thomas jefferson-1

I hope you are all enjoying watching the wheels come off the ObamaCare Bus.

I know I am.

The failed website,  the panic of Democrats up for re-election next year,  the non-apology “apology,” the late-night comics mocking him;  yes, it couldn’t have happened to a more “deserving” POTUS.

And, I hope the  narcissistic injury caused by the shame of  his failure, the drop in his popularity, and  his recent turn as the butt of jokes, is causing him great psychic pain.

(No, I do not feel sorry for him. I reserve my empathy for the millions who have lost, or are about to lose,  their health insurance.)

Although we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Obamacare, Daniel Henninger points to something much larger that is failing:

via The Wall Street Journal: Progressive Government Fails

…. Let us try to understand clearly what is happening now with the Obama presidency. On display to everyone watching this week is not merely the failure of a federal website or a software program or Ms. Sebelius’s management skills. This is the failure of the very idea of progressive government. Not liberal government. Progressive government.

That battle a few weeks ago over the government shutdown was a familiar Beltway spectacle. But what is happening this week to ObamaCare and the political class that created it is historic. Forty years from now, the millennials who in 2008 and 2012 believed in and voted for the progressive ideal—limitless, mandated, state-led goodness—can tell their grandchildren they watched it fall apart in 2013. This is the glitch that failed….

What made ObamaCare an exemplar of progressive politics and policy is precisely what has been on view this week in news stories and the Sebelius hearing. It’s not that the health program was to be administered by the state or that it promised benefits to all. Liberalism did that for decades. What made it peculiarly progressive were the mandates. And not just the law’s individual and business mandates to purchase their insurance. The essence of modern Democratic progressivism is: “You will participate in what we have created for you, and you will comply with the law’s demands….”

Barack Obama may have spent a lifetime failing up, but eventually it’s just failure. He has presided over five years of sickly economic growth, inadequate job creation, a doubling of the food stamp population and now this—ObamaCare….

Progressive government has failed in the U.S. Most fascinating to behold will be whether the Democratic presidential candidate who follows this meltdown will embrace it, fake it or move on.

And, I would like to add something Karl Rove wrote (Ok, not exactly our favorite, but, as Tammy says, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” )

We can only hope voters remember this the next time a well-spoken community organizer decides he wants to be president.

Karl Rove: The President’s Broken Health-Care Promises

Larry Kudlow — Daily Caller: The liberal entitlement-state dream is crumbling

Rebecca Hagelin — Washington Times: We the people vs. Obamacare

 

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11 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Squirrel says:

    I, too, hope he is suffering great psychic pain, along with his wife, (they are a package deal) for the damage they have done to this country and the world. I hope it is enough pain to force him to resign. I was hoping he would have been humiliated by defeat in the last election, but this could be even worse. I’ll drink to that. He needs to leave office knowing he was a complete failure.

    Can anyone imagine an 8 year period of their life, with nothing positive to show for it?

  2. Susan says:

    Another outstanding post, Shifra…thank you. So well said…

    Since his modus operandi is destruction (Cloward-Piven, Alinsky, etc.), by that measure he’s a success. Fortunately, the citizentry who voted for his “fundamental transformation”, thinking it was benign, are starting to experience the reality that it is anything but.

    As we continue to watch how this all unfolds, we can continue to find both solace and empowerment in the Tammy Army!

  3. n9zf says:

    Thinking there is a great parody for a tire store in this…

  4. makeshifty says:

    I’d like to believe this is the death of progressive gov’t. However, the progressives are already starting to say that this shows we need to move to single payer, blaming the insurance companies for cancellations. According to a former Lt. Gov. of NY, Obamacare is designed to transition us into single payer, through the expansion of Medicaid, which is where most of the enrollees are going so far. I suspect they didn’t expect the private insurance exchanges to fail right out of the gate. Otherwise, you could say everything is going according to plan. If one looks at the rate structure with the private insurance plans, it seems Obamacare is designed to make private insurance out of reach for most Americans–creating a two-tier system. Only upper income earners will be able to afford it. The rest will get on Medicaid, if they qualify, and we could see an industry arise helping people do that by sheltering their income, similar to what we’ve seen with disability payments.

