It Only Takes a Jackass to Kick It Down

In less time than the first NFL Wildcard game, my wife and I took down the 2016 Christmas ornaments, mini-lights, and dragged the tree to the front curb. We de-garlanded the front door, wrapped our Santa collectables in tissue, and resorted Christmas totes for storage.

After the totes were carried up to the attic, I considered the time it took to plan, purchase and put up holiday displays as compared to the time it took to take them down:  a couple of weeks up, I’d say, compared to a couple of hours down. Taking something down doesn’t take a lot of time or thought.

Putting up and taking down got me thinking about our national celebration later in the month, the Presidential Inauguration on January 20. Republicans have pledged to mark that day by beginning to repeal eight years of Barack Obama programs and initiatives. If you are a loyal member of the Grand Old Party, that doesn't take a lot of time or thought either.

For the rest of us, let me give a worrisome preview of this repeal and replace philosophy. GOP Speaker Paul Ryan is quoted last week during the first days of the new Congressional session that defunding Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood (a $400-million budget item) will be part of the initial Congressional Bucket-List Repeal Bill. Planned Parenthood has long been in the GOP bull’s-eye because it unapologetically advocates the pro-choice side of the abortion issue.

Now Medicaid cannot, according to law, directly fund Planned Parenthood abortions. It does, however, support family planning, contraceptives, cancer screening, and treatment of STDs for hundreds of thousands of low-income women. If Planned Parenthood Medicaid payments are stopped, 400,000 women across the nation will lose access to this health care according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 

A spokesman for Rep. Ryan said not-to-worry though: the $400-million will be distributed to other providers so “that patients would have continue to have the opportunity to receive care.” Who these providers are, where these providers are and how low income women can access these providers are details that need to be worked out, it seems.

After a divisive national election, the GOP majority needs to realize that their job description has changed. It’s no longer their job to complain, criticize and condemn. That was their role during the Obama years and they did it very well. Now Mr. Ryan and Mr. Trump have a much harder job, that of crafting specific, measured, detailed legislation that upholds our Constitutional rights, and protects and serves everyone. This Planned Parenthood decision is just one of hundreds that will have to be considered in the next year which will have consequences for millions of Americans, not just the GOP primary base. When you assume the power, you also assume the responsibilities.

One would hope that after the GOP packs away its 2016 presidential campaign banners, bunting, and bluster until 2020, they would want to pause during the Inaugural Pomp and Circumstance before doing anything rash and consider the fact that it will be much harder to replace something than it will be to take it down. I recall a quote attributed to either Sam Rayburn or Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s critical of segregationists who wanted to tear down landmark Civil Right legislation: “It just takes a jackass to kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build it back up again.”

Which role does the GOP want to assume during the next four years?