Yep, Gov't Is Broken
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
The working question driving the series is, "Is our political system broken?" My initial, considered and continuing response to that questions is, "Well, duh."
You needn't look any further than this week's "health care summit" for evidence of exactly how broken our political system has become.
It's pretty simple, really. Surveys say 75 percent of the people in America don't want President Obama's giant health care plan to pass. At the same time, 55 percent say the health care system needs work.
So what do you suppose President Obama does? Under the guise of listening to Republican ideas, he hosts this useless summit.
Everybody is civil and gets to talk, but the likely end result will be that President Obama and the Democrats will try to ram through the giant health care plan even though they know the vast majority of Americans don't want it.
But all of this is counterintuitive nonsense because the Democrats have huge majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. If they wanted to pass the giant health care bill they could. The Republicans can't stop them. No, literally. The Democrats have the votes. The Republicans are powerless to stop them from passing the giant health care plan.
So why don't the Democrats pass the giant health care bill?
Well, that's because they know how unpopular - insert "Tea Party" here - and over-reaching the bill is and they fear that if they vote for it they might not get re-elected this coming November.
But, of course, this doesn't stop them from blaming the Republicans for being obstructionists and standing in their way.
Let's be honest, it's not the Republicans who are standing in their way - it's the American people. And as much as President Obama wants to have his signature giant health care bill passed, I can virtually guarantee it won't pass.
It might pass the Senate if they do the "nuclear option" of budget reconciliation. The Democrats have the 51 votes they need in the Senate.
But the House? No way.
One may remember the last time there was a health care bill vote in the House. It was back in November and the tally was 220-215. The magic number to pass under budget reconciliation is 218. Do you suppose the Democrats might have lost three or four votes since then?
Oh yeah, they have.
They barely got it through the first time and that was without the stigma of the "nuclear option." And it was before Republican candidate Scott Brown won Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. And at that time the giant health care bill was polling the in the 50-percent range of approval - not the current 25 percent.
So yeah, the Democrats are blaming the Republicans for stopping legislation that they don't have the guts to pass themselves.
Now, how much more broken can a political system be?
Especially when you consider this giant health care bill debate has gobbled up almost all of our lawmakers time and effort over the past year.
This at a time when the vast majority of Americans - you know, the people they were elected to represent - don't even list health care as a priority for them.
Here are some results from a January poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R).
"Let me list some issues that have been proposed for the federal government to address. Please tell me which one of these items you think should be the top priority for the federal government."
Job creation and economic growth - 38%
National security and terrorism - 17%
The deficit and spending - 13%
Health care - 12%
Iraq and Afghan wars - 10%
Energy and the cost of gas - 4%
Social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage - 3%
Funny thing. The same outfit ran a poll asking the same questions last November and health care was in second place at 21 percent.
Here's another open-ended poll by CBS News/New York Times earlier this month.
"What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?"
Economy/Jobs - 52
Health care - 13
Budget deficit/National debt - 4
War/Iraq/Afghan - 3
Big gov't/Bureaucracy - 3
Defense/Military - 2
Other - 19
Unsure - 4
Come on. Health care is polling 6 points behind "other" for cryin' in the rain.
And I would bet you a paycheck that if politicians hadn't been harping on it continually for more than a year it wouldn't even be on the radar.
Meanwhile, the thing that everybody is really concerned about, jobs and the economy, gets the short straw.
From the Associated Press on Friday:
The signs aren't hopeful. Consumer confidence took an unexpected dive in February. Unemployment stands at 9.7 percent. Home foreclosures are at record highs. And many Americans are still having trouble getting loans.
Against that backdrop, the economy's growth is probably slowing in the current January-to-March quarter. Forecasters at the National Association for Business Economics predict the economy will expand at a 3 percent pace in the first quarter of this year. The next two quarters should log similar growth, they predict.
In normal times, such growth would be considered respectable. But the nation is emerging from the worst recession since the 1930s. Sizzling growth in the 5 percent range would be needed for an entire year to drive down the unemployment rate, now 9.7 percent, by just 1 percentage point.[[In-content Ad]]For all of this year, the economy is expected to grow 3.1 percent, according to the NABE forecasters. Though modest, that pace would mark a big improvement from 2009, when the economy contracted by 2.4 percent - the worst showing since 1946.
As government stimulus wanes and Federal Reserve economic-support programs end, the economy - especially the fragile housing market - could suffer. Economists say the odds of the economy sliding back into a recession this year are low, but they won't rule it out.
Our venerable leaders' answer? Focus on passage of a massive new budget-busting government entitlement program.
