Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – R-KY (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 7/21/17
Download
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has never worked a day in his life in the private sector. He has never cashed a non-government paycheck. He began his career as an intern to Sen. John Cooper of Kentucky, was later elected county judge from his home county in Kentucky before winning his Senate seat in 1984, which he has occupied ever since.
In the time that McConnell has been in the Senate, the national debt has gone from $1.6 trillion to $20 trillion, Social Security and Medicare have slipped further into insolvency, the American middle class has shrunk alarmingly and countless American manufacturers have either quit or left the country.
During McConnell’s tenure, an ever-increasing proportion of the population has become dependent on government, American public education has fallen behind that of most of the developed world, the Army, Navy and Air Force have contracted precipitously, the permanent federal bureaucracy has expanded exponentially and American businesses have become among the most over-taxed and over-regulated in the free world.
All of this not to mention that but for massive infusions of subsidy, debt capital and their concomitant interference from the federal government, college and health care have been priced out of the reach of all but the very, very wealthy.
Yet politicians like Mitch McConnell, and those of his ilk (from both sides of the aisle), somehow remain in their jobs. Even though not a dime of actual, bankable long-term national wealth has been created in the United States in something close to 20 years, and even though the congresses of today bear little resemblance to the congresses that helped the nation win World War II, built the interstate highway system and put men on the moon, politicians cut from the same cloth as Mitch McConnell still walk the halls of the Capitol.
At least for now.
In the wake of the Senate’s embarrassing failure to repeal Obamacare, two things seem clear.
First, in the private sector, Mitch McConnell would have been called to the boss’s office Thursday morning and summarily fired for his failure of leadership. In the real world, if you fumble on the order of magnitude that McConnell just did, you lose your job. Only in politics, with its long cycles that permit voter amnesia, does a guy like Mitch McConnell get to stay employed. So McConnell hopes.
Second, Donald Trump’s election wasn’t the fluke that many — including every Democrat and way too many Republicans — would like to believe it was. Voters didn’t so much support Donald Trump as they supported what he stood for. Beyond things like repealing Obamacare, voters saw in Donald Trump the chance to at last bring the bumbling, unaccountable, incompetent and self-serving business-as-usual of Washington D.C. to heel – something that prior presidents have barely even tried.
That desire was intense in 2016 and, given the Senate’s humiliating failure, is even more intense today. Heartland voters are plenty ticked off.
‘Trump the Man’ may or may not last. But ‘Trump the Burning Desire to Fix What’s Wrong’ isn’t going anywhere.
Obamacare is a failure and so is the GOP revisions to it. The problem the GOP majority in congress haven’t figured out yet is that it is impossible to fix healthcare with a federal government program that tries to give everyone a few different choices. I say that because the feds have a blatant history of failure with everything they touch be it the VA, the Post office, the IRS and hundreds of other federal programs. Another problem is balancing cost, healthcare delivery and the number of people you want in the federal program. Basically, you can have any two of those but not all three. All three would mean everybody is covered, all facilities, doctors and treatments that are available without restriction, and cost would be no object. Whatever the government comes up with will necessarily affect one or more of those 3 categories and the population and special interests will be screaming about it. The feds could probably (just barely) manage a one-size-fits-all safety net healthcare program for the poor, but not a program for a wildly different paying population with variable and changing healthcare needs and financial ability to pay. Let the free market run healthcare with full on competition and let the states manage it for themselves. The feds can put together a safety net and try to manage that.
Here is a prime example of WHY we need TERM LIMITS. ALL of congress needs to be reviewed and determined to be worthy of keeping their jobs just as it would be in the private sector. Oh yeah, WE VOTE, but who votes during these cycles? They do their duty and go vote but never bother to look into who is doing the job they were elected to do or just have their snouts at the government trough!!!! Nothing is going to happen to better this country until we get rid of the problem AT THE SOURCE. And that is people like mitch mcconnell and a whole host of others just like him! THEN we can start making America GREAT AGAIN!
Excellent essay Mr. Gleiser.
Government subsidizing of health care is the very cause of the spiraling out of control “pricing” to individual American citizens as ANY incentive by “special interests*” to be saving and efficient in reining themselves in is utterly LOST as they have no reason to do so. They* could care less about getting our country grounded back to the reality of the spirit of our founding which is entrepreneurial American free enterprise free market Capitalism where every dollar and every cent is precious and not to be wasted.
Firstly, the Senate MUST act to REPEAL Obamacare “in toto” and secondly, competition MUST be opened up, WIDE OPEN. The government should only be a safety net to the very few who truly need assistance. It should NOT be the crushing burden it has been allowed to become to the overwhelming majority of taxpayers.
Contrary to former President Obama and his belief in marxism which has as its FAILED legacy is third world “second rate” medicine in EVERY country around the globe wherever it has been tried, amounting to denial & control over who receives care and who does not. Governor Sarah Palin said it rightly, Obama’s way amounts to what she termed as “death panels” as the government not us becomes the decider to “if” we are to receive the care we desire. One only has to look at Britain and the current case of little Charlie Gard.
Bottom line, the government should GET OUT of health care so it can once again FUNCTION as our Founders established this nation in FREEDOM and LIBERTY under GOD. That, is the American way, which President Trump so clearly knows, and he is trying with all his heart to make this vital course correction. The sad state of affairs to which I refer to is known as “the swamp.” I, for one believe he will succeed, because I will be supporting him FOR 4 more years after the current 4 years to get this crucial task accomplished. May God bless President Trump and may God bless The United States of America.
Is Louie any different?
You are on target yet again.
Trump indeed stands for what we stand for, but that’s not the case with Democrats and far too many Republicans, all of whom obviously are working together to insure a Trump failure regardless of the cost to the people. I remain solidly with Trump AND I am getting angrier and angrier with my elected Republican “leaders” who are obviously working to undermine Trump’s goals and MINE. Come the next election, I will remember who stood with Trump and who didn’t, remember with my vote and my dollars going to candidates that WILL support President Trump.
We are hearing a lot about Trump “failing.” Any such failures lie squarely at the foot of the Republican house and senate, people who voted endlessly to kill Obamacare when they knew it couldn’t be done, and now, when it can be done, have decided to keep Obamacare by remaining it Republicancare.
One way to describe what President Trump is trying to accomplish and how his efforts are being blocked is to image a boat, the USS American Economy, with the president at the helm. He’s saying, among other things, “A sail and batteries aren’t enough. Let’s put some gasoline in that Evinrude and we’ll roar ahead.” But the crew–Democrats and Republicans–are instead buys with axes chopping a hole in the bottom of the boat. So when our economic boat sinks, as it was doing under Obama, who is to be blamed for the failure? Pay attention in-it-for-yourself Republicans. We the citizen and voter can figure that one out even if you and the liberal media can’t.