Republicans - Delusional or Desperate

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

I could almost believe they are shutting down the government in hopes of reversing the trend and making the economy truly go to pieces again. Whatever happened to government by Executive Order?

[Sandy]

[Neil Heath]

To answer the topic question, I would have to say I suspect it is both/and rather than either/or.

[Dave Roberts]

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

[Haruo]

"iconoclastic" is an odd term to use there; did he know what it meant?

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

The Democrats' fund raising seems to be in pretty high gear. I was at a precinct meeting last week, and the normal approach to reporting on both local and national fundraising efforts was what I would call "muted enthusiasm." Muted because they want to keep the money pouring in, enthisiastic because there is more in the coffers now than there ever has been prior to a mid-term, nationally the figure is 10 times more than prior to the last mid-term, and about three times what the GOP is reporting.

There is also enthusiasm here over the polling, Democrats in PA are going to benefit from the tremendous, widespread unpopularity of the current governor and state legislature. There are about 100,000 college students who have been mobilized as a "get out the vote force" and that, combined with the polling, are showing that there may be as many as 8 house seats that will turn over to the Democrats. Since they only need 17 to turn the house, that's almost half, in just one state.

I believe Nancy Pelosi will get at least one more two year stint as Speaker in the next congress.

[ET]

I think what is delusional or desperate is to believe that folks who can't get a web site to work after three plus years of planning are capable of regulating 1/6th of the U.S. economy to achieve their stated goal of making health care more "affordable".

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

An apolitical observer who eschewed FoxNews and Drudge and received news only from MSM and public sources would likely conclude that the rollout is a debacle. Public radio is certainly no friend of conservatives and they have featured software experts who said that private industry would never set up a system this way and that gummit procurement rules almost predisposes this type of contract and work to be inferior.

Add to that the conclusion reported in most media that states that have set their own systems up have generally fared much better than the one set up by the feds and one has a pretty good comparative measure. The argument that the system was not designed for such volume is rather silly. What idiot would not have understood that this system would be heavily scrutinized from the start? If designers made assumptions that were too low the that in itself is evidence of gummit incompetence.

I heard it reported that one area of success in signing up people was among those who were eligible to be added to the medicaid rolls. That was certainly predictable.

What is delusional is thinking that gummit will have the capability of doing a decent job handling the medical needs of ever how many eventually sign up and the rollout is just the first evidence of this.

I said elsewhere that I will be comparing the insurance costs of Obamacare with Guidestone. I haven't tried the Obamacare online system yet but will do so sometime this month. I don't recall anyone here who has admitted to actual experience with the system, so I may be the first.

I don't think Kathleen Sibelius should resign, BTW. She should be given a trophy for not crawling under a rock somewhere in embarrassment of the rollout debacle. Her name will forever be connected with this mess in the same way that Kathleen Blanco, former governor of Louisiana whose behavior added to that sordid episode is connected with the Katrina fiasco . At least Blanco had Bush to share the blame. Sibelius can hardly blame any Republicans and certainly not the messmaker-in-chief.

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Keith, how much time should they be allowed? And why should they not have been prepared for even greater volume?

[Haruo]

I have medical coverage through my union, hence no real reason (aside from curiosity or a desire to add to the overload) to explore the Exchange. I think I'll wait a couple years before making a judgment on the issues William raises.

[ET]

[ET]

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[James]

I fearfully believe that the Tea Party really wants to bring down the US government and that they will use all possible means to do so. The government shut down was a disaster for the economy taking $25B out of circulation. Another downgrade on the US treasury's credit rating would cost all of us many dollars as it raises interest rates on future loans. That is exactly what the TP wants. Destroy our current government, then rewrite the constitution as a theocratic document based on the Holiness code in Leviticus kill all the decenters. Sarah, Michelle and Ted will rule as God's regents until Jesus comes again.

[William Thornton]

Nice rant.

[Dave Roberts]