Friday, November 16, 2012

Presidential Pining + Passive Aggressiveness = Poor Politics

My, my, but Scott Walker has painted himself, and the rest of the state, into a corner.

Walker hard at work on the
healthcare exchanges. No, honestly!
As I wrote in the beginning of the week, Walker's handling of the pending implementation of health care has been just sickening.

First he stops the groundwork that Governor Jim Doyle had laid in preparation for Obamacare.

Walker, for whatever passes for reason in his thick skull, thought that Obamacare was unconstitutional and spent a ton of taxpayer dollars siccing Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on a futile effort to stop it.

But he was, of course, wrong.

But he still refused to work on preparations, figuring that the Kochs would be able to buy the presidency for Mitt Romney the same way they bought his governorship. Then Romney and the Boy Wonder, Paul Ryan, would stop it.

However, a funny thing happened on the way to the White House. The American people woke up and rejected their political extremism, their bigotry and their fiscal suicide pact.

So now, due to his two years of passive aggressiveness, Walker is stuck with a difficult choice that he has to weigh against his own presidential aspirations.

The mature, responsible choice would be to proceed with establishing the healthcare exchanges that are required by the federal government. But since it would have been the mature, responsible thing to do, naturally it was immediately rejected by Walker, despite the urging of some of his biggest supporters, including the Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce.

Besides the fact that doing something constructive like establishing the exchanges being far above Walker's limited intellectual capacity, Walker wasn't about to establish the exchanges because he is afraid of losing the support of his red-meat, foaming-at-the mouth teahadist base.

Another choice would be to follow the urging of the red-meat, foaming-at-the-mouth teahadists and try to nullify Obamacare. But then again, since nullification is unconstitutional and would cost him the votes of every sane American, he couldn't go with that choice either.

Unwilling to do the correct thing and unable to do the wrong thing, Walker falls back on an old but trusted choice - complete abdication of his duties as governor.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is indicating he will not attempt to create a state health care insurance exchange for Wisconsin residents and will instead delegate that chore to the federal government.

To comply with the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, the governors of the states must inform the Obama administration by Friday whether or not they will pursue federal funding to help them establish the exchanges. If they do not wish to form their own exchanges, the federal government will create the exchanges for them.
Interestingly, it appears that he had a plan to implement a version of the healthcare exchange, but like most things he does, it would have been illegal and he's been slapped around enough by the feds for some of his other idiotic stunts, like trying to put caps on Family Care or privatizing the Income Maintenance Program, the he didn't want to have another one hanging around his neck as he gears up his presidential campaign:
At a meeting of the Republican Governors Association Wednesday in Las Vegas,. Walker said in an interview that he would prefer a state-based exchange program, but that he doubted that the federal government would allow him to shape it as he saw fit.
Perhaps his real fear was that Dennis Smith, Walker's Secretary of Health Services, was too busy committing adultery to find a way to bastardize Obamacare enough to make sure it didn't work but just barely legally enough to keep the feds off his back.

Whatever the reason, Walker has wasted another opportunity to finally show himself a leader. Making it an even greater shame is Walker damn well knows that government run health care does work and how it works.

As I noted earlier, Walker is no stranger to abdicating his duties as a leader. As Milwaukee County Executive, he would often refuse to do his job, forcing other, more civic-minded people - usually the Milwaukee County Board - to pick up his slack. In the case of Obamacare, he is abdicating his duty to the federal government.

After Obamacare is successfully implemented by the federal government, Walker will then use weasel speak in such a way that it will make us miss the double talk that came out of the Romney/Ryan campaign.

Would this face lie?
Walker will try to take credit for the success of Obamacare in an effort to win the independent voters. At the same time, he will go to his teahadist base and blame the feds for any slight misperception of failure, claiming that it wasn't his fault because the feds did it.

The mainstream media and the propagandists - but I repeat myself - will unquestioningly repeat Walker's lies as the gospel truth, as they have done for the past umpteen years.

The worst part is that due to his passive aggressiveness and his ideological idiocy, it has already cost Wisconsin taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. With the further abdication of duty, it will cost us even more money and delay the day that the people of Wisconsin will finally have access to affordable healthcare.

Walker's policy of putting politics before people is not the sign of a good, or even a mediocre leader. That's the sign of no leadership skills whatsoever.

20 comments:

  1. Well said; however, this might simply be a ploy by Walker to lure extra federal employees into the state- which would create at least a few jobs to fulfill his laughable 250,000 job promise- so that his new 9-man teahead strike force in the assembly can immediately arrest them. We shall see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You should be happy. Maybe the president will find time away from the golf course to come here and show his true "leadership" by setting it up himself.
    Besides, when it causes the next recession I wont have to hear you blame it on the governor.
    The fact is, the law is flawed, it does not require states to participate in the administration of the law. It will be interesting to see how many other states opt out of setting up exchanges, we should know today.
    I can only hope in years to come as they grub around for more money to pay for this, that they impose a tax on fish fries. But only in the union servers sections! Now that..........would be justice served.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, if the law is flawed as you claim, that's all the more reason for Walker to act, to protect people.

      So, how does it feel to get thrown under the bus? You seem a little bitter.

