Posted on 11/11/2013 7:44:58 AM PST by Kenny
As President Obama has recognized, his administration’s failure to deliver a functioning Web site that Americans can use to enroll in Obamacare represents an inexcusable error. The Affordable Care Act, which legislates near-universal health insurance, was passed after more than a century of failed efforts to achieve this progressive dream in this country. It is tragic to be falling short on the mundane task of enrolling Americans in health-care exchanges. Even if the goal of getting the health-insurance exchanges working by Nov. 30 is achieved — and objective observers cannot regard this as a certainty — a shadow has been cast on the federal government’s competence.
What can be learned from this episode? It is too soon to know with confidence, but some preliminary judgments are possible.
The dismal track record of the implementation of large-scale information technology initiatives even in rigorous and focused corporate environments points up their difficulty. Unexpected obstacles arise, deadlines are missed and budgets are overrun. Maximizing the prospect of success requires providing for slack in the schedule and the budget, structuring projects with clear accountabilities and frequent checkpoints, and assigning oversight responsibility to people with extensive information technology experience rather than general managers who have programmatic commitments.
Success also requires some trusting but more verifying. A homeowner who hires a general contractor to build an addition, discusses the project and then goes away for six months probably would be unhappy with the result. The same is true for public managers who hire contractors to perform essential tasks but fail to rigorously oversee every step.
Another requisite for success is steadiness and realism in the face of difficulty. Once a project gets off track, there is an overwhelming temptation for everyone involved to circle the wagons and promise rapid repair so as to hold critics at bay.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Like we didn't try to stop them, millions protesting to 'kill the bill', not a single Republican vote, phone calls, emails, floor speeches, etc.
No, liberals, this is your baby and yours alone.
Scott Brown taking the ‘Kennedy seat’ in Massachusetts running against Obamacare didn’t stop them.
Definitely Bushes fault!
Dont let them schnooker us with this website fiasco. The big banana is the government one sized mandates to insurance coverages whereby all this angst is centered and why people are losing their plans. Then the friendly IRS gets you on the back end for not obeying the Dems master plan.
$600 million wasn't enough?
No, the narrative is that the Republicans supported this same plan earlier. It’s unknown why they didn’t pass it when they controlled everything but they wanted it really, really badly.
When Obama was elected, the “extreme” Tea Party forced the Republicans to change their mind and undermine President Obama’s courageous health care plan that all Americans love. All American except the “extreme” and “dangerous” Tea Party members who, incidentally, are racists.
1: Suck up to the adminstration currently in power and you too will have plenty of opportunities for sycophance, if you are really, really good at it.
2: Fail all you want (no better example than Larry Summers) and you might even get about 6 inches away from being appointed head of the Fed.
3: Get into something where there is no accountability whatsoever for failure.
Of course, if you are a wino or a druggie, ObaMaoCare gives you unlimited Carte Blanch coverage at the expense of the rest of us.
There is a stupid ad from a well-known rehab center around here which plays constantly. It shows a nice family frolicking on the lawn with cute young children and the voice over slogan "Chemical dependency can happen to anyone . . . at anytime . . ."
No it can't! Not if you don't put that sh*t in your body or drink in moderation (as I used to do) or not at all (as I do now). Every employer plan subscribed in Pennsylvania must include that coverage by mandate, even in a place where I work which requires drug testing as a condition of employment, a position I support since we're working with and around heavy machinery. It makes no sense to include it in our coverage and force us to subsidize this group.
Other states have even more stupid mandates. What ObaMaoCare has done is to select all the most stupid mandates from everywhere and take them nationwide.
This is what the DemonRATS call "quality health care." This is why premiums have shot up much further in states (mostly GOP leaning) which aren't larded up with these mandates than in those (mostly Democrat leaning) which are.
Trying to “fix” the website is something like trying to change a flat tire on your car while still speeding down the road because you are late for an appointment.
The tire will not be changed and you will not get to the appointment.
Meanwhile, all the other traffic out on the road is put into vastly greater danger.
