By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
If he won’t recognize House Republican legitimacy, nothing will be negotiated.
It is the most thunderous proof of the Taranto Principle to date. I am speaking of the Senate’s rejection of the House of Representative’s proposal to delay the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act for a year, along with the federal subsidy for Congressional lawmakers and their staffs if and when these selfless public servants enter healthcare exchanges.You cannot have such subsidies and neither can I, but Congress and its aides can. The Senate will not even negotiate over it.
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The insightful James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal coined the Taranto Principle when he noticed that the Democrats and the left in general are encouraged to act absurdly by the fawning mainstream media. It is the media that have encouraged Democrats to demand of Republicans negotiations while the Democrats refuse to negotiate. Thus the Republicans are expected to accept the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act while being left with nothing to negotiate. When asked by Steve Inskeep of NPR what he was offering to negotiate, our nugacious President said: “Steve, when you say what can I offer, I shouldn’t have to offer anything.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s contribution to negotiations was, “We are not going to mess around with ObamaCare, no matter what they do.” Case closed.
Harry Reid has gone further. He has called the Republicans “insane” for seeking negotiations when Reid has already refused to grant them that. “They should get a life,” Reid said, appropriating a line more suitable for the schoolyard than for the United States Senate. “It is the law [Obamacare], declared constitutional. The exchanges are coming on line tomorrow.” Actually, a lot has changed since Obamacare was passed in 2010 and since certain aspects of the law were declared constitutional. The House of Representatives, the most representative branch of government, has gone over to the Republicans. The majority of state legislatures have become Republican. Most governorships have become Republican. The law is increasingly loathed and feared by the American people.