    Of course, I hope Americans will reject this idea, and prefer the private insurance market, expanding availability by lifting restrictions on who can sell insurance to whom, but it’s a matter of how this debacle is interpreted. If it discredits central gov’t planning, we’ll back away from single payer. If instead people see it as a laudable goal, regardless of how ineffective it’s been, and it’s just something that needs to be fixed and “improved,” then it will keep chugging along, and it will keep hurting people.

    It’s really a matter of whether people admit they were wrong about trying to manage other people’s lives “for the benefit of all,” and realize that they can’t do that effectively. They just need to manage their own affairs, and help those to whom they can directly reach, person to person.

    I like what Thomas Sowell said about this mindset in one of his recent books. He said that even JFK’s famous phrase, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” was unrealistic. Sowell said, “Ask what you can do for your neighbor down the street, and those you love.” That’s the most effective help anyone can ask for and receive.

  5. makeshifty says:

    Oh, one other thing. While there’s truthfulness in the quote attributed to Jefferson, he didn’t say it.

    http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/government-big-enough-to-give-you-everything-you-wantquotation

    The closest sentiment he had was,

    “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, Paris, May 27, 1788

    Though it looks odd, “yeild” is how Jefferson spelled it, and he used this spelling many times.

  6. Alain41 says:

    Another example, Britain’s Labour Party (extreme socialist to moderate socialist), allowed eastern Europe migrants to be allowed to work starting in 2004 unlike the rest of the EU. ‘Research’ said that the eastern Europe immigration would be about 13,000 per year. It was 250,000, one year. The response of the Labour Party’s MP who made the decision, well my face is red. Now, parts of Britain have ‘a Roma problem’ because the immigration amount/policy did not foster assimilation. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10445585/Labour-made-a-spectacular-mistake-on-immigration-admits-Jack-Straw.html

  7. LucyLadley says:

    Thank you Shifra. I keep holding onto the belief that the citizen’s of the USA will be heard & things will begin to move in the direction that we the people desire. It
    is such a fortunate thing that Tammy & TAMS are aware of the importance of hanging together & having dialog about our individual & collective ideas. We are blessed to have each other. Alain41, thank you for your reminder that the situations we feel are perplexing are shared world wide. Another example of how great it is to have TAMs that hang out together.

    • Alain41 says:

      LL, thank you for the kind comment.

      Now to the American side of the Progressives and alleged conservatives. Peggy Noonan’s recent column on the Ocare debacle, starts off with advice for Repubs. to focus on the awful Ocare and not attack each other. Okay, but then she goes on to say, I told you so to Obama, and repeat her argument from 3 years ago that he should have co-opted Repubs into single payer (her sage alias is FDR, gee was FDR a Conservative or a Progressive). Anyway if you read ‘Noonan’s FDR Plan for Single-Payer HealthCare’, you realize that it is exactly what we are afraid will happen with amnesty. Eg, co-opt Repubs. to improve current system (Medicare) and then right before passage in the dead of night add in, Medicare now applies to all U.S. residents regardless of age. So now I disagree with her ‘advice’ to not criticize Repubs. because that will allow the amnesty perpetuators to go after it in silence. PNoonan is a Progressive that lies to herself that she is not. http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2013/11/12/obamacare-is-the-story/

  8. Kitten says:

    Proverbs 16:18

    Shifra, you think OBummer will be seeking psychological help after this public humiliation, (might I add) by his own hand? When I think about 85% of Blacks who still think he’s doing good job, I’m simply dumbfounded. Believe me, I thought America was ready for a Black President. I still do. Just not THIS guy. He was slick shady from the beginning, and now we know he prefers to work in the shadows and behind closed doors. Transparency my tail. He’s not self-made, he has always been handled by others, more specifically, by Val. Now it’s all falling down around him. Scandal after scandal, OcrapoCare. Oh, but he’s clueless to everything bad that has happened? Yeah, right.

    Progressivism and Liberalism work together for a common goal, to take away your freedom and liberty. That’s what every scandal and OcrapoCare has been about. Well, every day, more and more Americans are waking up to the fraud of this administration and its countless lies and deception. It’s amazing to be living at such a critical period in our nation’s history. As Tammy says: “Let’s get this right”. I’m grateful to Tammy and the TAMs for always providing encouragement and focus in the battle.

    Go. Fight. Win!

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