Sometimes you find terms that are so perfect that you just can’t let them pass. A good friend acquainted me with the idea of Cargo Cult Economics. Ace at Ace of Spades introduced me to a new one in the aftermath of the House and Senate kowtowing to a lawless action by Obama: Failure Theater.
Failure Theater is the process by which the Establishment deliberately fails to do achieve anything, but wants credit from the Dumb Conservatives they’re playing to for allegedly “trying.”
Each of Boehner’s and McConnell’s “defeats” are in fact planned in advance. They are not trying to advance the conservative agenda; they are attempting to con conservatives into believing they have attempted to implement conservative policy, when in fact they were delivering their political deliverables to their Donor Class paymasters all along.
Uneducated, gullible, and easily led: if we stand for this, we are exactly what the Washington Post slurred us as 30 years ago.
Indeed.
After the 2013 shutdown we were told: give us the majority in Congress and then we can do something. Something, apparently, has now been expanded to include “nothing.” We were promised that Obamacare would be repealed but will it? For instance:
The Senate’s chief referee has dealt a significant setback to conservatives who want to send an ObamaCare repeal bill to the president’s desk this year.
GOP sources say Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has raised red flags in response to queries about whether it’s possible to use a special budgetary procedure to repeal the controversial law “root and branch,” as Senate Majority Leader [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ] (R-Ky.) has said.
Senate Republican officials have pushed for an interpretation of the rules that would allow for repealing the law with a one-sentence provision on a simple-majority vote.
So while we see a sudden roadblock to repealing Obamacare, we see [mc_name name=’Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’H000338′ ], [mc_name name=’Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’A000360′ ], and [mc_name name=’Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’B001261′ ] flogging a plan to replace Obamacare with another federal monstrosity.
Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare.
First and most important: We would provide financial assistance to help Americans keep the coverage they picked for a transitional period. It would be unfair to allow families to lose their coverage, particularly in the middle of the year.
Most of these people have gone through the wringer to get this insurance. Millions lost their previous health care plans because those plans didn’t meet Obamacare’s requirements; others no longer have access to the doctors or hospitals they were accustomed to; millions spent weeks trying to purchase insurance on the flawed website rolled out by the administration; and many have seen their out-of-pocket health costs or premiums skyrocket.
More failure theater.
The Senate parliamentarian can no more stop an actual “majority leader” than King Canute could command the tide. McConnell could find a new parliamentarian or he could change the rules. This is not brain surgery. The Senate majority is a master of the Senate rules not a hapless bystander. McConnell has no intention of repealing Obamacare. What he will do is suddenly discover that he simply can’t repeal it because of THE RULES and, besides, Obama will veto it anyway so we might as well let him have it.
So we rubes send our money. We give our votes. We watch at the feckless assclowns we elect fail to do anything but keep the train to serfdom running on time. But we are entertained, so I suppose that counts for something.
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