It's Time for Conservatives And the Tea Party to Start Playing Chess

Townhall.com ^ | October 13, 2013 | Derek Hunter

[Kaslin]

The Author has an excellent point. The Tea Party and the Republicans must do as he suggests

[InterceptPoint]

Pretty good analysis. But as to the it’s time to play chess recommendation I’m afraid we are more likely to see this scenario:

Boehner: Let’s play chess
Obama: I’d rather play Tic-Tac-Toe
Boehner: OK, you go first

[Dusty Road]

Chess no, poker yes and it’s time to go all in, we have the cards to win.

[VRW Conspirator]

For Obamacare to implode, the young and healthy need only do nothing, and young people excel at doing nothing.

I am almost convinced.

[adorno]

Just as no car insurance company could survive if only drivers sign up who wrap a car around a telephone pole every week per week

Bad analogy.

A car insurance company is a private organization, and if program or product doesn't work, it's killed. With government, if a program doesn't work, they double down and use other funds from other programs, or the funds are borrowed, or the money is printed, or the program is operated with deficits forever. Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security, are programs that are, basically, broke, yet, they are being operated as if there are no problems. The problems are being pushed into the distant future for our children and grandchildren, and even our great grandchildren to worry about.

Most people already know about the problems that Obamcare comes with, and yet, the majority would still vote for Obama if he were eligible to run for another term. It's not about being realistic and taking care of the problems; with a huge part of the population, it's about what they can get from government for "free", and democrats are great at promising "free things". Who can compete against "free"?

[stevie_d_64]

Funny, I never thought any of this was a game...

The analogy is lame...

The suggestions on how to win this argument are laudible, but I still do not have a lot of confidence in the ability of some of these moderate and elitist republicans to seal the deal...

Since there is really nothing any of us can do but add to the static these knuckleheads up there are receiving...

Part of me says to continue that effort, and the other says to save our energy and memory for what we can do to each and every one of these (proven) feckless wonders and primary them out...

Sounds drastic, unappreciative, anarchistic, but hey, while they are playing games, I believe the American people are not in the mood...

Just my opinion...

[jjsheridan5]

The author keeps pretending like he is some grandmaster at chess, yet nowhere in there does he even address what the next moves would be by the Democrats. He is the one playing checkers, thinking one, very simple move ahead.

Maybe the Democrats are trapped. But if they are the chess players he claims them to be, then they certainly will have thought through the next few moves. But the author simply ignores the possibility.

This is the flaw of the "let them own it" crowd. Once established, it then becomes a matter of fixing it. Unlike the Medicare Catastrophic act he mentioned, once ObamaCare becomes fully implemented, the entire landscape of healthcare will have so fundamentally changed that there wouldn't be a going back. This is not repealable (I hope I am wrong, but having talked to many medical professionals about this, I don't think so).

What options would they have to save ObamaCare? One thing to remember is that the Democrats couldn't care less about debt. In their economic theory, debt is positive, and the actual nominal amount is irrelevant. One way or another, the costs will be pushed into the future. Another thing to remember is that the Democrats have no compunction about crushing small and mid size businesses. One way or another, any non-favored business will also absorb some of the costs. The exact mechanism by which they do this is irrelevant. This legislation is the culmination of 30+ years of political groundwork, and they aren't going to simply abandon it. Who knows, with Yeller at the helm of the Fed, I wouldn't be surprised if the Fed (indirectly) prints the money to indirectly pay the fines of the young uninsured.

Chess is a game involving forward calculation of move/counter-move. It is not a game in which you simply assume that your opponent will fold.

[kneehurts]

So what? Most of the people supported the crown during the 1st war of independence. It is time for the more intelligent to show the majority of morons the way of the constitution.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"The structural flaws of Obamacare are in its conception."

So many people do not have the courage to face the truth. The structual flaws of Obamacare are NOT bugs, they're features. Obamacare was designed to fail, as had been admitted to by Obama himself ahead of time and other Democrats since. Their plan to to impose Obamacare, destroy the private insurance industry and then tell us the evil insurance companies are at fault and the only solution is single-payer (ie total government takeover).

That's the plan, guys.

[Spartan302]

I see an image of skeet shooters all across America yelling “PULL!” and taking aim at tossed chess pieces and boards.
The Muslim Brotherhood has it all mapped out for the takeover of America.

best strategy is actually no strategy, give them nothing to work with.

NUTS

[Jabba the Nutt]

"Democrats’ refusal to delay the individual mandate for a year was an inadvertent gift to Republicans. The system as it is can’t survive. They refused to change it. Now they have to be made to live with it."

This author and all the other "moderate" Republicans, who tell us "do nothing" and Obamacare will collapse on its own are morons, who are incapable of playing checkers.

All Obama has to do it direct the Federal Reserve to print more money and he'll pay it out of the "free money". What government program has ever collapsed, genius'?

