Tag Archives: political parties

Democracy and Parties

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Much has been made, especially in the recent press, of the “civil war” going on in the Republican Party, with the proximate subject being the contest over tactics for handling Obamacare while funding the government.

Think about that for a moment, though.

One party demands submission to the party line.  Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, UT) are well known for their ability to enforce party discipline, and they have the able help of their seconds, Congressman Steny Hoyer (D, MD) and Senators Chuck Shumer (D, NY) and Dick Durbin (D, IL).  This party’s decisions are made behind closed doors, and the results are presented to the public with no discussion of alternatives.

The other party openly debates, often with considerable zeal, the party’s position on strategy and tactics, on particular issues, and on the party’s defining principles.  No decision is taken secretly; the debate is right out front for the public to see—and to participate.

Both parties claim democratic principles as their core.

One party actually lives those principles.  There’s no civil war going on.  That’s the messiness of democracy.  That’s democracy in action.

Some More on Obamacare

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…which Democrats want to shut down the government rather than negotiate about.

“Do you have a large deductible?” asks [former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug] Holtz-Eakin.  “How much do you have to pay before the insurance starts picking up the cost?”

Analysts expect deductibles to be in the $5,000 to $6,000 range for the lowest level of [Obamacare] coverage, the Bronze Plan.

Dan Mendelson, CEO and founder at Avalere Health in Washington,says, “So, if you’re in a Bronze Plan, the premiums are going to be relatively low, you know, as HHS said, in some cases people won’t pay premiums at all.

“But there are going to be very high out of pocket costs and deductibles in some cases are going to be over $5,500.”

And that $5,500 is, amortized, an additional $460/mo in potential medical expenses that have to be paid by the “insurance” policy holder before the policy itself pays a dime.  Co-pays are on top of that.

Look again at that deductible.  In order to be eligible for an HSA, a man had to buy a “high-deductible” insurance policy.  A policy with an annual deductible of $3,000 or more.  Hmm….

Current policies, which rapidly are becoming unavailable, were not that expensive.

Government Shutdown

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The Democrats are demanding one at the top of their lungs.  The House passed a bill that funds the government for the next few months; delays Obamacare for a year; removes Obamacare’s medical device tax that’s already costing jobs; and guarantees our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines get paid in the event of a government shutdown.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, UT) says, “No.”

To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax[.]

And

…the White House vowed President Obama would veto the plan….

What we have here, then, is the Democratic Party preferring to shut down the government—rejecting a bill that funds it.  We have the spectacle of the Democratic Party rejecting a bill that pays our military—the very men and women who defend with their lives, in Secretary John Kerry’s words, these Democrats’ right to be stupid.  We have the…foolishness…of the Democratic Party rejecting a bill that provides for the rescission of a job-killing tax.

Why? Because the bill also delays Obamacare for a year—after President Barack Obama, by diktat, already has delayed major parts of it, such as the Employer Mandate, for that same year.

How dishonest is this?  How destructive of our economy is this?  All for the sake of two egos.

Obama said last week that one shouldn’t “threaten to burn the house down simply because you haven’t gotten your way.”  Yet here he is doing exactly that.  He and Reid need to figure out how to yes to the 99% they’re getting in this bill instead of demanding to shut down the government over his precious 1%.

Foreign Policy

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From a Wall Street Journal op-ed:

For days before the UN conclave, White House aides had broadcast the President’s desire to shake Mr Rouhani’s hand.  By Monday, the press was overflowing with leaked accounts of where and how it would happen.  Having thus turned down the lights and turned up the mood music, it made the snub that followed especially potent.

It would be amateur hour, if it weren’t so utterly incompetent.

A Thought on the Current Effort to Defund Obamacare

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Last week, the House passed a Continuing Resolution that funds the Federal government through mid-December while withholding funding for Obamacare.  Now the bill is in the Senate, where (some) Republicans are taking up the fight (we can argue tactics of the Senate fight, but that’s another story).

Here’s an aspect of the context of the fight in Congress as a whole.

There are some alternatives that fall short of full defunding, this year, but that make serious progress toward that end following the 2014 (and likely the 2016) elections—assuming the Republican Party can overcome its communications incompetence and actually talk to their and their Democratic Party colleagues’ constituents.  One is to accept a delay of Obamacare (at least the Individual Mandate) for a year.

Another is to get rid of the recently, and quietly, accepted an Office of Personnel Management ruling that Congressmen and their staffs are not subject to Obamacare strictures: these worthies get to continue their own, Cadillac of Cadillacs, health insurance plans along with the (taxpayer-funded) subsidies for these plans.  The Obamacare law explicitly requires Congressmen and staffers to buy their policies just like their merely mortal fellow Americans—on the exchanges that Obamacare mandates, from their employers (if one can be found who will continue to offer health insurance), or on the individual market.  At enormously increasing premiums, even compared to what’s currently available.  OMB ruled, fictitiously and at Congress’ direct request, that no, those Cadillac of Cadillacs plans and subsidies remain completely jake.

Very few Congressmen, though, want to push this particular alternative.  Indeed,

several Democratic senators have reacted by drafting legislation that would punish anyone who votes for [any legislation including this plan] by permanently blocking an exemption from them and their staff, even if [the plan] doesn’t pass.

There’s a hint there about the future of the overall “effort” to defund Obamacare, especially in light of Republicans’ penchant for folding in the clutch.