‘Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste’
That statement by then White House Chief of Staff and now floundering (sorry I just couldn’t resist that) mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel, one of the true bully boys of the Democrat Left, is seldom quoted in its entirety and that’s a shame because the wisdom of it is in the follow-on:
“What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things that you thought you could not do before.”
And there, with that concise bit of political wisdom, Comrade Rahm has quite precisely handed the Republican Party the strategy to controlling all the keys to the Capitol after November 2014.
With many scandals to choose from: Fast & Furious, Benghazi, IRS, and now this latest, the VA debacle, it would seem that Republican officeholders and candidates would have a cafeteria style selection of means with which to attack their Democrat opponents. That would be a mistake.
In the coming mid-term elections, the Democrats greatest weakness is the ill-planned and not thought through health care legislation which no Republican should ever identify as the Affordable Care Act. It is OBAMACARE, first, last and always. He went to great lengths to make this statutory albatross take wing, so let him bear this fallen bird upon his shoulders to his grave. He and Democrat leaders crammed it down America’s throat, now let him and every Democrat, who in blind party loyalty and against the better interests of his/her constituents, voted for this atrocious legislative abomination, choke on that vote in the coming elections.
The Democrats’ one defensive position is to claim that they are trying to help the little guy, the uninsured, the worthy vulnerable among us. And therein lies the trap; for who among us is any more worthy than our veterans, many of whom, if not most, come from “little guy” backgrounds, and who have selflessly served on their nation’s behalf? And as soon as any Republican challenger brings this veteran’s issue into the discussion, this failing federal medical system becomes a live grenade for the Democrat, this federal bureaucracy that has demonstrably failed our most worthy warriors since its inception. And the consequences of that failure have recently magnified under an Obama administration that would subject the entire American populace to a similar, bureaucratic, union-protected, under-performing medical model that guarantees American citizens dying before their time, all due to federal, institutional constipation.
Following Rahm Emmanuel’s dictum, every Republican candidate in America should demand of his Democrat opponent a clear statement as to that Democrat’s position on Obamacare. Should a Democrat foolishly attempt to defend that legislative abomination and the folly it is producing, then the Republican is presented with a truly gotcha moment:
“So, you’re saying the American people deserve a health care system just like the Veterans Administration?”
Never let a good crisis go to waste…
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Health Care debate, Veteran Health Care
The rallying cry for all Republicans up for reelection that were around when Obutthole Care was crammed up our collective asses should be “I voted AGAINST Obamacare before I voted TO REPEAL IT!”
Poetrooper…thank you and well said. If I added anything, it would only detract from your fine words.
I Forget where I read this but “The Lone Survivor”, Marcus Luttrell, on another web site, said a simple solution to the VA problem was to make all politicians use the VA system. It would be fixed in an instant.
I concur. BZ
DITTO!
Roger that.
While that is a fantastic idea, the reality of it would be counterproductive.
Any congressman or senator who called for an appointment would end up bumping any and every veteran, regardless of their critical status or priority of issue. They’d walk thru the door and everyone would jump to attention and act like they were working their best.
Then those same congressional members would go back to their office and say “hey, the VA works great, everything must be fixed now.”
How do I know? Ever watch a Colonel or General walk into an army hospital looking for care? Or walk into finance asking to fix an issue? Or walk into any service support activity to get a response to their issue?
Leaders won’t see the same picture often times as the private who’s asking for help with the same issue.
Eric, that’s already happened. As a test of the system Rep. Tammy Duckworth tried to make a VA appointment last year. She wanted to note how long she was on hold and how long until she got an appointment. The VA system already has her flagged as a VIP because she’s in Congress and they hooked her up.
It still amazes me that having had health care reform on their agenda for at least what? thirty years, the best they could do when given the chance was this abomination. Thirty years and nothing ready, nothing thought out and it was on top of the to do list. Clueless idiots is too kind a description!
We probably shouldn’t be surprised-a giraffe is a horse designed by a committee.
