Why Do I Feel That the Congressional Leaders Are Playing Kabuki Theatre?; Focus
I am left with a lot of questions: If Senator Richard Burr does not see a path to passing an ObamaCare replacement this year, why make a splash with a proposal that is not a bill rather than simply scheduling hearings? If Richard Burr thinks that the Burr-Coburn-Hatch proposal from last year was unfairly rejected by his Republican colleagues and that they should take another look at it, why put Burr-Hatch-Upton forward as if it were brand-new–as if it were not a reboot of last year’s Burr-Coburn-Hatch? And why does Peter Sullivan of The Hill not tell his readers that BHU is a reboot of BCH–if, that is, he has the slightest desire at all to be in the trusted-information-intermediary business? And even if he doesn’t want to be in the trusted-information-intermediary business, why does it please Burr to have The Hill’s readers thinking that this is something that Burr has come up with in the last two months, rather than a line of approach that he has been thinking bout, tweaking, and trying to get right for years?
As far as legislative-process and coalition-assembly is concerned, this looks like Kabuki. More, it looks like Dingbat Kabuki–the motives of the performers seem, to me, to be incomprehensible. And I have worked in the U.S. Treasury. I have not just seen the sausage being made but actually done some sausage-making myself.
From The Hill:
…might not be able to pass an alternative to ObamaCare until 2017. Burr, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) unveiled a GOP replacement plan for ObamaCare on Wednesday. But, appearing the next evening on Fox News’s ‘Special Report with Bret Baier,’ Burr said no single idea is likely to generate consensus. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘I think that there are going to be a lot of ideas not only in Congress but around the think tanks here in Washington and around the country.’… ‘The long-term is, how do we revamp this in 2017 and after so it works for America’s patients?’ Burr’s plan would repeal ObamaCare and replace it with tax credits to help people buy insurance, while scrapping the law’s mandates and protecting people with pre-existing conditions who have been continuously insured…
If Peter Sullivan is going to write a story about the political maneuvering that is leading Burr to advance a proposal he regards as a feint, he should tell us the story of the political maneuvering that is leading Burr to advance a proposal he regards as a feint. If Peter Sullivan is going to write a story about options for health-care reform, he should tell us what the options for health care reform are. This is, it seems to me, to be neither…