One can argue that it was inevitable that a House controlled by the most radical right wing party in the Nation’s history and an Executive Office controlled by one of its most progressive occupants would inevitably lead to stultifying gridlock.
The GOP gave up any pretense of governing last week when Speaker John Boehner threw his lot in with the BENGHAZI deadenders and formed a special committee to investigate what happened that day. (I’m sure you remember the committees he called for to investigate the 60 US diplomatic staffed killed under George W. Bush’s watch. No? Odd.) The Democrats can participate at a 7 to 5 disadvantage, or they can boycott; it really doesn’t matter. Boehner and the GOP are not out for legitimacy. They are, quite simply, having their final, very public nervous breakdown.
Obamacare has succeeded in the way it was designed to succeed. The GOP was rooting for its utter failure, goaded on by groupthink and the admittedly rocky technical problems of the first month. It drank the koolaid thinking that the glitches portended disaster for Obama and the Democrats, obviously unable to comprehend that a website can be fixed, and that dozens of groups would be working to ensure massive enrollment. It went through a brief period of “Obamacare Trutherism”, saying the books had been cooked, or that no one had paid their premiums yet. The final nail in the coffin was today’s testimony by health insurance executives who praised the ACA, frustrating GOP representatives.
And last week’s jobs report showed the economy adding 288,000 jobs in April, beating predictions, with the unemployment rate dropping to 6.3%. (More “cooking the books” on that good news.) Republicans have tried their damnedest to stifle the economy, making voters hurt for daring to elect and re-elect the skinny black guy to the White House. And yet, the funny thing is that people want to work, people want to start and run businesses, people want to make a living and have luxuries. The GOP can stamp its feet all it wants and that won’t change. So the economy grows, assisted by Administration and Federal Reserve policies. If Boehner & Co. had not obstructed, growth would now be greater and the unemployment rate below 6%. They can therefore claim no hand in the upswing in the economy; it was mostly due to Pres. Obama’s policies.
From failure to act on climate change, fixing the broken immigration system, and extending unemployment insurance for those still without work, the GOP has proven both unable and unwilling to solve problems. On any matter of national import it has abdicated responsibility for action. In any decently run company, all the Congressional Republicans would have been fired.
Continue reading ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’
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