NYT's Blow minces no words about ACA hearings: 'A charade and a sham'

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times
By Charles M. Blow

The Obamacare hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee are a grudge spectacle. ... These hearings are a charade and a sham. They are devoid of equanimity and reek of vengeance. This is not the way to win an argument, only to elevate the screeching.

... Republicans, with their incessant attempts to destroy, defund or defang the law using a barrage of spurious, unsupported allegations, have lost all credibility to be critical of the actual issues with the law’s implementation.

... They are less interested in making laws that get things done than in making laws that prevent people from doing things. They want to halt progress and rewind it a few decades. For them, what used to be is always better than what can be, and that is a fatal logic flaw in a dynamic society.

... Republicans are so consumed with the mistaken notion that they are speaking for the American people that they refuse to recognize the change in the people of America. ... This isn’t about Obamacare, this is about Obama, and the country knows it and is paying for it.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/opinion/blow-grudge-spectacle.html

[russspeakeasy]

1. Thanks for posting this.

[DreamGypsy]

2. Wow! Four new mottos for the Republican party...

Vote Republican! The party that is less interested in making laws that get things done than in making laws that prevent people from doing things.
Your Republican party. Let's work together to halt progress and rewind it a few decades.

The future is empty. What used to be is always better than what can be - Republicans.

Better to find one ax to grind than to generate a thousand new ideas.

[Tx4obama]

3. Sally Kohn Calls Sebelius Questioning 'Harassment'

Guest Calls Sebelius Questioning ‘Harassment,’ Wolf Blitzer Says: Dem’s Hearings Were ‘Tougher’

CNN guest and progressive blogger Sally Kohn argued forcefully against the Republican questioning of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday afternoon, calling the hearing over the malfunctioning Affordable Care Act website “harassment”—leading CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer to recall his time spent covering the House Energy and Commerce Committee under combative Democratic chairman.

“Let’s take a bigger picture here,” Kohn said. “This was not a hearing. This was harassment. This was Republicans who are tired of flogging the Obamacare bill, saying all right, we’re going to try and flog Kathleen Sebelius. The irony is this is the same committee trying to say, ‘Oh, we’re so concerned people can’t sign up for this thing that we wanted to destroy it in the first place, and meanwhile we’ve been working for weeks to try and log with all these paper requests and all these data processing things and overwhelm all the other places that people can go up around the country to sign up other than the website.’ So they’re literally trying to destroy the path to Obamacare every point. They have no credibility to have a hearing like this.”

-snip-

Rest of post and VIDEO here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/guest-calls-sebelius-questioning-%E2%80%98harassment%E2%80%99-wolf-blitzer-says-dems-hearings-were-tougher/

[gopiscrap]

4. I agree

[spanone]

5. k&r...100%

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. that is absolutely masterful.

I'm gonna have to read more of this guy!

[Coyotl]

7. VIDEO: It was unbelieveably ludicrous theatre of the absurd with surreal over shouting and mayhem.

Secretary Sebelius on Health Care Implementation Problems
Oct 30, 2013 - 3 hours, 37 minutes | 10,892 Views
House Committee Energy & Commerce - http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/CareImp

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing titled “PPACA Implementation Failures: Answers from HHS.” Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified about the problems with the release of the Healthcare.gov Web site for the health insurance exchange which was provided for in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Secretary Sebelius apologized to the public for all the difficulties, saying that access to the site “has been a miserable experience,” and that she is committed to winning back the trust of the public.

[DeSwiss]

8. NYT to Teabaggers:

- K&R

[NBachers]

9. USA to Republicans:

[indepat]

10. Seeing an asshole like Rep. Masha Blackburn making herself out as an obnoxiously igorant ass

in front of a national audience brings joy the heart.