 Where I come from in a professional sense the term “outcome” has generally
been used to describe something that resulted at the completion of a planned
process extended from the beginning of the process to the end of the
process. The outcome was what we experienced that lined up with the
projected expectations of the stated goal, objective, plan, process and
final result. In finances it might begin with a discussion about future
earnings and what we are expecting to achieve in the final analysis after we
implement the plans or policies we have established as a road-map to get us
there. It is how we are going to arrive at a particular desirable goal
through a series of steps or objectives that build on the accomplishment of
each of the succeeding steps leading toward the fulfillment of that goal. We
are always more interested in the outcome than a continual, circular-motion
process that keeps us doing the same thing over and over to no avail
regarding the end results.
We need to take the secular progressives at their word and examine the
“outcomes” of the many plans with their laws, regulations and policies they
have initiated during the past years of their tenure. We need to judge them
on the “outcomes” they want us to see and decide if they are worthy of
re-election.
I wonder if we take the issue of immigration for instance we are able to see
the “outcome” of that process by establishing policies and laws that lead to
an orderly, well-planned opportunity for thousands of people from other
countries who want to enter the United States legally to follow the American
Dream. When the President broadcasts to the world that America’s borders are
open and the laws established to prevent illegal crossing of the border are
not going to be enforced, what is the outcome? When the Administration
accommodates people entering legally and moving through the steps toward
citizenship as has been the policy for decades is honored and people
complete that process, what is the outcome? Of course we have seen for the
first instance the resulting outcome has been an invasion of illegal
immigrants with tens of thousands of children rushing across the American
borders hoping to jump on a fast-track to citizenship. The second instance
has resulted in many naturalized Americans having to wait for years for
themselves and their families wanting to join them being moved to the back
of the line behind the illegal immigrants who stole across the border,
sometimes leading the way for gang and drug cartel members following them.
This is an “outcome” that is rather negative in nature, but really to be
expected.
What about the Veterans Administration Hospital services to veterans? When
the President’s top officials have turned a blind-eye toward directors and
supervisors in the administrative line-up establishing waiting lists where
veterans needing medical and health services are required to wait for months
without service, with some even dying before the service becomes available,
what is the outcome of that practice? It is clear this is a negative
practice and continuing to repeat it will bring the same outcomes in the
future.
The practice of the “Fast and Furious” debacle of sending guns across the
border to the Mexican drug cartels simply to trace their movement from one
location to another perhaps could have been thought a well thought-out idea,
but the “outcome” ended in the death of a border guard and a massive number
of American-supplied guns in the hands of thugs who intend to harm American
citizens. The Congress investigated and found the U.S. Attorney General in
contempt of Congress for lying to Congress; The President answered this
“plan and policy” and the accompanying contempt charge with “Executive
Privilege.” To date nothing has been resolved; another “outcome” of negative
consequence.
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 The healthcare law known as the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare
was intended to provide health insurance to those who needed the
insurance. Perhaps the democrats who unilaterally passed the Bill in
Congress without a single republican vote thought it was a good
idea. The President signed it into law and thought it was the
hallmark achievement of his Administration. The result has ended in
millions of Americans losing their doctor, their insurance they
liked; some have lost their full-time job to part-time work simply
to save the employer from having to pay for the insurance. The
President has changed the law outside of the process of
Congressional input some thirty-five times since its initiation.
That “outcome” has, for the most part, been a negative outcome. It
has affected at least one-sixth of the nation’s economy and the
outlook of its continued implementation is seen by many as a
devastating venture in the future.
Now we see other ventures for processes and “outcomes” with the
President wanting to take matters into his own hands and circumvent
Congress…just to achieve more outcomes. The President is promoting a
“pilot” project where he will send agents to a Central American
country where the agents from the Immigration Department can do
background checks on children and families in that country who want
to migrate to America. He wants to declare them “refugees” while
they are in their own country and then bring them to America so they
can be “legal.” I wonder if the American people can guess what this
“outcome” will be.
Having seen the real background information on a number of things we
thought were scandals brought about by the Administration has
obviously only been “outcomes.” For instance, all of those veterans
who have been put on a waiting list so they could not receive any
services simply to make the VA look better and garner bonuses for
the administrators was not a scandal, it was simply a “pilot”
project that produced an “outcome.”
Sending the message to Central American families that they could be
on the fast-track to legalization for citizenship and given free
care from the American people if they could just make it across the
1,000 miles from their country, through Mexico to reach the American
border was simply a “pilot” project; it simply went bad during the
implementation and has produced only an “outcome.”
Supplying guns to the drug dealers in the Mexican cartels was
supposed to be a good thing; being labeled “fast and furious” and
then blowing up in the Administrations’ face was simply a “pilot”
project gone badly; but never mind, it was simply an “outcome.”
The President using his “pen and phone” as tools to do end-runs
around Congress in changing the Obamacare law numerous times was
simply a “pilot” project. It was one that worked; he has used that
one several more times until he ran into the Supreme Court. But of
course, that is not really a barrier to the President; he has lots
more “pilot” projects in his pocket; and, Americans surely will get
to experience many more “outcomes.”
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
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