I had an epiphany earlier today, while reading the Wall Street Journal about more Obamacare woes.
A not unexpected outcome
I have written previously about what the Administration did with the software programming for the healthcare.gov website. And I will predict here again that the problems will not be solved by the end of November. I predict that the website will not be ready until March 2014 or later, because serious software problems are not fixable in time frames less than 4-6 months; this comes from personal experience. Anyone having done program management for Government IT projects will concur. And adding bodies to the problem will not hasten success.
But today's lesson is not about fixing large government IT programs. It is about a common-sense lesson that more mundane parts of the Government, namely the US Postal Service, used to teach. I remember reading this on a USPS circular back when I was a young pup:
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
The context, in the early 1970s, was mail fraud. Back then hucksters were trying to sell, in magazine advertisements, all sorts of screwy gadgets and things. The one I loved best was a type of auto engine that turned burned water for fuel instead of gasoline -- "The Amazing Technical Secret that the Car Companies Refuse to Let Your Know." The Post Office was giving advice that every father in those days was giving to his children.
Fast forward to 2009. The promises of Obamacare were:
Health coverage for more than 30 million uninsured people
No increase in taxes
Not one dime of increase to the federal deficit
Reduced medical costs ("bending the cost curve down")
Premium savings of up to $2,500 annually
Cheaper than your cell phone bill
If you like your plan you can keep it ("period -- end of story")
If you like your doctor you can keep him
Not one of these promises will be kept in the end. Today's press release by Breitbart tallied 100,000 Obamacare signups during the first month while 5,000,000 have received cancellation notices; a net production of misery of 4,900,000. Once the employer mandate kicks in next year, this disparity will worsen. One estimate, by Forbes, proclaimed that the number of Americans losing their current coverage will total 93 million. The Obamacare wonks who wrote this legislation will have been off in their estimates by, only, about 63 million. "Close enough for government work," as my buddies in the defense industry used to joke.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
All this mess would have been avoided had the nation observed
such simple, homespun, government-endorsed wisdom back in 2009. If only we had listened to the humble advice of our mailman. If only, if only.
I had no military service myself but have been honored to know many who served as colleagues, customers, friends, and business partners. Many words will be published today about honoring veterans and their service, and I fear that mine will only consume bandwidth and do a poor job and providing them with the honor they deserve.
That said, I note with pride that our nation HAS changed -- in how we honor these men and women who choose service rather than personal profit during their lives. There is no better example of this than via simple acts. The one I like best is when business executives and seasoned business travelers relinquish their first class seats on airlines for servicemen in uniform. Articles can be found here, here, and here. In the best example, the dialogue ran like this. In the boarding area before a flight from Atlanta to Chicago, the following was overheard:
"What's your seat number solider?" asked a gentleman in a business suit.
"It's 23-B, sir," the soldier told the businessman.
"No, son, that's my seat. Yours is seat 1-A."
This exchange was overheard by other first class passengers, and eight soldiers in all were treated to the comfortable seats in first class.
Contrast this to the viciousness of the American left, which shouted "baby killers" and similar epithets at soldiers, marines, and airmen returning from duty in the 1970s and 1980s.
This shift is not due to sentimental notions about war. It's due to the fact that when Americans fight a war, they fight honorably and they fight for the right reasons. No other nation in this modern era can make that claim. Yes, there are still naysayers in academia, the media, and the fringes of the left who hate the military and hate the fact that our nation now honors those who serve. But they have to keep their comments to themselves, or confine them to the coffeehouses of the Left Coast, because they know the opprobrium will be immense should they utter them out loud.
The Star-Spangled Banner: a "War Anthem"
Case in point. Professor Kevin Blackistone teaches Sports Journalism at the University of Marlyland and is a panelist and commentator on ESPN. During a recent edition of "Around the Horn" he called the Star-Spangled Banner a war anthem and believed that college football teams had no business "conflating a war anthem with a simple game." Comments such as these evoke a myriad of emotions and rejoinders from yours truly, but suffice it to say that the video clip was published on the Blaze and at Hotair.com, and the replies from patriots are juicy to say the least. I expect that Professor Blackistone will henceforth join the ranks of lefties who blandly proclaim that "we support the troops" and will keep his true sentiments to himself on the air, and confine his tirades to his classrooms filled with captive students.
Our country has come a long way since its treatment of the military in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
I leave you with this tribute to our service branches. Commit the lyrics to memory so you can sing them yourselves come Memorial Day and Veterans Day each year.
