Obstructionism ushered in Trump

by | Feb 3, 2017 | Editor's Blog, Obamacare | 14 comments

Republicans are finding that repealing Obamacare is more difficult than they expected. Now, they’re starting to talk about “repair” instead of “repeal.” They should have done so a long time ago and the ACA would be a better program than it is today and Americans would have benefited.

The GOP has already said that pre-existing conditions won’t deter people from getting insurance again. One GOP Senator said that lifetime caps will not come back and that adult children will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26 years old. And Kellyanne Conway assured us that nobody who received insurance under Obamacare will lose it.

The most interesting article I’ve read recently about the Affordable Care Act, though, was not written recently but written by a Republican almost seven years ago when the ACA first passed in March 2010. David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, wrote a critique of bill, predicting that Republicans would never repeal it. His insight is invaluable.

Not only does he lay out the problems the GOP will have repealing the bill, he reminds us of a time when the legislative branch was a functioning body and the GOP had a moderate wing. He also lays out how Republican political decisions broke our system and how their strategy and tactics gave us Donald Trump. It’s a really a remarkable article both for its historical perspective and its foresight.

Frum correctly notes that the reason the GOP will have a hard time repealing Obamacare, as it came to be called, is because the tenets of the program are essentially Republican ideas. “…[T]he gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.”

The reason Republicans don’t have alternative to Obamacare is that Obamacare is their alternative. We’ve suffered seven years of political bluster only to learn that the GOP doesn’t want health care reform.

More importantly, though, Frum notes that when Republicans took control of the White House in 2000 and had majorities in both the House and Senate, Democrats worked with them to craft their tax cut bill, despite being vehemently opposed. Republicans made a different decision when they faced Obama and a Democratic Congress. They decided to obstruct, not compromise. The strategy lasted eight years and left Americans distrustful of their government.

Frum also epitomizes an endangered species: The moderate Republican. When he wrote the piece, some Republicans believed the country needed health care reform. As he says, “We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement…There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible.” Today, those moderate Republicans have largely been lost to primaries and gerrymandering.

Frum also saw how right-wing media outlets were driving the narrative more than politicians and inflaming the base to build support. As he put it, “By mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio.” Today, the leader of the country is a reality show star.

Frum’s article is remarkable because it was written at the moment our government began to cease to function. Mitch McConnell and his allies made a decision to obstruct instead of govern. They broke norms and traditions for political gain. They refused to compromise, they abused the filibuster, and they denied Obama an appointment to the Supreme Court. In the process, they fueled distrust in the system and disgust with the process. They ushered in the era of Trump.

 

14 Comments

  1. Norma Munn

    You are right that solutions are needed, but I don’t think “a solution” is likely. Hatred and bigotry are learned from birth, and I seriously doubt those past a certain age will change. I agree that specific solutions to specific problems can often be presented, but we had (and still have to some extent) solutions to many problems, or at least assistance in solving them, such as the ACA, or Dodd-Frank, and we are seeing them dismantled piece by piece. There is a long list of the “solutions” now in jeopardy, put together, in some cases after years of effort, such as NATO, or the long standing Johnson Amendment that Trump & Co. now wish to repeal — apparently forgetting that religious beliefs lie at the root of much strife in this world.

    As for bigotry and hatred, it is learned from birth and I fear there are too many who may be unable to change those aspects of themselves for much to change quickly. Especially when compassion and tolerance for others who are different is called Political Correctness or mocked as though they were four letter words by many in the White House. One can try, and should, but I am out of ideas about changing the hearts and minds of bigots who hate.

    If you are looking for activists, check out the web site https://www.indivisibleguide.com/ It is helping a lot of grass roots, previously uninvolved people find each other and develop ways to work, both at a local and wider level.

  2. Betty McGuire

    At a meeting recently of our Residents’ Association at the retirement facility where I live the Chairman said it is OK to complain about conditions but PLEASE also provide a proposed solution to what you are complaining about.

    The above posts are an excellent presentation of what is wrong and how it got there. But where is a proposed solution that all of us could get behind? We can’t just do nothing.

    • Troy

      The only ‘solution’ that can be provided in this particular instance Betty is voting. It’s not as if we can adopt our own foreign policy or social safety net. That is why we elect people to represent us. To provide those solutions you reference.

      Even if we had solutions, who would listen to them? For anything to be considered, it first has to be heard. That is not the case with this administration. So yes, we write and voice our grievances and converse with those of like mind and not so like mind. Living in an echo chamber or vacuum is never a good thing.

      A shame we can’t get that message to our Legislative and Executive branches of government as well.

      • Betty McGuire

        Well said Troy. Especially voting for the candidates who think like we do.

  3. Jay Ligon

    “Hotel Rwanda” starring Don Cheadle as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, is a true story about the moment that the African nation erupted into an orgy of violence. Rusesabagina deftly finds the fine delicate line between the warring factions in order to save his family and as many of his friends as he can.