      Delete
    2. Your telling me you would rather Scott Walker designs your health care plan? Or are you still hoping you won't get thrown into the exchanges? I would think your Democrat leaders have shown they won't hesitate to throw you and your fellow workers under their train.
      Maybe then you would understand the pitfalls of government making your health decisions for you. Seems you are constantly complaining of government actions, but now you want to invite them into your doctors office. I can't understand the logic.

      Delete
    3. So you favor Bill Mcguire making your health care decisions for you?

      Delete
    4. I have said I can't argue the need for reform, but I don't agree this is the best answer. Its like sending money to Bill Madoff and asking him to invest it for you.
      How's that "lockbox" thing working out?

      Delete
    5. That Bill Madoff I tell ya!

      Delete
    6. Damn Government intervention keeps me from doing the reasonable speed of 125 MPH on my way to work.

      Now they want insurance companies to be limited to only taking a certain percent of money from my health misfortunes?

      And now, the Government wants to see certain areas of medical care better streamlined to become more efficient, and the Government wants the industry to do this on their own so the medical industry makes less money?

      It's funny, Republicans bitch about the "arm and a leg" gas prices, but they are just fine with health care costs? So, drill, baby, drill, but not moderate, modernize, streamline, expand?

      Republicans must be a drive-thru party these days? These Republicans can't see beyond their own bank accounts, probably since they're so big.

      Delete
  3. I wish Obamacare included those FEMA detention camps I've been hearing so much about.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chris, you've made it your blogging mission to criticize anything and everything Walker does, yet you expect us to believe you think he can do a better job of implementing Obamacare than Obama himself? Good grief, man.

    Democrats unilaterally took responsibility for “reforming” healthcare, rather than pass the buck they need to follow through and prove their way was the right way to do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, I am glad he chose not to do it, since he is unable to do anything that doesn't benefit himself first.

      But I am glad to see you admit that he cannot do a good job either. Furthermore, by his passing the buck, y'all can't complain. You chose to do nothing, so you can't complain about it.

      Delete
    2. "Actually, I am glad he chose not to do it, since he is unable to do anything that doesn't benefit himself first."

      So why complain about it? You are merely upset that Walker wouldn't be suckered into being responsible for this horribly crafted bit of "reform." He is being asked what is the best way to eat a s#it sandwich. Rather than play along, his response is "I choose not to eat your crap."

      When Obamacare ruins the quality of our healthcare system, we most certainly will complain. As you Lefties are so apt to point out in other contexts, Obama is my President too. You guys rammed this through on the party line, why are you so afraid to own it?

      Delete
    3. No, you chose to do nothing but tantrum. He said he had a plan, but wouldn't do it. This is what you wanted. This is your leader. Enjoy it!

      Delete
  5. Actually, this isn't what I wanted. I wanted bipartisan, common sense solutions to rising healthcare costs. Instead, what we got was a massive tax increase cloaked as "reform" and rammed through Congress on a party-line vote without an ounce of bipartisan collaboration.

    This is your idea of a magical new system, why worry about what Walker does or doesn't do? It's now time to quit whining and prove to the country what a blessing this is. We eagerly await the arrival of Ameritopia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, if it's bipartisanship you wanted, I'd advise you to put your Republicans feet to the fire. They're the ones that refused to work on this. Instead, what we saw is the same behavior you're presenting - tantrums.

      Delete
    2. You don't want bipartisanship, you want capitulation. You remember Obama's "back seat" comment, right? When Obamacare passed, Dems had control of the W.H. and Congress. They preferred to shut the doors (literally) and lock out Republicans.

      Call it a tantrum. Call it whatever you want. You all took unilateral responsibility for this "reform"...a historical fact you apparently want to leave out of the discussion. Your side claims to have the only valid approach to reforming healthcare...prove it.

      Delete
    3. Rol,

      I thought you followed politics? if you did you would know that the republicans were willing participants in crafting Obamacare, from the fact that it is modeled after Romneycare(who im sure you voted for), to the individual mandate that was written by the far right Heritage foundation, To the fact that people like Susan Collins and Chuck Grassley had major input in writting the final draft and yet still voted against. All the way up to it taking 14 months to actually pass.

      i am sure you knew all of that and just try and mislead and muddy the waters because its your party that wont play nice, not the dems!

      Delete
    4. Define "major input". Two Senators equates to bipartisan collaboration? The only thing significant about the 14 month timeframe is after all that time Pelosi still didn't know what was in the bill when she voted to pass it.

      Your response here, Jeff, exemplifies the reason why your side wants some Republican governors to create state-level exchanges. You gotta have that crutch of having someone to blame. You don't want to be held accountable for what Obamacare is about to do to this country.

      Delete
    5. I find humor in your complaints of unilateralism. Not only are they false claims, but you don't mention what your Republicans are doing at the state level and what a failure they are.

      Delete
    6. No committee work where in said committee everyone agrees relates to bipartisan collaboration.

      Pelosi should have never said that, and you are correct i doubt she knew everything in the bill when it passed, I doubt she knows everything in the bill now. Which reminds me of every bill ever passed or voted down by any elected body. Please dont think that the republicans understood ACT10 when they passed that so quickly!

      PS: "My side" wants single payer health care, not a carbon copy of old republican ideas....

      Delete