Blame for the current government shutdown is all over the place. Even the Tea Party has been accused of causing it. In this post, I am going to shed light on who is really to blame and accuse the mainstream media again of not doing its homework.
The checks and balances in the Constitution were put there for a purpose, to not allow our government to be ruled by tyranny of one branch or another. The means of how to fund the government (i.e. taxes and/or user fees) and where to and how to direct those funds lies clearly with Congress. The President can veto the Congressional spending bill, sending Congress back to the drawing board, or Congress can override the Presidential veto by a 3/4 majority vote. The President can still show his disapproval by allowing the bill to become law without his signature.
Most bills that originate in the House of Representatives vary some from the version that gets passed in the Senate as parts of the House bill are stripped away and new amendments added. The bill is then sent back to the House where it is either approved in the revised form or further revision is carried out and the bill sent back to the Senate. The usual way of getting through this time consuming back and forth is for House and Senate leaders to meet and work out an agreement with give and take from both sides. Failure to meet, may draw out the process causing unnecessary delay. After all, that is what politics is all about.
The current impasse is primarily about funding Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act ACA). Not a single Republican voted for the ACA and debate was very limited with all Republican attempts at amending it were met with defeat. In other words the Democrats legitimately used their power to pass the bill the President and the Center for American Progress, the author of the bill, wanted. As the President says, "elections have consequences" and the Republicans lawfully using their new found power after having been swept into office in the congressional elections, have done just that One of the major issues that was responsible for a stunning and overwhelming victory was the ACA and bill that was never even read by the people that voted for it. As Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Speaker of the House at the time, said "you have to pass the bill so you can read it." The bill was not read for two reasons, first it was 2700 pages long and would take weeks and even months to get through and secondly, and more importantly, many Democrats would have wanted to amend all or parts of the bill not only delaying or preventing its passage, but the more time it took to pass the bill the more the public outrage.
The main concern, although there are very many, is the individual mandate which requires individuals who are not covered by another insurance plan, to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. Minimal plan coverage is required or a "penalty" will need to be paid. In selling the plan to the public, Obama termed this a penalty vehemently denying that it was a tax, though the penalty would be collected by what we have now learned is a corrupt and highly politicized IRS. The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld much of the ACA including the dreaded individual mandate by calling the mandate a tax. If that is the case, then the ACA was sold to the public under very false pretenses in regard to the mandate. (it was also sold to the public on a huge number of other false premises.) There is also an employer mandate that requires employers to provide a certain level of health insurance benefits or pay a penalty (tax). This was conveniently delayed a year from January 1, 2014 to January 1. 2015, conveniently after the November midterm elections. The reason why the individual mandate is so importan to the ACA is that Obama and the Democrats are looking for the individual mandate to fund the ACA. Young healthy individuals, who rarely use health insurance, will now have to pay a premium. Since Obamacare forces insurance companies to sell policies to those with preexisting and on going medical conditions at a favorable rate, rates to the young and healthy will be very high. If the young and healthy decided to pay the tax ("penalty") rather than purchase much more expensive insurance, insurance companies will drop out of the programs and the ACA will collapse as it will become economically unsustainable. To Obama, this may not be a bad thing and I am certain that this is what his real long term goal is all along. He will heroically step in and demand a single payer government run system to provide healthcare for all. This will be called a tax just like the Medicare Tax and employers will be required to collect by withholding it from paychecks. Those who make more will of course pay more. Wealth redistribution is always a part of any program he champions.
So far the Republicans are the only ones that have budged. They have gone from defunding the ACA to requesting the cancellations of some of the taxes associated with it and delaying the individual mandate a year, just like he has done with the employer mandate. They have very rightly wanted Obamacare to apply to everyone in government as well, which seems very fair. Still Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, has refused a conference and President Obama has been unwilling to talk to Republicans as well, but continues to mouth off to the press and American people, playing his usual blame game, never accepting responsibility for anything that has gone wrong. His current mantra often repeated by the mainstream media is the Tea Party is responsible.
So who is to blame. Obamacare is to blame and all of those who voted for it before reading and debating it. I know for certain that President Obama didn't read before or after he signed it. His pals at the Center for American Progress directed him to go ahead. For failing to compromise on a very flawed law, Harry Reid and Obama are to blame. The Republicans have offered a variety of compromises including funding all of the government except the ACA so that a proper debate can be held on it. After all, it has been delayed for some time whats a few more months or even a year going to hurt? Republican continue to support the Constitution, Obama and the Democrats continue to ignore it, both in spirit and substance.
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