The View From the UK Elite: Obama Can't Give In

[Benton D Struckcheon]

Last edited Wed Oct 2, 2013, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

From a column in today's Financial Times, by Martin Wolf

America flirts with self-destruction

Is the US a functioning democracy? This week legislators decided to shut down a swath of the federal government rather than allow an enacted health law go into operation at the agreed moment. They may go further; if they do not vote to raise the so-called “debt ceiling”, they risk triggering default on US government debt – a fate far worse than the shutdown or fiscal sequestration. If the opposition is prepared to inflict such damage on their own country, the restraint that makes democracy work has gone. Why has this happened? What might be the result? What should the president do?

The first question is the most perplexing. The Republicans are doing all of this in order to impede a modest improvement in the worst healthcare system of any high-income country. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as “Obamacare”) is modelled on one introduced in 2006 in Massachusetts by then governor Mitt Romney. Its apparently criminal aims are to cover 32m uninsured people and ensure coverage of those with pre-existing conditions. True, the programme is complex. But it builds on a defective system. That most working people get insurance through their employers is an obstacle to labour market flexibility since it complicates decisions about leaving a job, particularly for people with chronic medical conditions. It is a form of serfdom.

…

In a democracy, people overturn laws by winning elections, not by threatening the closure of government or even an outright default. It is impossible to run the government of a serious country under blackmail threats of this kind. Every time the administration gives in, it stores up more difficulty for itself. It has to stop doing so.

Edited to add:

They also published an editorial today on this. So, from the FT's editor:

The most shameful aspect of the Tea Party’s belligerence is its betrayal of the American values it claims to represent. Healthcare reform is enshrined in US law. The president who was its main champion has since been re-elected. More than 40 attempts to repeal the law have failed because Republicans do not control the constitutional levers that would enable them to succeed. Mr Obama is right to insist that “one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government” cannot, in a democracy, be allowed to change the law against the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.
If the Tea Party’s actions have been unprincipled, a short government shutdown is at least unlikely to do much harm. Yet worse is to come. The US Treasury is forbidden by law from borrowing more than $16.7tn, a ceiling it expects to reach in a little over two weeks.
...
Mr Obama should stand firm. Yet if the Tea Party sticks to its guns, the risks are huge. Failure to reach agreement could not only cripple the US government but trigger a technical default on its debts, which would unsettle the global financial system. If brinkmanship in Congress results in market turmoil, the disruption to the international financial order fashioned in the US’s image will be severe. The Republicans’ alarming disregard for their own country’s credibility has to end.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Yes ! There are important principles that need to be upheld.

We don't give in to children when they throw tantrums
and we don't clean up the messes Republicans create.
There is no negotiation or compromise to be made here.
The GOP needs to grow the fuck up and act responsibly
for the good of the nation. Send over a clean CR and
stop with the nefarious games.

[procon]

2. "It is a form of serfdom."

Man, did that hit home!

My brother always wanted to start his own business, but he had to work at a company he hated for almost 30 years just because they had good union benefits. He could not get private insurance as both he and his wife have preexisting health problems, but now with Obamacare, he can afford insurance.

Now, at age 58, he's finally going open his own company. Since the SCOTUS validated the ACA, he's set up his business infrastructure, secured an SBA loan and is in the process of purchasing equipment, and he's looking forward quitting at the end of the year.

He was able to get on the Calif exchange website yesterday, and said the prices looked affordable.

[hootinholler]

3. From the Financial Times no less

Hopefully the 1% will read this and call off the dogs. (If they still can)

[CanonRay]

4. Really makes you realize how stupid we are as a country

and how backward.

[Waiting For Everyman]

5. "In a democracy, people overturn laws by winning elections"

That's the principle that matters, right there. The Dems should absolutely hold firm against the Repubs' attempt to destroy due process.