There is usually strong left leaning bias in the Quad City Times masthead editorials, the themes, the stated and unstated assumptions, the source information, the spin. It still registers in the realm of “bias” if it also provides a mere hint of an adverse view honestly stated.
Not so in their Saturday July 10th editorial “Compromise eases health care transition” which was confused liberal drool. That they included the theme of compromise as part of their banner quote for the day, lecturing the readership with a non-sequitur, only compounds the basic obtuseness of their editorial.
That banner quote “Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy” and the theme of the editorial has no pertinence to the actual legislative history regarding Obamacare and its implementation.
The truth is that the 2010 Obamacare / ACA legislation was passed when the Democrats controlled with iron discipline both houses of Congress and the presidency. Obamacare, which is a takeover of one sixth of the US economy with brutal governance implications, passed without one Republican vote. And for good reason.
A willingness or even grudging acquiescence to legislative decorum that might have allowed “compromise” was never provided to Republicans by the Democrat leadership. Cloture votes buried any opportunity in the Senate for substantive compromise and the infamous tactics of the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ”We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It.” are unparallelled in authentic deliberative legislative forums.
The suggestion that Obama’s tactics now, to superciliously delay implementation of law is a compromise with Republicans is ridiculous. The QCT is calling for Republicans to accede to the right of the President not to enforce a law without involving Congress first. That is a poison pill in itself and not a compromise.
The QCT knows very well that a compromise would be for Obama to humbly and authentically submit to the prerogatives of Congress even if in the hope it will make only those changes he wants. But of course the current Congress is different than the one that passed the legislative atrocity. Obama wants changes that delay implementation of aspects of the law for timely political reasons. To go through channels would open up the law to potential actual compromise previously denied in a process unilaterally, uncompromisingly controlled by Democrats. That is of course what Obama is trying to avoid. The Democrat leadership and the QCT are enablers of what law professor Michael McConnell refers to as Obama’s suspension of the law.
Obama has no authority to change or improve the law, only Congress does. And it should do so with deliberation and timely information, which is what Republicans are trying to do and obtain. Only an editorial board disdainful of congressional prerogatives (one can be disdainful of Congress as we are and not its prerogatives) would spin this matter as, in and of itself, Republican obstructionism or unwillingness to compromise.
That the QCT editorial board is well in tune with Democrat talking points is not surprising. Invoking a trifling quote isn’t surprising either. As regards marriage a more applicable example for Obama’s maneuverings and the QCT enabling endorsement would be to compliment the virtue of a husband delaying the beating of his wife, to a time more convenient for him, and blaming the wife for not being grateful for the benevolent “compromise.” R Mall
Ed note: The QCT editorial was repeated in the Cedar Rapid’s Gazette and the Ottumwa Courier. — which says something about the independent quality and insightfulness of Iowa’s media establishment.
