Daniel Henninger: Let ObamaCare Collapse

[Valin]

WSJ

Daniel Henninger

9/26/13

 

What the GOP's Defund-ObamaCare Caucus is failing to see is that ObamaCare is no longer just ObamaCare. It is about something that is beyond the reach of a congressional vote.

 

As its Oct. 1 implementation date arrives, ObamaCare is the biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on its foundational beliefs. This thing called "ObamaCare" carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams of the entitlement state. The chance is at hand to let its political underpinnings collapse, perhaps permanently.

 

If ObamaCare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the American people. It will finally be vulnerable to challenge and fundamental change. But no mere congressional vote can achieve that. Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.

 

(snip)

 

Republicans and conservatives, instead of tilting at the defunding windmill, should be working now to present the American people with the policy ideas that will emerge inevitably when ObamaCare's declines. The system of private insurance exchanges being adopted by the likes of Walgreens suggests a parallel alternative to ObamaCare may be happening already.

 

(Snip)

[SrWoodchuck]

Amazing how the Oblundercare fiasco came about:

 

Revealed: Obama came up with ObamaCare because he needed a throwaway applause line in a campaign speech http://hotair.com/archives/2013/09/23/revealed-obama-came-up-with-obamacare-because-he-needed-a-throwaway-applause-line-in-a-campaign-speech/

 

Knowing what you know about him, if you had to guess the genesis of his biggest domestic legislative initiative, which would you guess? That he spent years studying the issue, consumed by the intricacies of health-care policy and determined to make a difference if ever placed in a position to do so? Or that he needed a killer line for one of his speeches and couldn’t let pass a golden opportunity to grandstand? QED. Even the transformation of American health care is but a subplot to Hopenchange image-making.

 

Soon-to-be-candidate Obama, then an Illinois senator, was thinking about turning down an invitation to speak at a big health care conference sponsored by the progressive group Families USA [in January 2007], when two aides, Robert Gibbs and Jon Favreau, hit on an idea that would make him appear more prepared and committed than he actually was at the moment.

 

Why not just announce his intention to pass universal health care by the end of his first term?…

 

“We needed something to say,” recalled one of the advisers involved in the discussion. “I can’t tell you how little thought was given to that thought other than it sounded good. So they just kind of hatched it on their own. It just happened. It wasn’t like a deep strategic conversation.”…

 

The candidate jumped at it. He probably wasn’t going to get elected anyway, the team concluded. Why not go big?

 

 

[Valin]

We needed something to say, recalled one of the advisers involved in the discussion. I cant tell you how little thought was given to that thought other than it sounded good. So they just kind of hatched it on their own. It just happened. It wasnt like a deep strategic conversation.

Well this pretty much sums up the entire Obama program. The need to say something, and the lack of thought.

[Casino67]

As has been said elsewhere, the collapse of OCare will just bring on cries for single-payer healthcare. Seems as though that may have been their motive all along. That makes the mid-term elections critical if we are to prevent it. Taking the Senate is critical.