en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4289241 Comments by ajwpip http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/11/01/can-obamacare-fiasco-save-the-gop/#IDComment743303750 Now imagine republican momentum if, like all the Dems up for re-election in reddish states, all the "establishment" republicans came out and said, "We were wrong. The Tea Party was right. We didn't actually believe that big government was this inept. We talk a big game about small government but in our hearts we thought that Obama could pull this off. We were wrong." Fri, 1 Nov 2013 22:07:56 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/11/01/can-obamacare-fiasco-save-the-gop/#IDComment743303750 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/30/giving-obama-the-benefit-of-the-doubt/#IDComment742240750 What is the maximum number of Pinocchios available? Because that line needs to peg the scale. Wed, 30 Oct 2013 18:58:10 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/30/giving-obama-the-benefit-of-the-doubt/#IDComment742240750 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/the-war-on-rational-conservatism-ted-cruz-national-review/#IDComment741821055 There is more being fought over than is claimed in this rather self-serving post. Tue, 29 Oct 2013 20:41:26 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/the-war-on-rational-conservatism-ted-cruz-national-review/#IDComment741821055 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/the-war-on-rational-conservatism-ted-cruz-national-review/#IDComment741795774 Can we have some honesty about who picked this fight? It is astounding after umpteen articles calling Cruz every name in the book for Tobin to write as if his side is being attacked out of the blue for a polite disagreement over tactics. More importantly, can we have some analysis. Tobin believes that there was no good from the shutdown? All gains from the obamacare flop would be gained? Dems now asking for the same delay having the same political outcomes? Is this fight really only about tactics? Kind of unlikely don't you think? This post promotes a really incorrect view of what this fight is over. In some ways this post is emblematic of why the base is angry at the establishment. Tue, 29 Oct 2013 19:10:41 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/the-war-on-rational-conservatism-ted-cruz-national-review/#IDComment741795774 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/28/cruzs-critics-arent-just-gop-establishment/#IDComment741339245 Catholic social conservative populists will of course be fine with large parts of progressive big government. They are apt to want government to not just interfere in culture war issues but are happy to use government to pursue their vision of social engineering. The big divide is whether you want actual limited government even if it sometimes mean your own ox is sometimes gored - or is that just a rhetorical flourish and useful club to hit the other guy with. Santorum doesn't have any libertarian instincts in him. I'd bet his preferred supreme court justice would be an Alito rather than a Thomas. One wonders if Wehner's crusade against Cruz is as self-destructive as he claims Cruz's fight against Obamacare. Stakes are much smaller but I have to say that Whener is making much less progress at much greater cost to the republicans. Wehner also has a lot more high profile help in reaching his goal of destroying Cruz than Cruz got in his goal of destroying Obamacare. Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:21:26 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/28/cruzs-critics-arent-just-gop-establishment/#IDComment741339245 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/is-it-wrong-to-root-for-obamacare-to-fail/#IDComment739737243 Please look up the word monopsony. Thu, 24 Oct 2013 22:12:33 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/is-it-wrong-to-root-for-obamacare-to-fail/#IDComment739737243 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/is-it-wrong-to-root-for-obamacare-to-fail/#IDComment739736652 Nothing in the bill was put in or taken out by conservatives. It passed without any republican votes. Not one. This was all democrat. The idea that a heritage position paper from the early 90s that the republicans never took up as their preferred reform somehow makes this plan anyone other than Obama's is a retarded piece of spin Thu, 24 Oct 2013 22:10:42 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/is-it-wrong-to-root-for-obamacare-to-fail/#IDComment739736652 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/extremism-in-the-defense-of-liberty-is-no-virtue/#IDComment739230219 I don't know how foolish Cruz was as things are playing out. Cruz was willing to go for delay of Obamacare. Now the administration is unable to take that option. The administration is in fact spending time threatening any Dems who suggest a delay. Because if they ask for a delay then that vindicates Cruz. the media is willfully amnesiac to help Dems but even the pathetic republican messaging machine should be able to cram the idea that Obama refused Cruz in the harshest terms over the CR - and now is admitting that the program is failing as Cruz predicted. The GOA was saying that the roll out was going to be a disaster for the last six months. Cruz is the person who 1) fired up the base and 2) insured that these problems are laid at the feet of Obama and 3) forced Obama either to march straight into the disaster of Obamacare or will be forced to concede that Cruz was right. I think it is turning out to have been