Eight ways Republicans tried to sabotage Obamacare - and intentionally undermine the law of the land
GOP'S OBAMACARE CONSPIRACY
GOPs Obamacare conspiracy: Sabotage from the inside
Eight ways Republicans tried to sabotage Obamacare -- and intentionally undermine the law of the land
JONATHAN BERNSTEIN
Yes, the Affordable Care Act rollout of the exchanges is a mess and I agree with Brian Beutler and Jonathan Cohn that liberals should be pressing the White House hard to get it fixed, and with Ezra Klein that the ACAs success doesnt depend on spin or solidarity. What matters for the law and for the people who are depending on it is how well it actually works.
So I definitely dont think the president and his administration should be let off the hook for the very real problems that have plagued the program this month.
Nevertheless, its worth noting that whatever their own responsibility for whats gone wrong, the White House shares responsibility with the Republicans who have spent three years actively attempting to undermine the law. Im not talking about repeal votes, which (while silly after a while) were totally legitimate, or about running against the program in subsequent elections, which was again entirely fair. No, Im talking about actions designed usually openly not to make the law work better in their view, but to make it harder for the law to work well.
While some of these had obvious direct effects, most of them did not. And its hard, in most cases, to draw a direct causal line between disruptive actions and specific malfunctions in the Web site. Nevertheless, its hard to believe that any of these actively helped make the program run smoothly, and very easy to believe that the cumulative effect had at least some part to play in the October fiasco. So with all that said, heres a very incomplete set of eight ways that Republicans attempted, perhaps successfully, to undermine the ACA:
Filibustering personnel: In particular, Senate Republicans prevented the confirmation of an Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid until May, 2013. Thats the agency that has the lead in getting things running. The general conventional wisdom, almost certainly true, is that neither an acting director or a recess appointed director has the clout within an agency of a properly nominated and confirmed presidential appointee.
full article:
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/26/gop_shares_blame_for_obamacare_glitches/