Things politicians say that don't make sense

Politicians say all kinds of things that are unfortunately not intended to inform the American people. Misleading statements usually serve another purpose. A recent example are comments from Speaker John Boehner, referring to a rationale for passing legislation to repeal Obamacare. Paraphrasing, he said: This bill [Obamacare] is flawed and why shouldn't it be repealed? There is no reason not to repeal it.

Well, that sounds about right, right? Or, is something missing? Of course something is missing, i.e., facts and context. They are almost always missing when a partisan politician unleashes the dogs of spin. Congress routinely passes moderately and very complex legislation, like Obamacare. They later nearly always discover errors and unintended consequences. In those cases, congress rarely or never repeals the law. It fixes it, e.g., by occasionally repealing some sections, usually changing others and otherwise doing what is needed. The United States Code (the laws congress passes and the president signs) is full of thousands of such fixes.

How easy it is

Fixing a law like Obamacare could be done like this. Assume that the law is 2,700 pages long and has 100 sections. Assume that there are 4 things (sections 1-4, for the sake of argument) in the bill the Republicans want to keep but amend, one thing (section 5) they accept as is and 95 things they want to repeal (sections 6-100). 

The repeal law that House Republicans passed on January 19, 2011 was 5 pages. It could have said the following: Sections 6-100 are hereby repealed. Section 1 is amended as follows (amendments put in). The House hereby declares its intention to amend sections 2-4 in subsequent legislation (even this isn't necessary to say, but it makes the political point). That's it. It is just that simple. The repeal law would not even need to mention the one section Republicans were willing to keep without amendments.  

If Republicans were serious about keeping sections in Obamacare that they know most Americans want and that they will keep or amend, they could have easily done that. Since they didn't do that, they must have another agenda that they do not care to tell us about. What might that be? How about killing all of Obamacare entirely before Americans realize there are some things about the bill they want and will fight to keep? 

In essence, the Republicans are fighting against time and arguably the public interest. That is why politicians routinely say things that don't make sense. That is how politics as usual works and that is why it routinely fails.

A bad smell

When Speaker Boehner says there is no reason to not repeal Obamacare, he speaks nonsense. What we have here is just garden variety spin to deceive the public. I have tried to point out that common, but nasty political tactic before. Democrats do it. Republicans do it. In this case, the Republicans could just as easily passed legislation to fix what they don't like about Obamacare, i.e., repeal what they hate and keep or tweak the rest, either now or later.

Since they want to kill the whole shebang, I just assume they want to go back to the really rotten status quo that existed before the current semi-rotten status quo. Ah, the sweet stench of Washington politics as usual. Out here in California, that means a foul wind is blowing in from the east.