Was the government of the United States aware that CGI had been fired by the government of Canada and the government of Ontario (and the government of New Brunswick)?
Nobody’s saying.
But I doubt it would make much difference.
Asked by Mother Jones to explain why Obama the candidate uses the Internet so effectively but Obama the government is a bust, his 2008 tech maestro Clay Johnson put it this way: “The first person that you need in order to start a Web company would be a Web developer; the first person you need to start a government-contracting firm is an attorney.”
The problem with Obamacare isn’t the website design, it’s the nature of government procurement in an unaccountable bureaucracy serving 300 million people.
Nobody’s saying.
But I doubt it would make much difference.
Asked by Mother Jones to explain why Obama the candidate uses the Internet so effectively but Obama the government is a bust, his 2008 tech maestro Clay Johnson put it this way: “The first person that you need in order to start a Web company would be a Web developer; the first person you need to start a government-contracting firm is an attorney.”
The problem with Obamacare isn’t the website design, it’s the nature of government procurement in an unaccountable bureaucracy serving 300 million people.
Despite the best efforts of President Obama and doting tweeters in Jersey City, government isn’t groovy.
The standard rap on Obamacare is that it’s turned America’s health system into the DMV. If only.
I had cause to go to the DMV in Twin Mountain, N.H., the other day.
In and out in ten minutes.
Modest accommodations, a little down-at-heel, nothing cool about it at all.
But it worked just fine.
Friendly chap, no complaints.
Government can do that at the town level, county level, even (more sparingly) at the state level.
The standard rap on Obamacare is that it’s turned America’s health system into the DMV. If only.
I had cause to go to the DMV in Twin Mountain, N.H., the other day.
In and out in ten minutes.
Modest accommodations, a little down-at-heel, nothing cool about it at all.
But it worked just fine.
Friendly chap, no complaints.
Government can do that at the town level, county level, even (more sparingly) at the state level.
But a national medical regime for 300 million people?
Not in a First World country.
And, when you’re mad enough to try it, the failure is not the insignificant enrollment numbers, but the vaporization of the existing health plans of 119,000 Pennsylvanians, 160,000 Californians, 300,000 Floridians, 800,000 in that tech tweeter’s New Jersey . . .
That’s the magic that happens when you disdain the limits of prosaic, humdrum, just-about-functioning government.
Perhaps things will get so bad the coolest president ever will no longer seem quite so hip. But, alas, you’ll have to wait three years for a hip replacement.
That’s government health care for you.
Not in a First World country.
And, when you’re mad enough to try it, the failure is not the insignificant enrollment numbers, but the vaporization of the existing health plans of 119,000 Pennsylvanians, 160,000 Californians, 300,000 Floridians, 800,000 in that tech tweeter’s New Jersey . . .
That’s the magic that happens when you disdain the limits of prosaic, humdrum, just-about-functioning government.
Perhaps things will get so bad the coolest president ever will no longer seem quite so hip. But, alas, you’ll have to wait three years for a hip replacement.
That’s government health care for you.
— Mark Steyn, a National Review columnist, is the author of After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. © 2013 Mark Steyn
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