Good News-Bad News

Paul Ryan and Patty Murray

A Budget Agreement

 The conservative media was in high dudgeon this morning, criticizing the federal Budget agreement announced last night. by senators, Paul Ryan and Patty Murray.  And with good reason. There are no Grand Bargains to be had for either side, but does, at least, move the debate away from the across-the-board cuts of sequestration as it begins to substitute the more rational give and take trade offs of political compromise. It may, if passed by the congress, also offer a two-year respite from the cliff- hanging theatrics of recent years. This is the first time in four years that we actually have a budget agreement, and just perhaps the congress may return to its stated format of fair and open debate. For the record, we are not thrilled by the agreement itself as there is much left to do, but are encouraged by this improvement of the process.

No-Show Voters

We are, today, awarding the View's "Sash of Shame" to the voters of the Massachusetts 5th Congressional District for their dismal 13% turnout for yesterdays election of a replacement for now senator Ed Markey. Democratic state senator, Katherine Clark won the election with 66% of the truncated vote total over republican, Frank Addivinola in this heavily democratic district. There is some feeling among our staff that additional "Sashes of Shame" be awarded to the state and national republican committees, which provided little or no support to their candidate.

Not His Fault

The president joined self-professed hard-ball player Chris Matthews for hard-hitting interview last week. Who, asked Matthews, as he barely suppressed a new thrill running up his leg, is responsible for the fiasco of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare? Had the interview been somehow frozen at that point, and an impartial panel of psychics quickly polled, we are betting that none would have predicted that the pres. would have taken the blame. And, as the interview continued, they would have been unanimously correct.

The blame, it turns out, is not his personal management style (think of Dilbert's pal Wally) nor any other aspect of him or his presidency, but the size and poor organization of the federal government. "The White House is just a tiny part of what is a huge, widespread organization with increasingly complex tasks in a complex world."  Thanks, Barry, we feel much better now.

Why then would anyone create a massive muddled piece of legislation, designed to totally reorganize an industry representing one sixth of the U.S. economy, especially given the highly emotional impact of intruding into one of modern life's most intimate concerns, shared by virtually all Americans, and toss it to the aforesaid  incompetent bureaucracy for un-managed implementation?

This law needs to be repealed, and repealed now. To allow it to continue its rampage through the American psyche definitely qualifies as political malpractice.