absolutely necessary to go as far as shutting down the government to show that the republicans in no way shape or form supported Obamacare. I am seeing a lot of messaging that Obamacare was really a republican plan in using private insurance and so therefore these problems are because Obama was too bi-partisan and that the problems are republican's fault. this is deranged but will be pushed harder and harder. Wehner's preferred tactic would have helped this meme grab hold. It seems Orwellian to think that this idea that Obamacare can be blamed on republicans but the Wehner's of the party ran Romney. I think Romney was a good man - but how often did we hear that O-care was just Romneycare for everyone? If I, a pretty informed conservative/libertarian, am convinced that the Wehner wing ofthe party is not serious and substantive as opposed to opportunistic in their dislike of Obamacare how much easier would it be to convince the mushy ignorant middle? Wed, 23 Oct 2013 18:42:09 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/23/extremism-in-the-defense-of-liberty-is-no-virtue/#IDComment739230219 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/21/dont-let-technocrats-set-the-terms-of-the-obamacare-debate/#IDComment738347099 Commentary specializes in ceding all first-principle philosophical ground to progressives. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 19:31:43 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/21/dont-let-technocrats-set-the-terms-of-the-obamacare-debate/#IDComment738347099 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738266949 The shutdown was a game of poker where each side tries to position itself with strength to get as much from the other side. The Senate republicans and people like Tobin are like people yelling, "Fold - we have nothing!" as the game is played. To then blame Cruz or the Tea Party is deranged. What a b.s. red herring it is to complain that Cruz was never going to get Obamacare defunded. So what? No one thought that would happen. But you fight and use your leverage and take what concessions you can. Republicans could have gotten any number of policy concessions - and the Tea Party would have been pleased. To attack Cruz because his opening demands were unrealistic is traitorous to conservatism and the best interest of the republican party. It was the opening bid in what should have been a negotiation but the establishment couldn't have Cruz win any concessions because his success would hurt them - even though it would have been good for the country. McCain, Tobin the Bushes did everything they could to make sure that Obama and the Dems never felt the need to come to the table. Shame on them. It is no wonder the base has no respect or trust in the establishment. They really really want the tea party to die and Cruz to go away and will sabotage things to make that happen. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:49:03 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738266949 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738261662 My daughter got three stitches. My insurance company paid the surgeon who put them in $17K. The ER was charging me an additional $4K for coming to their ER - which we didn't use - it was just the entrance we met the surgeon at as arranged by our GP. We didn't use any ER staff. It took twenty minutes. The insurance didn't cover any of the $4k. Despite repeated calls to my insurance company complaining that this rate of reimbursement to the surgeon (and my % of the fee) was deranged no one at CIGNA cared. I talked to the surgeon and he agreed to pay my 1/2 our ER fee. He said wewere the first patients who ever called about something like this. $17K paid out for a short, simple out patient procedure and I still am out of pocket $2K. Insane. Yet, everything about the ACA will make that transaction worse. There is going to be heavier cross-subsidies of well reimbursed procedures to pay for those that are underfunded. There is going to be higher premiums for us with larger deductibles. Access will be harder to arrange. I will now have even less choices for insurers. And now a government component to try and deal with to get something like a reasonable bill. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:37:54 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738261662 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738257817 Republicans are for a strong but targeted safety net. If Obama had wanted to tweak and expand Medicare he could have done that with bi-partisan support. progressives believe we all have to be equally stuck in the same system as the safety net to keep it properly funded and because of their morally repugnant concept of "fairness" Sadly, these schemes always end up with most people in the same crappy system with the elite in a better system. They are destroying a system that worked for the middle class and will only get marginal improvements for the poor. It is vile and predictable. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:30:02 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738257817 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738255680 I think some people saw them as Catholic voters under the delusions that Mexican Catholicism is practiced or inculcated similar political instincts to the kind of Catholicism of a Peggy Noonan. They don't call them the stupid party for nothing. In the end it is just window dressing to help the Chamber of Commerce type import lots of cheap hard-working labor. