The
Obama Drama
The
drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give,
For
we that live to please, must please to live.
Samuel
Johnson (1709-1784), At opening of Drury Lane Theatre
Budget
drama unfolds again, with Obama at center stage.
Susan
Page, USA Today, September 22, 2013
The Obamacare budget is becoming sheer political
theatre as two deadlines approach.
The first
deadline is October 1 when the government
will shut down if Congress can’t agree on a stopgap spending limit.
The second deadline occurs in mid-October when the government
hits its borrowing limit.
The GOP set the stage for the drama with two
bills: 1. Passing a bill funding government
but defunding Obamacare; 2. Proposing to delay ObamaCare implementation for one year in exchange for a
one year extension of budget limit.
Here is what the theatre playbill’s main actors have
to say before the curtain opens.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, "Our message to the United
States Senate is real simple: The American people don't want the government
shut down, and they don't want Obamacare."Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., "So in case there's any shred of doubt in the minds of our House counterparts, I want to be absolutely crystal clear: Any bill that defunds Obamacare is dead, dead."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaking on "I think Senate Republicans are going to stand side by side with Speaker Boehner and House Republicans, listening to the people and stopping this train wreck that is Obamacare."
President Obama, "Let me say as clearly as I can: It is not going to happen. ... We're not going to allow anyone to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people just to make an ideological point."
President Obama, the play’s chief producer, director, and promoter, holds the keys to the play’s success or failure. By refusing to negotiate with the theatre guild, and threatening to veto any budget that doesn’t fit his personal script, he is putting the country at risk of a government shutdown.
President Obama sees the play as all about him, not his policies or governance style, but about personal vendettas. It is not about the play being jammed through without being read by others. It is not about its economic impacts, about people losing their jobs, or insurance, or doctors, or being shifted to part-time work, or damage to the economy, or impending and predictable software failures, or widespread fraud because of not documenting eligibility, or being deeply unpopular with out-of-town audiences in its trial runs. It’s about Republicans “messing with me.”
The President might be better off compromising, negotiating, collaborating, or delaying implementation rather than running the risk of a shutdown before the main performance even begins or a collapse down the line requiring multiple rewrites.
Tweet: ObamaCare drama over a government shutdown moves center stage in October with the President sayings he refuses to negotiate or compromise.
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