    Neighbors who lived side by side all their lives took up machetes and hacked their neighbors to death. Liquor and guns fueled more carnage. The humanitarian crisis happened too quickly for an international response. After only a few weeks, there were a million dead people. Tens of thousands of murders and rapists were taken in by international aid stations after the perpetrators fled to refugee camps. Rwanda was depleted. Many of its best people and its infrastructure gone.

    In the aftermath, the world wanted to know how it happened.

    In the United States, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are sacred. The First Amendment enshrines the idea of protecting speech and print from government interference, but the lesson of Rwanda must give us pause. What is the impact on our people of malignant speech? How much damage has been done to this country by the continual onslaught of lies and propaganda from right-wing radio, right-wing cable, and hate sites on the internet?

    Rwanda was a divided nation. The former Dutch colonial government favored one group of Rwandans, the Tutsis, over another, the Hutus. The Dutch gave better jobs and pay to the Tutsis. Tutsis were better educated, and they were tall. After the nation became self-governing, the majority Hutus began a campaign of hate broadcasts over airwaves day in day out A continuous campaign of hate speech filled the air. The Hutus’ resentment toward Tutsis simmered for many years stoked by constant hate speech on Rwandan radio. One day an order was given over the airwaves:

    “Cut down the tall trees.”

    The Tutsis were tall. Within hours, Tutsis were being hacked to death in every neighborhood. They were hunted by their neighbors. Blood ran in the streets. Talk radio gave the order and there was a massive response.

    The United States is a deeply divided nation. Hate radio has been a major factor in the division as it broadly campaigns against “liberals,” “feminazis, “libtards.” Muslims, minorities, and “democrats.”

    Rush Limbaugh, a failed disc jockey who had been fired from every job he had, ended up in Sacramento, California, where he groused about his miserable life on the air. He blamed women, blacks, minorities and the government. He was a lowly white guy with none of the advantages of affirmative action and reverse prejudice. He struck a nerve. It was the beginning of a career for him. Hatred of liberals and becoming a fountain of lies turned into a lucrative if serendipitous career path. He earns a million dollars a week bitching and moaning about being a white guy.

    The hate speech industry is ubiquitous, and it has stripped the nation of our moderate center. There were once moderate Republicans who cared for the nation more than they cared for their Party. With the election of Trump, the embodiment of racism, extremism and hatred, there is a vast chasm between the gun-toting, left-hating, anti-semitic, racist far right wing and the rest of the country. The United States is a tender box today, and we are armed and dangerous. There is hate and ignorance on the airwaves. Will there soon be smell of gun powder in the air?

    • Norma Munn

      Jay, I really need my evening glass of wine (more than one, maybe) after reading your post. You are, of course, correct. That is the problem.

      • Jay Ligon

        I’m so sorry.

        • Norma Munn

          Not to worry. I shared the bottle of wine with two friends and had a pleasant hour. We all forgot politics! (No one had to drive, just walk down the hallway and/or stairs.)

    • Lee Mortimer

      I believe Belgium, not the Netherlands, was the colonial power in Rwanda.

      • Jay Ligon

        Right.you are. My bad. I should never trust my memory without fact-checking.

    • Jay Ligon

      The problem with our politics is that so many Americans do not see where their problems originate, and the voters punish the wrong people. For example, the voters blamed their current economic problems on the Democrats and Obama. They did not connect the dots. The 2008 financial meltdown came at the end of 8 years of Republican control of the White House and Republican control of the legislature for much of that time. Failed Republican economic policies were followed by another 8 years of Republican obstruction to measures to improve the economy. Instead of ousting the Republicans, the source of the meltdown and the reason for sluggish jobs improvement, voters got rid of Democrats. They rewarded the very people who created their financial distress.

      • Norma Munn

        Yes, many voters again rewarded the people largely responsible for much of the economic slow recovery, the gridlock, do-nothing to solve problems Congressional action AND they endorsed bigotry. Not the first time, but this time the outcome is not Ronald Reagan, but an orange headed, sexual predator, and profoundly ignorant man with at least some fascist tendencies, maybe more than some. Can anyone point to a time in any presidency that remotely resembled the last three weeks? I can’t. Not even during LBJ and the massive protests.

        • Norma Munn

          Dumping Trump and appearing to “reform” after passing all the legislation on the agenda right now, then blaming Trump for the chaos with Pence as President, is so devious I am sure you are right. Would it sell? I wonder, given that Trump and his cohorts will not go quietly. I have to rethink my opposition to the impeachment of Trump at this point. Always appreciate being given something new to chew on.

  4. Norma Munn

    Thanks for the historical reminder. The GOP has now fulfilled all the fears that have been expressed by many over centuries about political parties and the weakness of democracy when too many citizens are either ignorant or only self interested or bigoted. I always thought those writings were unduly alarmist. I was wrong. Creating chaos is a way to power used by unprincipled strong men who wished to control a country. Many have succeeded, and history calls them “dictators.” Will Trump & his cohorts? One need only read what Steve Bannon has written and said over the past decade to have be deeply concerned. Or look at the past two weeks and what has come out of the White House via Executive actions. Or listen to the press spokesman, whose garbled responses are sometimes on a par with the best of Trump himself,,or factually untrue. Or hear the leaked information about Presidential phone calls to the leaders of other countries.

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