Doomed to Succeed - Part 2

A while back, I wrote a commentary called “Doomed to Succeed”, well, I think it’s time to expand on that phrase with what is going on around us today.

Remember, in 2009 and 2010, Obama and the Democrats, after winning the White House and the Congress, decided to implement their obsession called government-run health care. Obama, along with his flunky’s, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, worked on their version of health care, eventually called Obamacare (the (Un)Affordable Care Act).

As they went about unilaterally writing their proposed law, they didn’t solicit any input from the Republicans, even though the Republicans had in their ranks about 6 doctors who were members of the House of Representatives. You’d think that trying to change 1/6 of the economy (which is what health care represents), the Democrats would’ve asked people in the medical profession their input and ideas, since they were the professionals. But no, input was only allowed to the Democrats (with zero medical experience), as they knew what was best for the country from their Marxist/Socialist point of view of things.

Well, the bill was finally crafted and ready for debate and passage toward the end of 2009. Some reluctant Democrats were strong-armed and cajoled by Obama and the Democratic leadership, by subtle forms of bribery, to vote for this monstrosity. It was passed on Christmas Eve in the dead of night by some legislative finagling by Harry Reid who had just enough votes to break the Republican filibuster, knowing that the election in Massachusetts of Republican Scott Brown, who was to be sworn in on Jan. 3rd, 2010, would not give him the 60 votes needed for cloture after Brown was sworn in. That’s why the rush by Reid to push for passage before that event happened. The vote was 60-39, and cloture was passed. Now, all that Reid needed was a simple majority of Senators (51 votes) to pass the bill. Which they did, and it was passed. Finally, after weeks of negotiating in the “reconciliation” process with the House, the House passed the bill 219-212, with 34 Democrats and all 178 Republicans voting against it. Obama signed the bill into law on Mar. 30, 2010. By the way, in the Constitution, it says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, this bill originated in the Senate, therefore, it might be declared unconstitutional - a lawsuit has presently been filed. Stay tuned.

This blatant political power play was “Doomed to Succeed” when Obama and the Democrats were elected in 2008. Most polls showed that the people were against this legislation from the beginning, and as a result it spawned the emergence of the Tea Party movement in the years 2009 and 2010. In the 2010 mid-term elections, the G.O.P. took back control of the House by winning a record 63 seats. The Senate remained Democratic which meant we had a split government, but since the Senate and the President was still in the hands of the Democrats, repeal of the law would not be a possibility, even though the Republicans in the House tried over and over again to do so.

Now with the debacle of the government trying to get this ill-conceived law up and working, we have witnessed the folly of letting the government get involved in 1/6 of our economy. Most citizens today still do not want Obamacare.

Yes, this law was “Doomed to Succeed”, but as the law loses more and more popularity, hopefully, it will be “Doomed to Fail” as many Democrats start jumping off a sinking ship, therefore, saving the American people trillions of dollars of taxpayer money and restoring our medical system back to being the pre-eminent system in the world. If and when that happens, a bi-partisan approach, with input from patients and doctors, should be started to give everyone a chance at receiving cost efficient health care without having a partisan health care law being shoved down their throats.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann