Donald Trump said recently that Republicans have been "waiting for seven years" to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. If I may be sol bold as to offer advise to Donald Trump, isn't the fact that they have been waiting for seven years exactly the problem? Other than the dozens of symbolic votes to repeal the ACA and screaming about how important it is to repeal the law, they have done nothing but wait.
When they could have been listening to their constituents about their policy concerns, they waited.
When they could have been writing their own bill to repair or replace the ACA, they were taking symbolic votes.
When they could have been looking for solutions to the legitimate policy concerns with the ACA, they were scheming to win elections.
Now their decisions have come back to demonstrate just how disingenuous their words and actions have been since the very start of this debate. This was never about policy for them. This was about a bunch of partisan hacks scoring cheap electoral points off of a complicated issue that they all too willingly oversimplified, and sometimes just flat-out lied about to confuse and mislead the masses. (Remember "Death Panels?)
They lied about what the ACA would do. They lied (and continue to lie) about what it is doing. They lied about the process used to pass the law and they lied about the role they paid in obstructing the improvement, passage and implementation of the ACA at all costs.
In what is possibly the most long-standing and disgusting of Republican lies about the ACA, they lied about having a better plan. They lied about having ANY plan to replace the ACA. For seven years, four election cycles, they have been proclaiming that "Obamacare" was killing the country and "repeal and replace" was at or near the top of their priority list.
Unfortunately for the country, the people who voted for these Republicans and the people who are most vulnerable to the fluctuation of the insurance market, the vast majority of congressional Republicans are both incompetent and uninterested in governing as compared with winning elections. In the time they had to ready themselves for when they would control the Congress and the White House, a competent congressional leadership team could have had a plan. They could have had backup plans. They could have had contingencies for how to proceed with a small versus a large legislative majority. They could have even come up with a plan for reform in the event that the next president was a Democrat. They had time to make plans based upon the the real world implementation and results of the ACA and the fixes that real world application showed it needed.
THEY HAD NOTHING.
Despite the pathetic and unintentionally ironic victory celebration Donald Trump held in the White House Rose Garden after the House passed its "bill," he and his Republican allies could not have shown themselves to be more oblivious to the real work needed if they had a "Mission Accomplished" banner as their back drop.
With years to prepare, they got caught with their pants down. With years to prepare and in near total control of the federal government, they had nothing. That glorious display of incompetence has nothing to do with Democrats. It only marginally has anything to do with Donald Trump. Sure, he could have displayed some leadership and tried to right the ship, but the "deal-maker" was not willing or able to do anything except say "pass something," and then try to strong-arm some of the Republicans who saw what a disaster their efforts were shaping up to be.
Donald Trump and the Republicans had a historic opportunity to pick up where the ACA fell short and help move it toward making sure all Americans have access to healthcare that they can actually afford. The signs along the way indicated they were not serious about doing so. When they had a chance to prove the doubters wrong, they proved they were nothing more than the disingenuous political hacks that so many thought they were.
So, when Donald Trump says it was "always the plan" to let the ACA die on its own, do not believe him. It is just another example of Donald Trump ignoring facts he does not like because his ego cannot handle the idea that he might not be the best, smartest and winningest person ever. To the extent he plans to let it fail or, more likely, push it to fail, the blood for the deaths that will result is on his hands and the hands of his colleagues.
What the Democrats should be doing now, and what the Republicans should do next time, is learn from the stunning incompetence that the Republican party displayed during (at least) the entirety of the Obama administration. That means not just complaining and using "the other side is in charge" as an excuse for not actually DOING anything. It means working on real policy solutions to problems. It means supporting a good idea regardless of who proposes it. Regardless of which side is in power, it means listening and compromising for the greater good. It does not mean theatrical temper tantrums, moving the goalposts and lying to the American people.
The ACA can and needs to be improved. However, anybody who thought that Republicans had the collective competence, leadership, integrity and courage to actually do it now needs to realize that they were being lied to. The Republicans, for seven years, were "waiting" (and campaigning) when they should have been working. We do no need more people like that in elected office. We need them gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment