The partial shutdown of the
federal government scheduled to begin Tuesday morning represents a
colossal failure of leadership. Fingers are legitimately being pointed
in lots of directions. But there is no escaping the fact that as the
head of government, the greatest failure of leadership should be pinned
on President Barack Obama.
Consider
this: Just days ago, Obama made a historic telephone call to new
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. He commonly talks to Russian President
Vladimir Putin. His secretary of state is talking to counterparts in
the extremist regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But the president
of the United States would not negotiate on this budget dispute with
the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives regarding one of
the most far-reaching, most complicated, most troubled — and most
publicly unpopular — pieces of legislation to be enacted in a
generation.
Key provisions
of that legislation, the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, ironically
begin operating today even as the shutdown of nonessential federal
government services begins.
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