On one of the Sunday A.M. news talkers, Senator Lindsay Graham said delaying or defunding Obamacare was "not a realistic possibility now." I would like to suggest that it was never a realistic possibility and that almost all the folks crusading for that knew darn well it wasn't. Remember that all their promises in that area were predicated on either getting a veto-proof vote for it (i.e., an awful lot of Democrats) or President Obama deciding to sign a bill that wiped out his signature achievement and a plan he thought would be very, very good for America. Did anyone on this planet really think either of those two things would happen?
Well, maybe. I know a 58-year-old guy who wrote a letter to Kerry Washington, whom he's never met, asking her to marry him. There's something to be said for pursuing someone's wildest fantasy, no matter how impossible it may seem. There's also something to be said for living in reality.
This whole thing about defunding Obamacare was a scam from the start…a trick Republicans played on their constituents to get them fired-up to donate to the G.O.P. and hate Democrats and keep the Tea Partiers aboard an otherwise-sinking ship. It hasn't worked out the way they want and now they're scrambling to convince their base that they fought the good fight but those dratted Democrats didn't do what Good Americans would have done. The other day at the place where I take Physical Therapy for my knee, I overheard the following exchange…
Guy on Lifecycle: The White House hasn't been reasonable. In a vital matter like this Debt Ceiling thing, everything should be on the table including Obamacare.
Guy on Stairmaster: Everything should be on the table? How about raising taxes? Or placing limits on guns?
Guy on Lifecycle: Well, it goes without saying that some things shouldn't be on the table. But everything that should be on the table should be on the table.
Senator Graham also went on a bit about Obamacare being a disaster. He seems to have confused an overwhelmed website with the complete failure of an economic plan. Right now if eBay crashed, he'd probably say that proves auctions are impractical.