In the memorable words of Steven Urkel - “Did I do that?”
Caliph Baraq is missing a huge opportunity.
He could follow up his “lost jobs due to ATMs” by hiring a half million clerks (the 2010 census had 635k) to process Obamcare apps. Forget the computers, go with telephones and paper!
Employment stats would be great.
Your opinion on this point is likely to be viewed by future generations who will be able to trace their own hardships and loss of freedom to the Christmas Eve one-Party "enacted programs" called the Affordable Care Act, a misnomer if there ever was one.
Further, Mr. Sommers, the political debate waged by courageous men and women was not about policy. It was about principle.
Some of the Senators from the President's own so-called "progressive" Party, Senators Hagan and Landrieu, also are taking notice.
"The People" of the states, as Hagan calls them, fearing loss of the 2014 election, do deserve better than a government-imposed and taxpayer-funded collaboration between Democrats and insurance companies to come between themselves and their doctors and health care providers!
What the Senators really are saying is that the government must get its coercive "redistribution" mechanism working more efficiently than did the web site!
They know, as do their fellow Democrats, that the youthful victims may begin to see that the hand in their pockets is not their own voluntary charity, but that of the coercive hand of force.
There was, perhaps, an unintended, but telling, remark within the so-called statements of "apology" in the NBC interview this week.
With regard to Democratic "progressives'" intent with the so-called "Affordable" Care Act, the President claimed it was to cause people to choose its provisions:". . . because they want 'em, as opposed to because they're forced into it." - Barack Obama, NBC Interview, 11-07-13
The biggest lie of them all is this telling statement--else, why would there be a "penalty" (uh, a "tax," as Chief Justice Roberts calls it) for failure to participate??
Contrast Obama's statement with the honest wisdom of America's First President:
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like a fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." - George Washington
Youth of America, you were not asked, were you, if you "want" that added expense for insurance you probably will not need for several years? Bet you could use your earnings in those early years for getting your first apartment, your first car, etc., etc. But, no, you are being "forced" to use your hard-earned dollars to pay for other people's assorted unhealthy lifestyles, or the myriad of other "forced" coverages you don't need or want!
"However combinations or associations of [factions] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government - destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." - George Washington
Now, that is what George Washington recognized as the meaning of "subverting"--not the power of government, but that of "the People."
Have they announced the big day when they will anounce the numbers...that should be a fun day...I am sure the numbers will be so screwed up that you can´t understand them...made that way on purpose...
Very well put. I thought Summers would have been a better Fed Head than Yellin but after this sorry-assed excuse of an op-ed piece, I can see that Larry wouldn’t be capable of being a dog-catcher (apologies to all the dog-catchers out there — you perform a very valuable service... much more so than advisers to this current President).
We have to stop calling it Obamacare and start calling it Democratcare.
Summers is one of those complete anomalies, to me. Of no more than average intellect and with a near-perfect track record of failure he has somehow managed to occupy astoundingly powerful positions in government and academia. I really don’t understand it, but there are lots and lots of thing I don’t get.
“a shadow has been cast on the federal government’s competence”
That’s funny, right there.
When was money refused? And when did the GOP say it was under-resourced?
The Democrats got hundreds of millions to do this job and FAILED. The GOP had nothing to do with the failure...it belongs to the Dems and their corruption in handing out gobs of money to people who are completely inept.
Ummmmm... NO.
It is a fortuitous (inescapable?) example of political Hubris-Nemesis.
One that will live forever in the political history of our country. Right up there with The Teapot Scandal, and Boss Tweed...
Never could stop it, the GOPe had a couple votes in the hole. The bill was always going to come to a vote because the GOPe wanted it to.
Big Business will be the big winners in this, not to mention insurance companies that will be able to deny coverage, with out fear, because the government will say they can. Death Panels are real and already in effect in Oregon where terminal patients now have an obligation to die.
Right to die with dignity was never about your rights, it was always about the States right to kill you.
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