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:25:59 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment738255680 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/17/can-sebelius-survive-rollout-disaster-obamacare/#IDComment736420520 Holder is still heading up DoJ despite administering a program giving guns to Mexican drug lords to use on American citizens and border patrol agents. There is no accountability. Fri, 18 Oct 2013 00:40:02 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/17/can-sebelius-survive-rollout-disaster-obamacare/#IDComment736420520 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/17/can-the-obama-revival-succeed-shutdown/#IDComment736300462 They don't write anything that would make you think they hate Obama either. Nor Rouhani. That is just a bad word choice as their style is not about forthrightly emoting over moral judgements. The magazine doesn't do deep analysis and heavy long form essays much anymore either. The largely fluffy level of analysis does tend towards X = good! or Y = Bad. Not a lot of thought provoking commentary and analysis - it is much more about endorsing things or attacking something. It is sort of fleshed out Sunday morning news show analysis type stuff. With that is a ridiculous self-seriousness at odds with the politics as horse-race coverage that is mediocre punditry's stock in trade. That being the case, the question is - how much time and energy is spent criticizing someone, for what, and how. Looking at Wehner and Tobin they are much harder on Cruz than they are on Obama. Or even Iranian mullahs. They spend more time making criticisms. They use astoundingly similar levels of harsh rhetoric given the divergent level of sin. They go out of their way to laud Obama when they are able. No such graciousness for Cruz. Where BDZ has it right is the commentary here is really written in an overtly partisan and political manner. It is about attempting to shape public perception. It certainly isn't about serious consideration of ideas. How often do you learn anything about the subjects under discussion here? What I learn is what these people think about the subject of the day and what they like and dislike. I don't learn new facts or thought provoking analysis. Do you see subjects brought forward here that others may be missing that should be of interest or are worth presenting to the public? Commentary is middle brow water cooler political analysis. I find it useful to see what the Bush wing of the party is about these days. I also have soft spot for middle brow water cooler analysis. Tobin and Wehner are aware that there is a hostile take-over coming. The Bush-Rove people are going to be way way down the list for gigs if we ever get something like a Cruz or Lee administration. Even now it is cutting into their bread and butter. What galls about this is that Tobin and Wehner will admonish the conservative base/Tea Party if they don't rally behind whatever leader or policy they push and feel free to use such tactics as calling people racists. They feel no similar necessity to rally behind a push from a wing of the party that is not their own. Anyway - I think you are off in thinking that Contentions has a standard that needs to be risen to that BDZ is not hitting. Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:49:49 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/17/can-the-obama-revival-succeed-shutdown/#IDComment736300462 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/16/can-a-deadbeat-america-stay-on-top/#IDComment735737181 If we don't stop borrowing we will default anyway. It will take another decade but all we need is a modest spike in interest rates and the wheels start to come off. It isn't like raising the debt limit addresses the underlying problem of massive debt. It exacerbates it. In all the media coverage why is no one asking why there is not one Democrat who is ashamed at having to raise the limit over and over and over again. We have no budgeting process and are borrowing over 1/4 of every dollar we spend. Something that can't go on won't. Boot is going to get his decline - but it will be because we are too in debt. Not because we messed around with our credit limits. Guess what - lenders don't care how they get their money. China doesn't care if we default on SS, veterans pay, defund Cowbot Poetry or any other form of lowered government spending. They only care if we pay our bonds. If we actually implemented a course of fiscal austerity it makes paying our bonds more likely not less. The thing that makes messing with the credit limit bad is that it would be a terribly disorganized and painful way to establish our actual spending priorities and balancing our budget. It would be too abrupt and the political incentives are all screwed up to make the pain as minimal as possible. Obama would cut spending in ways designed to do the most harm as he'd then blame it on Republicans - saying he actually had the organizational ability to actually prioritize payments. I am sure he has done zero contingency planning. Whatever. I hope Kevin Williamson has it right. I guess the best thing we can do as we borrow our way to default is to spend as much of that borrowed cash on things that will still be useful after the gravy train stops flowing. Unfortunately, most of it is going to transfer payments and disposable crap from places like China. Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:22:49 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/16/can-a-deadbeat-america-stay-on-top/#IDComment735737181 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/14/the-wages-of-default-debt-ceiling/#IDComment734735413 Why should our representatives be economically literate when the voting public punishes politicians who stop the flow of "free" stuff? There is every incentive in the world for pols to pretend that deficits don't matter, government spending has huge positive knock on effects, and that any change to anyone's flow of government money means ruin for us all. Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:13:43 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/14/the-wages-of-default-debt-ceiling/#IDComment734735413 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732206820 Name calling as anadessma used it is not actually ad hominem. Ad hominem means to argue against the person. So, saying something like - "Tobin is a member of the republican party establishment so of course he does what he can to destroy Cruz" is ad hominem. It doesn't address Tobin's arguments (such as they are) against Cruz but impugns Tobin's motives. A form of "he would say that wouldn't he". Ad Hominem can be a logical fallacy - but it can also be germane to the discussion. Whereasm nName calling is just name calling. Like saying Tobin is a hack.. Not a logical fallacy just a form of invective. Wed, 9 Oct 2013 22:33:50 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732206820 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732073628 Boehner should stay the course no matter what till Obama negotiates. because this is the only way we are going to get anything like good governance. We have had one budget since Obama came to office. We are supposed to have our representatives make some tough choices and go on the record as to their priorities. The closest we will get with Obama is to pass funding for those htings there is bi-partisan support and then haggle out some compromises on the rest in some sort of showdown like this. But Obama thinks he can run the table and just destroy his opposition. It is better for the country's economy to take a serious hit than our country to turn into a majoritarian third world hole. Shame on Tobin for not having any larger perspective than who will gain partisan advantage. What a creep. Obama is responsible for the lack of budgets and normal process. Obama likes the constant stream of crisis from CRs and debt limit negotiations. Considering that this will continue for the next three years Boehner should die before he lets Obama think he can avoid the normal bufget process and just use Crs to get all that he wants. there must be a cost for this avoidance of traditional processes that allow for bi-partisan compromise. Shame on tobin for thinking only in terms of electoral advantage. Where is the Commentary post with a logner view of why this is happening? Where is the analysis of how we got here? Tobin is just a short-sighted creep. Wed, 9 Oct 2013 18:55:44 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732073628 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732067538 Please, does Obama have an escape route? Republicans have just demanded "something". They have asked for the moon. They won't get it. But they will get something and this will be seen as an Obama loss. He is the one who has painted himself into a corner. He has shut down the government not the congress. He is the one who has claimed "no negotiation" at the same time he is talking to Assad and Rouhani. Every republican should reiterate that Obama is more willing to negotiate with actual terrorists than the republicans. he is willing to harm regular Americans to fight the only enemies he cares about - republicans. Any negotiation he takes part in - any deal the republicans take away is a win. Obama will have blinked and this stupid meme of all shutdowns being 1995 will finally die. Do you recall Clinton having a 36% approval raiting in 1995? Do you recall a crappy economy and debts this large? Do you recall a new entitlement this unpopular melting down at the very same time? Do you remember the republican base being this pi**ed off? This is not 1995. Were republicans in danger of being primaried? Why do people think one data point that could have gone the other way if Dole wasn't the very definition of a weak kneed establishment Rino means history must repeat itself. Dole was the kind of republican Tobin loves. He loses graciously and then cashes in with Viagra ads. An object of ridicule and defeat that Tobin can get behind. Boehner should stick to his guns just to stop the dumbest meme ever. One shut down that went for the Dems is seen as inevitable as gravity by Tobin. I think this is more about TObin wanting this to be true. Stay the course till Obama is forced to negotiate. If he doesn't that is on him. Obama voted against the 2006 debt ceiling hike. We have him on tape lauding the Republican position. He has no leg to stand on and a lot to lose. Republicans just have to repeat: Obama held our position in 2006 (roll tape). Obama is negotiating with Iran and Syria (who he wanted to bomb) but won't negotiate with fellow citizens? Obama has harsher language for half the country than he does for actual terrorists. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again. The republicans are going to get better at messaging and more room to do so as this thing drags on. Eventually the very establishment impulse to avoid drama and make a deal will start working for the republicans. Any deal other than a clean CR and Debt raise is a win for the republicans. Wed, 9 Oct 2013 18:46:26 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/09/is-obama-winning-the-shutdown-republicans/#IDComment732067538