[trubolotta]

The chess versus checkers analogy is faulty as is the advice that goes with it. Fighting ObamaCare because of its implementation failures and logical flaws misses the point. It suggests an alternative, such as forcing young people to sign up as a remedy. In other words, it is the details of ObamaCare that are a problem the author faults and not the idea itself.

The plan suggested by the author, The American Health Care Reform Act is just another plan for federal intervention in an area where it has no Constitutional business. For example, why is tort reform a national issue when it rightly belongs in the states. Most of the bullet points concern the federal government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. It is just another GOPe plan to nationalize a problem and offer big government solution.

The author’s mild but gratuitous swipes at the Tea Party are also revealing of a GOPe mentality. One thing Boehner got right, this is no damn game, but the author thinks it is.

[stevie_d_64]

The New York Times once wrote, “Rarely has a government program that promised so much to so many fallen apart so fast.”

Another play on a great quote from across the pond...

“Never have so many owed so much, to so few...”

My addition:

“...who do not desserve it!”

At the end of the day, whatever happens to this gross violation of the public trust (notice I didn’t say Constitution) we deserve all the pain and suffering that will fall upon this country, because there was not enough of us able to make an impact on those we elected to stop nonsense like this...

Every election since 2006 has been a failure for one reason or another, and been said that they are “critical” to staving off the democrat jugernaut...With the exception of 2010, we have managed to put a monkey in the wrench in the form of a few principled sentors and representatives who have been pummeled by both sides of the political spectrum for their insolence, “how dare YOU criticize OUR status in government!!!”...

I find the reactions by King, McCain, McConnell et. al. to be reticent of a mode of political thinking that needs to be purged from its ranks...For those people that still believe those types of elected officials are just their speed...Well, there are plenty more of us that believe those people are just as guilty of continuing this problem as the shmups who are doing their best to make this law (nope, I should not have said that) “TAX” work...

The economy is already strained beyond its capability to sustain, and there are people out there with their heads stuck somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine...

And all of those people need to be ashamed of what they are signing off on by their stubborness...

Again, just my opinion...

[Da Coyote]

Chess?

My hairy Obamahole.

Play Chicago politics.

Make them worry.

About everything.

Anything less is fruitless.

This is war.

[jjsheridan5]

Precisely, it is the framework that they want. It is this framework that they intend to "fix" until it becomes a single-payer system. Any problems will be blamed on the price-gouging, Republican backed insurance industry, and the incremental fixes will enshrine single-payer (Actually, I am not convinced they are going for single-payer; I think their goal might be a national, government run insurance system, with an extremely "progressive" payment model such that the rich, and those not favored politically, get soaked, while the politically connected and the correct voting blocks pay nothing).

Either way, once implemented, much of the work will have been done, by removing any option to go back. From there on out, it is just a matter of figuring out the exact order of fixes to lead to their eventual goal, and the exact method to push costs forward.

You would think a grandmaster chess player would at least address that issue.

[rrrod]

Lets go!

[gingerbread]

I disagree. I believe what we need in Washington, are damned good POKER PLAYERS. Every one knows that these liberals, socialists and communists in Washington, are holding on to a PAIR OF DUECES, while we are holding on to a STRAIT FLUSH, All we need are a few more good poker players on out side, and call these people’s bluff. Does anyone believe that these people would allow a government shut down? If the government shuts down, everything that they introduced in this country for the last 100 years, would be shut down. This they cannot have. Just think? No more EPA, Dept of Education, et all. If the government shuts down, all of these people would be out of a job. Better for all of us.

[jjsheridan5]

Poker is a much better analogy here. They are pushing chips into the pot with an extremely weak hand, and are hoping that we (follow this author’s advice and ...) fold. The pot has now grown into an all-in, and they know that if they get us to fold, they will take everything (virtually unlimited political leverage, through perpetuity).

But their hand is weak. This is the critical moment, right now. ObamaCare is not yet fully functioning. They have not yet created the dependency, nor have they fully dismantled the old system. It is vulnerable.

We are holding top-pair, good-kicker. Against a weak hand, it is more than good enough, but some are holding out hope that we can draw pocket aces the next hand, and win it all then. But our opportunity is now: people are seeing how bad ObamaCare will be, yet it is still defeatable. We won’t get another opportunity like this for generations.

[KarlInOhio]

they can simply pay a small fine. Thousands of dollars next year vs. $95 

Once again the $95 lie. The amount is 1% with a $95 minimum. If you have a minimum wage Obamajob (28 hours per week), your gross pay is $ 10,556. I don't know exactly which line on the 1040 is used for the 1%, but 1% of 10,556 is $105.56 or more than the mythical $95.

[KarlInOhio]

Unfortunately we aren’t the ones at the table. Instead we are acting as the backer for the infamous Ohio Foldy, one of the worst players around.