If ObamaCare rollout is the most recent example of U.S. Government (USG) incompetence, then is this what we should expect of FATCA?
I just read this article by Tina Brown of the progressive Daily Beast about the ObamaCare Cock-up. I thought it was the good metaphor (not perfect) for the predictable FATCA Cock-up. The only difference is FATCA is global. Americans don’t know it exists, so don’t know that a Cock-up is in process.
I don’t think I need to expand much on why what she says is generally true, other than to note the opening and closing paragraphs. You can draw your own parallels, as I did mine, but generally this rollout fits the bigger theme, that American government is culturally unable to do these BIG COMPLEX programs well.
The big announcement and lousy follow-through, the technical glitches no one can figure out—not only was the roll out mess utterly predictable, it’s also a sign of our cultural moment.
Obamacare is the wildly complex Rube Goldberg contraption it is because getting the legislation through Congress required so many political trade offs and so many unavoidable deals with so many vested interests. But that’s no excuse. Lost in the raucous cable noise are the voices of desperate people shut out yet again, this time by incompetence. And that’s tragic, not uncool. That’s obscene, not a juicy partisan spin for Ted Cruz. How ironic if Obama’s signature accomplishment becomes instead a metaphor for his presidency’s signature problem: big pronouncements and lousy follow-up, the curse of our times. Continue reading