BACK IN JULY the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle triumphantly, even belligerantly, demanded that Republicans "quit the fussing" about Obamacare and get on board.
Get over it . . .
. . . GOP House members. Obamacare is the law of the land. It was passed by solid majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, signed into law by the president, and ratified by the . . . U.S. Supreme Court.
. . . .
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, the president set the proper and necessary forward-looking tone. It's time to give politics a rest and focus on October, when the historic health-care reform begins to kick into gear.
Already, as Obama noted, millions of Americans have felt its benefits. . . .
Pay special attention to these paragraphs:
Any new law as complex and comprehensive as the Affordable Care Act is bound to have its hiccups as it is being put into place. The administration acknowledges as much.
But the birth of a new era of health care security is worth the trouble of coming together to make its implementation as smooth as we can.
(Editorial, "Quit the fussing about Obamacare: Fussing over Obamacare should be shushed in favor of coming together to make it work," houstonchronicle.com, July ___, 2013)
Fast-foward four painful months. The new era of health-care security is an era of canceled policies, soaring premiums, and growing awareness that when all the dust settles, tens of millions -- if that few -- will remain uninsured. Meanwhile the president's reputation lies in tatters. His lies about keeping doctors and insurance helped pass the woebegotten law, and now the lies have been exposed.
As for the "hiccups as it is being put into place," what is there to say? Let's give the blindly self-righteous editors the benefit of the doubt and call it preemptory understatement.
Now that the ruin of Obamacare is being exposed, perhaps you might think the Chronicle would slap its forehead, admit the critics were right all along, and help build support for killing the beast before it does any more damage to our country or the millions of Americans now struggling to replace reasonably good insurance policies with unreasonably bad ones.
You would be wrong.
The newspaper now kinda, sorta admits that things aren't going all that well -- it is, they confess, "a failed rollout" -- but still blames Republicans and still requires them to fix the problems they did not create.
[T]his is hardly the time for Republicans to breathe a sign of relief or think they've dodged the bullet.
. . . .
. . . . We think the best and most enlightened move the GOP could make is the one already being recommended by savvy Republican strategists: shift from merely opposing Obamacare to active proposing a constructive alternative of their own.
While the White House and congressional Democrats are scrambling to repair ACA's trouble-plagued website, Republicans should waste no time in rolling out their alternatives -- and in a constructive rather than a "gotcha" tone.
(Editorial, "Healthcare reform doctor in the house?" houstonchronicle.com, November 20, 2013)
The Houston Chronicle is a past master of the "gotcha" tone. That's the exact tone the editors used to mock critics of Obamacare back in July, and many times before. We won! You lost! Get over it! It's the law of the land, idiots!
Now, it seems, the law of the land needs alternatives. And the Houston Chronicle, which cheered passage of Obamacare every step of the way -- through all the lies, through all the parliamentary tricks, Cornhusker Kickbacks, and con jobs on anti-abortion Democrats, through all the polls that showed (and still show) strong public opposition, through the election of an anti-Obamacare senator to replace Senator Ted Kennedy, through all the thousands of unread pages, through the midnight paste-ups and early morning take-it-or-leave-it votes, through all the passing it to find out what's in it, through all the bending of rules and one-party votes huzzahed by the July editorial -- through the misgivings and warnings and constant efforts by critics to undo Obamacare --
Yes, that Houston Chronicle.
It has now discovered that we have "a problem that threatens to engulf us." It now remembers that Republicans might have had some good alternatives back in the day. And without batting an eye at its own hypocrisy, it now demands that the folks who were right all along step forward and . . . do what?
The editorial is deliberately ambiguous. Should we repeal Obamacare and replace it with these better ideas? Or should we keep Obamacare and somehow try to stick these old GOP ideas like Post-It Notes on the poxy hide of the dying Obamacare?
The Chronicle doesn't really say, preferring instead fuzzy language about "resurrection" of the old ideas" and giving them a "fresh airing." This is the newspaper's typical response to unpleasant realities. The federal government is doing its best to go broke? Oh, my goodness, we need to think hard about that problem.
What we are watching is a classic misdirection play. A strategic retreat. A changing of the subject. A throwing of blame on the blameless. A demand for the taking of responsibility by those who had nothing to do with wrecking the train.
The old reality: Critics, shut up! The new reality: Critics, speak up!
Here's some advice to the Chronicle. Admit you were wrong. And if you now believe these old GOP ideas have merit, advocate them in a repeal-and-replace editorial, not in a wimpy call to think about them.
You were not timid in helping get us into this mess. Show the same spirit, enthusiam, and courage in helping us get out of it.
This time, finally, you'll be right. For now, you're still wrong and refusing to admit it.
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