Time to Move On

I was kind of tough on the President yesterday, and I feel just a little badly about it.  OK, not that badly.  It was a well-deserved salvo that was, hopefully, taken as constructive criticism (and believe me...  we KNOW that President Obama visited this blog...  right?).  But, it's time to move on.  Everyone from the President to Secretary Sebelius to the guy who's still waiting for that webpage to load realizes that the rollout of Obamacare was less than satisfactory.  Both the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services have accepted full responsibility and are doing whatever is possible to remedy the situation.  So, where do we go from here?  Rather than piling on further accusations and blame, it might be more useful to focus on solutions...  The clock's ticking!

Perhaps one of my favorite moments during Kathleen Sebelius' testimony came today when Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the panel's chairman, opened the session by saying news of Obamacare problems "seems to get worse by the day," and that "Americans are scared" and "may be losing their faith in the government."  For some reason his statement about scared Americans strikes me as a bit pathetic.  I doubt that many of my fellow countrymen are of such a lily-livered disposition.  Concerned?  Yes.  Scared?  We'll save that for tomorrow's visitations from small-framed ghouls and goblins, hepped up on sugar and demanding candy.

The most ironic part of Rep. Upton's statement, though, is the part about Americans losing faith in their government...  we MAY be losing faith?  Perhaps Mr. Upton would be well to remember that we are way past "may" and that the Republicans are in large part responsible for that dire situation.  When over 70% of the country feels that no member of Congress should be reelected, even when asked about their own representatives, lawmakers should be cleaning their own houses, not just looking for ways to shift blame.  
The President's real problems lie overseas, in my view.  The current issues surrounding the NSA are far more likely to cause long-term damage to the administration, although President Obama may be able to restore trust more effectively than we might think.  Obamacare?  Let's remember that, while it's been enacted, its effects won't really start to be seen until after coverage begins on January 1.  To hear those opposed to the Affordable Care Act talk, you'd think American's were dying in the streets because of the technical problems encountered so far.  What do we really need here?  We need patience.  If we can muster the necessary calm and serenity to spend Thanksgiving night, in the rain, waiting outside our local Big Lots in order to by a 48" big screen TV discounted by 20%, we can surely wait a little longer to sign up for our health care plans.