George Mitrovich - San Diego civic leader
– “'Fumble?' Did You Say 'Fumble,' Mr. President?”
The roll out of President Obama's health
care act was a major screw-up and when the president described it at a press
conference as a "fumble", he insulted our intelligence.
There are people who hate Barack Obama;
who hate his black skin; who hate that he is president -- and have hated him
from the day he was elected and have never stopped hating him. I am not one of
those people.
I love Barack Obama; love his story
because it is such a great American story; love that he was elected in '08 and
reelected in '12 -- and love he is our first black president.
But because I love the president does not
mean I have taken leave of my critical faculties. I have not.
Some readers may recall my critique of
the president-elect when he announced in early January of '09 his choice of
economic advisors -- Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, and Ben Bernanke. I wrote
they would continue the Reagan/Clinton/Bush economic policies; policies
responsible for the ever increasing wealth divide in America; a divide now so
vast our democracy is at risk -- and one the Obama administration barely
acknowledges.
However, the screw-up on health care
began before Mr. Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.
It happened when Tom Daschle, the
president-elect's choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),
withdrew his nomination because he failed to report that when he left the
Senate to work in the private sector he had a car and driver. Really? Really.
The mistake Senator Daschle made was telling Max Baucus, the faux Democrat from
Montana, about his "problem" and not the White House.
Why was that a mistake? because Max
Baucus is not Tom Daschle's friend and Baucus went immediately to the press
with the former Senate leader's "problem", and that was that. But had
Senator Daschle informed the White House about the issue, his nomination would
have been saved.
How do I know? because someone of
unimpeachable standing in the White House told me what happened, saying Senator
Daschle had been an "idiot" for going to Baucus and not telling the
president.
This is relevant because had Tom Daschle
been HHS secretary, rather than Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, there would not
have been a screw-up on health care, because the health care bill we have would
have been a different health care bill, one closer to Medicare -- and therefore
defensible. (You do know, right? that Medicare actually works, that its
administrative costs are four percent vs. the 18-25 in the private sector;
proving government can get it right -- sometimes.)
That said, it was totally necessary for
the president to step up and accept responsibility for what happened to the
signature legislative piece of his presidency, because the buck stops at his
desk in the Oval office (Mr. Truman's sign is still there), but the idea he
somehow micro-managed the roll out of the bill is just stupid; no, seriously
stupid, coming from people who are inexcusably ignorant of the workings of
government.
The president of the United States is
president. He is not God. He is not omniscient. He does not know the beginning
and end of all things. And, while he knows a lot he only knows what he knows
and what he's told and he wasn't told he had disaster on his hands until you
knew it and I knew it and the Republicans knew it and that was that; but the
Republicans being Republicans immediately called a prayer meeting to thank God
for this exceedingly generous political gift -- the better to keep control of
the House and maybe even win the Senate in '14.
However, listening to Republicans, like
John Boehner in the House or Mitch McConnell in the Senate, you would believe
President Obama is totally responsible for each and every misstep made in the
evolution of the health care bill. Sorry he's not. But in the assignment of
blame, truth telling on either side of the political divide is frequently of
secondary importance -- especially with the gentlemen from Ohio and Kentucky.
Having read an in-depth report on how the
wheels came off on the rolling out of the health care wagon, the assignment of
blame begins with decisions made in the White House by members of the
president's staff, and subsequently at HHS. (The Medicare employees, who was
given the responsibility of overseeing it, as determined by White House staff,
had no previous experience in such a monumental task.)
Someone should have realized that if you
contract with 57 companies -- that would be 57 private-sector companies- - to
create and administer the health care roll out and website, the chances are 57
ways it could go wrong -- and, it appears, 57 ways it did go wrong.
So, do I blame the president or not?
I do blame the president. He is in
charge, and as Colin Powell said about another major government screw-up of far
greater consequences, Bush 43 and the war in Iraq, "If you break it you
own it." And President Obama owns the health care roll out story -- and it
is presently broken.
But "presently broken" are the
key words, because this is not the end of the story. In actual fact it is
working in Kentucky and here at home, in California, and in due time if will
work in other places; once Republican governors, as in a majority of Republican
governors, get out of the way and let the millions of people without health
insurance in their states sign up - because they need health insurance!
But all of that notwithstanding, my
closing point is this -- you do not defend the indefensible.
Someone please tell the president.
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