In the Beginning…

In the beginning, God said “let everyone have health care.” Ummm, errrhhh, well, no he didn’t. Contrary to the declarations of the United Nations (oh, the irony) and World Health Organization, (click here to read) the right to receive health care is not a God given mandate. Nor is the right to receive health care found anywhere in the United States Constitution. Now, does that mean that a Liberal (to refresh your memory on the difference between Liberalism with a capital L and today’s mind-numbingly inane American liberal-small case l-click here ) should not aspire to provide health care for the populace? I would argue that it does not. A Liberal (capital L) society should absolutely seek to protect and preserve the well being of its people. 

Here’s the rub; Obamacare was noble in intent, and horribly wrong ( by design-more on this to follow) in execution. Obamacare was dead on arrival because it was driven by liberals (small case l) who believe the government is the source of all solutions. If you took the time to click on the definition of Liberal you would know that original Liberals did not look to government to solve their problems. 

You could (with good reason) take me to task for declaring Obamacare dead on arrival, since as I type it remains the governing health care law of our land. But folks, it is failing, and it is failing because it was intentionally flawed from the outset. Here is the ugly secret no one discusses: President Obama intended for its structure to implode because from the beginning he wanted a “single payer system” (click here for more on that.) The only way President Obama could achieve his end game was to set insurance companies up to fail. By not allowing commerce across state lines, and by continuing to feather the nests of plaintiff’s attorneys from coast to coast (thus driving up health care costs because of runaway tort liabilities) the President knew that eventually Obamacare would be crushed under its own weight and the next step would be to oust the private sector and let the Government come running to the rescue through the single payer system!

Then we have the Republicans. What a nightmare. In the beginning, they promised to repeal this flawed law and replace it with a law that would work. In the end, they failed. Time will tell whether they revisit Obamacare, but what a mess they have made of what should have been a great success story. 

If the Republicans don’t learn from this debacle, they are in a world of hurt. I have said it before and I say it again. Compromise is not a dirty word. The fact that moderate Republicans thought the replacement bill was too draconian, and conservative Republicans thought it was too moderate probably means it was just about right; not perfect, mind you, but infinitely better than where we were and remain today. Shame on Republican obstinance. If this behavior is replicated in the upcoming discussions around tax reform, the Republicans will be signing their death warrant as a leadership party. I know I have been wrong ( with regularity!) on many topics in the past 24 months, but you can put that prediction in the books. 

In the beginning, there was hope. There is still hope, but the hill just got steeper and more obstacles are blocking the path. It’s time for leaders to lead. The next few months will determine whether the we have witnessed the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end.