One of the less endearing media manifestations of vox pop is
the game of Blame Obama -- for just about anything: the weather, your
messed-up lovelife, the fall of the Roman empire … Well, turnaround is fair play; so although this one, targeting Gingrich, may be a mite
far-fetched, still, let us dunk him in this vat of gander-sauce, and see how he
likes it.
As the Obama administration
continues to unsuck its health care website, one questions lingers: How did
this important government project get so screwed up? If you ask technologist
Clay Johnson, the insurance exchange's problems began, in a way, in 1995, when
"Congress decided to lobotomize itself."
Johnson was referring to a specific
action lawmakers took then: They killed a tiny federal agency called the Office
of Technology Assessment. Established in 1972 as Congress' nonpartisan in-house
think tank, the OTA studied new technologies and offered recommendations on how
Washington could adapt to them. But then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
(R-Ga.) turned off its lights.
"An OTA review might have
prevented some heartburn and embarrassment" associated with the
Healthcare.gov rollout, argues Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), an astrophysicist who
has previously introduced legislation that would resurrect the agency.
Warning Congress about problems
with Healthcare.gov—and explaining them—would have been right in OTA's
wheelhouse. The office, Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.) dryly remarked in 1995,
was a "defense against the dumb." During its 24-year existence, the
agency developed a reputation for sharp, foresighted analysis on the problems
of the new information age: It called for a new, reinforced tanker design a
decade before the Exxon-Valdez spill; emphasized the danger of fertilizer bombs
15 years before Oklahoma City; predicted in 1982 that email would render the
postal service obsolete; and warned that President Ronald Reagan's Strategic
Defense Initiative (better known as "Star Wars") would likely result
in a "catastrophic failure" if it were ever used.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/office-technology-assessment-gingrich-obamacare
For further dish about Gingrich, and his various Gingrettas,
click here.
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