"We tried for eight months to get the waiver," says Herbert. HHS delayed and delayed and delayed -- and then finally said no. "The denial we got back from the secretary of HHS was by e-mail, of all things," Herbert says, pausing a second for the listener to take it in. "The irony is rich."To his credit, Obama immediately saw the worth of the idea and got the desk jockeys to okay it. But the whole episode displays everything the Right hates about Big Government: the delays, the inadequate responses, the self-serving hypocrisy. What the Left fails to understand is that these things are natural, and unavoidable parts of any bureaucratic process.
Bureaucracies exist to enforce, not to innovate. Office-holders are not empowered to make decisions, but rewarded for complying with them. HHS could not - literally could not - make the change Herbert asked for, because no one of sufficient authority told them that they could. It doesn't matter if they're officially allowed to make such decisions; in practice they will make the decisions that will create the minimum of ripples.
It reminds one of a French peasant hiking his way to Versailles and getting permission from the guards to enter, finding the King, and asking his permission to build a bridge over his stream, because the local Count wouldn't let him and the Bishop was indifferent.
America isn't supposed to work this way. We aren't supposed to be bowing in tender supplication to the arbitrary whims of our emperor and his eunuchs. We're supposed to be a free people. But freedom is messy; and our aspiring eunuch class likes things neat and tidy.
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