mind.

Mr. Fosi
Mr. Fosi
10 years ago

The problem, Matt, is that “forcing concessions” with “tricks” isn’t “unorthodox”. There’s a decent precedent, the bulk of which has been laid by the Dems.
It isn’t a dirty, underhanded trick. It’s one thing that a minority party might do to shape policy.

St. Lee
10 years ago

Just to clarify; Eric’s comment had not shown up when I made my last comment.  More and more as the years go by, I tend to agree with his assessment of Republicans though – many of them are as wise as doves and as harmless as serpents – just like the Democrats! 

Dean Patterson
Dean Patterson
10 years ago

I have watched CSPAN discussions of ACA by GOP representatives and concluded that a significant problem exists that the country doesn’t understand. Since the situation is misrepresented by Demos and ignored by the press it seems the GOP should hold town meetings in every district and convey succinctly what they are doing and why. I believe a 5 bullet statement could be crafted and presented. This action would tend to take the dialogue away from politics and focus on substance. The fact that they don’t summarize and convey their position worries me.

Kimberley
Kimberley
10 years ago

We took our four children to his rally in Arlington on Tuesday night. We got to hear his father speak too. It was such an encouragement. Ted has read the Econ Masters. He’s not just conserving for conserving’s sake…He actually understands the Free Market and has small government instincts. Liberty is in his bones. Proud to say he represents me down here Texas way. :)

Jon
Jon
10 years ago

Regarding the website, perhaps the president should try turning the government off and then back on again…