Posted on 09/24/2013 7:47:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This has been the worst time, politically, for President Barack Obama since he took office. Recent polls reveal that public confidence in both his domestic and foreign policies has been falling amid revelations about their defects and dangers. Even people who once supported and defended him have now turned against him.
There have even been rumblings against Barack Obama in the Congressional Black Caucus and among labor unions that were a major factor in helping him get elected and reelected.
Two of President Obama’s own former Secretaries of Defense have publicly criticized his gross mishandling of the Syria crisis, which has emboldened America’s enemies and undermined our allies around the world.
As Obamacare continues to go into effect, step by step, its high costs and dire consequences for jobs have become ever more visible — as have the lies that Obama blithely told about its costs and consequences when it was rushed into law too fast for anyone to see that it would become a “train wreck,” as one of its initial Democratic supporters in the Senate has since called it.
As more and more revelations have come to light about the cynical and dangerous misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to harass and sabotage conservative political groups, the lies that the Obama administration initially told about this, as part of the cover-up, have also been exposed.
So have the lies told about what happened in Benghazi when four Americans were killed last year. Their killers remain at large, though they are known and are even giving media interviews in Libya.
With Congressional investigations still going on, and turning up more and more revelations about multiple Obama administration scandals, the political problems of this administration seem to loom ahead as far out as the eye can see.
What could possibly rescue Barack Obama from all these political problems and create a distraction that takes all his scandals off the front page? Only one thing: the Republicans.
By making a futile and foredoomed attempt to defund Obamacare, Congressional Republicans have created the distraction that Obama so much needs. Already media attention has shifted to the possibility of a government shutdown.
Politically, it doesn’t matter that the Republicans are not really trying to shut down the government. What matters is that this distraction solves Barack Obama’s political problems that he could not possibly have solved by himself.
Should Obamacare be defunded? Absolutely. It is an economic disaster and will be a medical disaster, as well as destroying the Constitution’s protections of American citizens from the unbridled power of the federal government.
For that matter, President Obama deserves to be impeached for arbitrarily waiving laws he doesn’t like, in defiance of his oath of office and the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Chief Justice John Roberts also deserves to be impeached for his decision upholding Obamacare, by allowing the government’s taxing power to override all the Constitution’s other provisions protecting American citizens from the arbitrary powers of government.
But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach either President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts, it makes no sense to attempt to defund Obamacare. That reason is that it cannot be done. The world is full of things that ought to be done but cannot in fact be done.
The time, effort, and credibility that Republicans are investing in trying to defund Obamacare is a high-risk, low-yield investment.
Even if, by some miracle, the Republicans managed to get the Senate to go along with defunding Obamacare, President Obama can simply veto the bill.
There is a United States of America today only because George Washington understood that his army was not able to fight the British troops everywhere, but had to choose carefully when and where to fight. Futile symbolic confrontations were a luxury that could not be afforded then and cannot be afforded now.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Respectfully disagree, sir. This is a fight worth having.
What action, or actions, does Dr. Sowell espouse under the circumstances?
This is the only sentence worth considering. Adding a 'but' afterwards makes NO sense.
We abolished the federal Prohibition law. I fail to see why we cannot undo Obamacare if we really want to
we cannot undo Obamacare because we do not make the laws, we are the ones who must abide by the laws.
We vote for the ones who make the laws, and they count the votes.
Ergo, we decide nothing.
Call witnesses from Benghazi apparently.
We can not defend against every Obama attack of incoming alone and with NO leadership, so when we have one leader emerge, with one missile, over one target at a time, we can try and blow hell out of it, one day at a time.
And, never give up.
0bamacare IS a scandal because it’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Clinton got impeached for lying.
Obama is way past a DNA-soaked little blue dress.
Dr. Sowell seems to be recommending that we, in the words of “The Patriot”, “Aim small, miss small”. Use your rhetorical ammunition wisely. To the extent that the head elephants have ANY credibility left and ANY desire to do more than simply get re-elected, they would follow Sun Tzu’s advice and hit the administration where it is weakest, not in a place where its core admirers will never be shifted. It is a matter of leveraging your resources. I have yet to find a Leftist that can defend Benghazi-gate or IRS-gate or (pick your favorite scandle) for more than two simple questions. Once the wall is breached, never give up. Don’t give them any easy outs.
OH-OH, heads down incoming
Obamacare is the biggest scandal of them all Mr. Sowell!
Are you communist now, or, shall we just board the trains willingly next, or whut? Go demoralize somewhere else in your urban kook parlor.
For better or worse the republicans have decided to go forward with it. Time to stop carping and either support them or shut up.
The most important fact is that there's no telling what the consequences of Cruz's rebellion will be. He has touched on something that is finally beginning to unite the country against the real bad guys, the permanent political class of both parties. These self-dealing operators have made themselves visible by their recklessness and arrogance, and their game is being exposed to millions who never noticed it before.
The rebellion is just beginning, and the people finally have some champions to rally around. May there be many more springing up in the months ahead.
Thomas Sowell has joined the chorus of those opposed to the only viable battle plan and has suggested no other battle plan to take it's place.
The only weapon we have to stop this offensive is the power of the purse. Sowell is arguing that we should not use the weapons at our disposal, yet he has offered no alternative.
This is the stupidest article ever penned by a man I had previously considered a genius.
You are ruining my ‘we can do it if we believe’ Karma, dude.
Think of the little ant that carries many times his own weight.
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