The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: mystery-ak on October 17, 2013, 07:46:59 pm
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http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303680404579139651919274082 (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303680404579139651919274082)
Republicans Walked Into Obama's Trap
His goal was to discredit the GOP before 2014. The defunders fell for it.
By
Karl Rove
Oct. 16, 2013 7:01 p.m. ET
There's plenty of blame to go around for the chaos in Washington, but at the top of the list is the absence of presidential leadership. When Congress is close to agreement but still divided, the country rightly counts on its chief executive to bridge the gaps, make the compromises, and smooth the way to passage.
Instead, President Obama deliberately withdrew from negotiations over the debt ceiling and government shutdown. According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, the White House was concerned his personal involvement would be "a mistake that damaged the president's ability to advance his agenda."
Perhaps it was for the best. Mr. Obama's skill is not in bringing Americans together; it is turning them against one another. This latest crisis over the debt ceiling and shutdown is a case in point. Having voted against an increase in the debt ceiling in 2006 as the junior senator from Illinois, the president now characterizes those opposed to one today as reckless and crazed. Hypocrisy makes for clever politics but bad governing.
Give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his due. He combined ruthless partisanship with exceptional message discipline. On Tuesday, Mr. Reid attacked House Speaker John Boehner for considering a measure that "can't pass the Senate." He also blames Mr. Boehner for not taking up bills the Speaker didn't believe could pass the House. So Mr. Boehner is responsible whenever bills cannot pass either chamber, including the one Mr. Reid presides over.
This all fits into the White House's desire to use the continuing resolution and debt-ceiling fights to punish the GOP House majority in order to flip the House in the 2014 midterm election. That's a long shot, but the Obama-Reid-Pelosi cause was helped by a minority of House Republicans who persisted in a failed tactic.
The House could vote to defund ObamaCare as part of the continuing resolution and did. But the Democratic Party-controlled Senate would never approve such a measure. Even after the defund tactic was shown to be a transparent failure, its fundamental tenet—that ObamaCare can be undone by a party that controls only the House—has continued guiding a group of 20 to 30 House Republicans whose support is necessary to pass any GOP bill.
Backers of the defund strategy never offered a plausible way forward after their approach failed. Instead, they alienated colleagues who disagreed by insisting they were closet ObamaCare supporters and the defunders' outside allies raised the threat of primary challenges. They became content to sit in judgment of plans offered by the House leadership, turning thumbs down on anything not in conformity with their now discredited tactic.
The way to undo ObamaCare is to patiently and deliberately pull at its threads with measures that will gain Democratic votes—or at a minimum highlight Democratic opposition to changes that Americans support. One such change—delaying the imposition of the individual mandate—is favored by 60% of Americans, according to the Sept. 8 Reason-Rupe poll. Republicans should use the oversight process in Congress to stress ObamaCare's failures and inherent unworkability. They should also offer proposals to protect and strengthen private insurance.
Some of the GOP's alternatives are unlikely to pass the Senate. So be it. Republicans can still use the opposition of the president and Democrats to win Senate seats in 2014 and the White House in 2016. Both are necessary for ObamaCare's repeal.
What is most frustrating about the GOP's mishandling of the government shutdown is the opportunity cost. Consider where things might be if a minority of House Republicans had not stayed wedded to the defund tactic once its authors admitted they couldn't get it through the Senate.
The House would have passed a continuing resolution that funded the government at the lower levels agreed to in the 2011 Budget Act, probably with some ObamaCare fixes. These could have included making Members of Congress live under the law; requiring income verification before providing an insurance subsidy; and repealing or delaying some of the health law's obnoxious taxes. There was even an outside chance of delaying the individual mandate.
When Republicans didn't change course, they lost their leverage, and Americans were left watching the shutdown and debt-ceiling fights instead of the debacle that was the rollout of ObamaCare.
Barack Obama set the trap. Some congressional Republicans walked into it. As a result, the president is stronger, the GOP is weaker, and ObamaCare is marginally more popular. The battles over spending, taxes and debt have not been resolved, only postponed. It's time Republicans remembered that bad tactics produce bad outcomes.
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Groan! PLEASE!
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"It's time Republicans remembered that bad tactics produce bad outcomes".
That's smug advice coming from a man who lost all of his races last year.
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"It's time Republicans remembered that bad tactics produce bad outcomes".
That's smug advice coming from a man who lost all of his races last year.
Yeah! Exactly so!
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Consider where things might be if a minority of House Republicans had not stayed wedded to the defund tactic once its authors admitted they couldn't get it through the Senate.
The House would have passed a continuing resolution that funded the government at the lower levels agreed to in the 2011 Budget Act, probably with some ObamaCare fixes. These could have included making Members of Congress live under the law; requiring income verification before providing an insurance subsidy; and repealing or delaying some of the health law's obnoxious taxes. There was even an outside chance of delaying the individual mandate.
Yet they tried that. The defunding measure only was tried once, and when it got gutted in the Senate, it was abandoned. The Senate showed the same obstinate approach to every attempt to fix Obamacare that they did with defunding. To suppose that they could have pulled concessions when the facts clearly show that they tried that and did not is nothing more than a bold-faced lie.
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"It's time Republicans remembered that bad tactics produce bad outcomes".
That's smug advice coming from a man who lost all of his races last year.
Lost them in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Why does anyone listen to him.
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Yet they tried that. The defunding measure only was tried once, and when it got gutted in the Senate, it was abandoned. The Senate showed the same obstinate approach to every attempt to fix Obamacare that they did with defunding. To suppose that they could have pulled concessions when the facts clearly show that they tried that and did not is nothing more than a bold-faced lie.
The fact is that the DEMOCRATS were intent on shutting the government down, planned for it in fact, and NOTHING the House did would have been good enough!
The biggest problem we have is that most are totally ignorant about Constitutional balance of powers and the history of how that has worked until recently.
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Love him or hate him, Rove is right. Republicans walked into Obama's trap. Whatever side of the Republican divide you were on, the outcome is clear. They won, we lost.
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Love him or hate him, Rove is right. Republicans walked into Obama's trap. Whatever side of the Republican divide you were on, the outcome is clear. They won, we lost.
I disagree. Rove knows McConnell, McCain, Graham, etc. have any disagreement with Obama. They like being in the minority and going along with him, quietly getting their kick backs and perks as well as the TV adulation and getting re-elected time and againl... This is why they hate the Tea Party - we are rocking their cushy boat... we actually want to save this country from those people - in both parties as well as their "consultants" who are getting rich keeping helping these traitors get re-elected. Anyone thinks they care about America or our financial situation is wrong... they don't care, if they did they would have joined with Cruz and Lee, not fought them and THEN we would have had leverage against the Democrats.
BTW think things are bad now... these same men now are going to go full steam ahead with amnesty... this will assure they are in the minority forever.. they don't care!!!!!!!