Broken government?
You bet.
The working question driving the series is, "Is our political system broken?" My initial, considered and continuing response to that questions is, "Well, duh."
You needn't look any further than this week's "health care summit" for evidence of exactly how broken our political system has become.
It's pretty simple, really. Surveys say 75 percent of the people in America don't want President Obama's giant health care plan to pass. At the same time, 55 percent say the health care system needs work.
So what do you suppose President Obama does? Under the guise of listening to Republican ideas, he hosts this useless summit.
Everybody is civil and gets to talk, but the likely end result will be that President Obama and the Democrats will try to ram through the giant health care plan even though they know the vast majority of Americans don't want it.
But all of this is counterintuitive nonsense because the Democrats have huge majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. If they wanted to pass the giant health care bill they could. The Republicans can't stop them. No, literally. The Democrats have the votes. The Republicans are powerless to stop them from passing the giant health care plan.
So why don't the Democrats pass the giant health care bill?
Well, that's because they know how unpopular - insert "Tea Party" here - and over-reaching the bill is and they fear that if they vote for it they might not get re-elected this coming November.
But, of course, this doesn't stop them from blaming the Republicans for being obstructionists and standing in their way.
Let's be honest, it's not the Republicans who are standing in their way - it's the American people. And as much as President Obama wants to have his signature giant health care bill passed, I can virtually guarantee it won't pass.
It might pass the Senate if they do the "nuclear option" of budget reconciliation. The Democrats have the 51 votes they need in the Senate.
But the House? No way.
One may remember the last time there was a health care bill vote in the House. It was back in November and the tally was 220-215. The magic number to pass under budget reconciliation is 218. Do you suppose the Democrats might have lost three or four votes since then?
Oh yeah, they have.
They barely got it through the first time and that was without the stigma of the "nuclear option." And it was before Republican candidate Scott Brown won Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. And at that time the giant health care bill was polling the in the 50-percent range of approval - not the current 25 percent.
So yeah, the Democrats are blaming the Republicans for stopping legislation that they don't have the guts to pass themselves.
Now, how much more broken can a political system be?
Especially when you consider this giant health care bill debate has gobbled up almost all of our lawmakers time and effort over the past year.
This at a time when the vast majority of Americans - you know, the people they were elected to represent - don't even list health care as a priority for them.
Here are some results from a January poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R).
"Let me list some issues that have been proposed for the federal government to address. Please tell me which one of these items you think should be the top priority for the federal government."
Job creation and economic growth - 38%
National security and terrorism - 17%
The deficit and spending - 13%
Health care - 12%
Iraq and Afghan wars - 10%
Energy and the cost of gas - 4%
Social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage - 3%
Funny thing. The same outfit ran a poll asking the same questions last November and health care was in second place at 21 percent.
Here's another open-ended poll by CBS News/New York Times earlier this month.
"What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?"
Economy/Jobs - 52
Health care - 13
Budget deficit/National debt - 4
War/Iraq/Afghan - 3
Big gov't/Bureaucracy - 3
Defense/Military - 2
Other - 19
Unsure - 4
Come on. Health care is polling 6 points behind "other" for cryin' in the rain.
And I would bet you a paycheck that if politicians hadn't been harping on it continually for more than a year it wouldn't even be on the radar.
Meanwhile, the thing that everybody is really concerned about, jobs and the economy, gets the short straw.
From the Associated Press on Friday:
The signs aren't hopeful. Consumer confidence took an unexpected dive in February. Unemployment stands at 9.7 percent. Home foreclosures are at record highs. And many Americans are still having trouble getting loans.
Against that backdrop, the economy's growth is probably slowing in the current January-to-March quarter. Forecasters at the National Association for Business Economics predict the economy will expand at a 3 percent pace in the first quarter of this year. The next two quarters should log similar growth, they predict.
In normal times, such growth would be considered respectable. But the nation is emerging from the worst recession since the 1930s. Sizzling growth in the 5 percent range would be needed for an entire year to drive down the unemployment rate, now 9.7 percent, by just 1 percentage point.[[In-content Ad]]For all of this year, the economy is expected to grow 3.1 percent, according to the NABE forecasters. Though modest, that pace would mark a big improvement from 2009, when the economy contracted by 2.4 percent - the worst showing since 1946.
As government stimulus wanes and Federal Reserve economic-support programs end, the economy - especially the fragile housing market - could suffer. Economists say the odds of the economy sliding back into a recession this year are low, but they won't rule it out.
Our venerable leaders' answer? Focus on passage of a massive new budget-busting government entitlement program.
Broken government?
You bet.
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