Politics, Government & Public Policy: September 2017 Archives

You Can't Trust Politicians, Which Is Why You Shouldn't Give the Government So Much Power

Lots of people are apparently surprised that Congressional Republicans have completely failed to live up to their decade of promises to repeal Obamacare. Newsflash: you can't trust politicians. You can't trust Republicans, you can't trust Democrats, you can't trust any of them.

Senate Republicans, short of votes, abandoned their latest and possibly final attempt to kill the health care law Tuesday, just ahead of a critical end-of-the-week deadline.
The repeal-and-replace bill's authors promised to try again at a later date, while President Donald Trump railed against "certain so-called Republicans" who opposed the GOP effort. But for now, Trump and fellow Republicans who vowed for seven years to abolish President Barack Obama's law will leave it standing and turn their attention to overhauling the nation's tax code instead.

The GOP's predicament was summed up bluntly by Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a lead author of the legislation: "Through events that are under our control and not under our control, we don't have the votes."

"Am I disappointed? Absolutely," he said after a GOP lunch attended by Vice President Mike Pence.

I'm disappointed too, but not really surprised.

This is a perfect example of why we shouldn't give the government so much power.