I’m inclined to believe that activists will portray negative aspects of normal society as a crisis so that eventually there is a cry of “do something”. At which point some bureaucrat or officeholder comes up with some half baked plan and declares “this is something, let’s do this”.
Whether it fixes the problem or not is largely irrelevant to either the activist (who is interested in activism more than problem solving, actually if the problem is solved what is the point of continued activism) or the politician-until his cushy elected job is threatened. And even then if he can get another job-say as a deputy undersecretary somewhere-he can live with that. Why he won’t even have to stand for any more pesky elections.
What irritates me as that, for example, Senator Bernie Sanders wouldn’t push thru the Senate a 3 PAGE bill helping vets because he “hadn’t read it yet” but the same fuckstick voted YES on Obamacare, an 8000 page bill that none of them read.
I doubt they even read 8 pages of it, but were in such a rush to “to something” and push it thru while they had both houses and the white house.
Still waiting for 536 elected officials and their lackeys / minions in DC to be fired. We might as well start all over again at this rate.
To be fair it was not 30 years. It was over 100 years. Just shows how deep their incompetence really is.
Poetrooper – excellent post. Passed link to friends!
The RINOs in office will not get rid of Obummercare – that is because they would be portrayed as taking something away from people – something that would be mature to do- they would rather give them something different or new to show they “did” something.
This guy sucks.
Just a slight change of focus here, but I seem to remember someone on this here blog quoting a statistic on the percentage of Iraq / Afghanistan veterans and their “strain” / use of VA hospitals.
I seem to remember the numbers of 4% and 7% but for the life of me, cannot find the reference or the citation.
Can anyone help me with that?
Thanks.
Pelosi tried claiming the other day that this was all the Bush administration’s fault for starting the wars and inundating the system with 2 million new patients. Aside from her once again absolving Congress and her role as Speaker for any wrongdoing, the simple math doesn’t pan out. There haven’t been 2 million participants in OIF and OEF to “strain” the system. There are still plenty of pre-9/11 veterans out there in the system. You don’t have to have been in a war to be treated by the VA.
And in other Emmanuel news, as a condition of letting gun stores into Chicago he wants huge restrictions, including video-taping every gun transactions.
And the Democrats are tagging gun-control provisions onto their budget recommendations… you know, to atone for all those knife and car victims in CA.
When politicians video-tape every meeting they have with a lobbyist, special interest group, official meeting, etc etc., then they can start doing video-taping of gun transactions, maybe.
Politics kills far more people in the US than any gun, car, knife, or cigarette.
As a consumer of VA services I can’t really say anything bad about the VA system, at least the one in Milwaukee.
They saved my life 3 times and the last time I was in for severe heart failure, they went above and beyond the call of duty and saved my soul too.
I was literally a broken man when I got that diagnosis, placed #6 on the Wisconsin heart transplant waiting list and had no idea WTF I was going to do or if I would even survive. The VA brought me back to Earth and stuck with me through the first initial months when I needed the help the most.
My Nurse Practitioner at the Milwaukee VA sat and listened to me for an hour every time I saw her which was once a week at the outset. I tried to talk her into divorcing her husband but she wouldn’t… Damn… She is a beautiful lady too !!!
I don’t think that every person in the VA is bad but that some are and are bringing down the others, the old one bad apple routine.
Again, after extensive experience with the VA I am so glad they are there I just cannot put it into words. It has been one hell of a ride since then too… Unbelievable ride at that…
They saved me in every way that a soul can be saved. Many thanks to the Milwaukee VA system and all that work there. Angels work there, bonafide Angels.
Remember, every time you go in there that everybody you see there has worked for the right to be there.
Where ever Emanuel goes you are sure to have several serious crisis
I think Chicago was already the murder capital of the US when he got there, but its not getting any better.
But Rahm is moving illegals to the front of the line, when it comes to city jobs and internships. Must be none of the legal residents of Chicago want to do those jobs.