Son, Control the Skies

All politics is agency theory

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[...] Agency theory also explains why elected officials and voters do what they do. Some will argue re-election is the primary goal of an elected official. Others will argue the main goal of the office holder is to serve the needs of constituents. Elected officials will say they cannot serve the needs of constituents unless the voters put them back in office, but voters won’t re-elect someone who ignores their wishes. Here’s an example. In August, 80 GOP members of Congress sent what is now called a “suicide pact” to House Speaker John Boehner urging the de-funding of Obamacare, even if that meant tying it to the continuing appropriations bill and forcing a partial shutdown of the government. Rep. Blake Farenthold from Corpus Christi was one of them. “Listen, we’ve got to use what few leverage points we have in a divided government, and the continuing resolution is one of them,” he said This goes a long way to understanding why President Obama continues to say he will not negotiate on the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama will never again face voters, so finding a solution that is in their best interests is no longer in his. Add to that the fact that everyone now calls the act Obamacare. Hard-core politicians will not break the current political impasse for the reasons just laid out. Only someone willing to put aside personal ambition or legacy will come up with a workable solution. [Fullness] Like most discussions about the CR "crisis," this one is rooted in the idea that because the founders designed spirited debate into the system, this is normal give and take.   Where clear thinking leaders on both sides will come to an accommodation worthy of a great nation.  They choose to ignore, or haven't a clue, that we are engaged in a great ideological civil war, testing whether  our nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated to accommodating  a megalomaniac's grand design can long endure. This cannot end well in the short term.  Long term victory will go the most fervently dedicated.    And who control  the sky.

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