Reason 101 on why ObamaCare is a bad idea

I'm sure that I could come up with at least 100 reasons why I think that ObamaCare is a bad idea, however today I got reason 101. I got my garbage can today!

Last fall Cedar Hill let us know that they were switching our garbage collection from twice a week to once a week. They were also replacing our little recycle bins with a large recycle can and we could rent a separate garbage can if we wanted to. The notification was in November and we ordered our garbage can in the first week of December. Based on what they said, our expectation was that it would be delivered before the new garbage pickup plan started. Well, it almost worked out that way.

When we got into January and did not have the can, we gave Cedar Hill a call. No go on the garbage can—they were back ordered and they would not be ready until early February. A month was not enough time for the government to get the cans, oh, well.

So, February rolled around and nothing. So we gave them another call. They were not in but they would be coming Real Soon Now. So, we waited until March

Well, when March rolled around, they had Good News! They had all been delivered! The bad news: We still did not have one. They promised to figure it out and get us one, Real Soon Now.

So we called in April. Boy, they really did not have any idea why we did not have one yet, but they would make sure we got one Real Soon Now, or at least by the end of the next week. So, we started calling weekly—the hot weather was coming! Each time I told my wife that she needed to talk to someone higher up.

By May, I think that we had hit the city manager a couple of times. My wife is really nice, but I think that she finally managed to communicate to the manager that while she was nice, I would not be so nice. So, they finally sounded the red alert today, and we got our garbage can after about 5 months.

The difference between government and a business is that government has no sense of failure.  I'm sure that the manager went home feeling good about “going the extra mile for one of our citizens.” The failure of the government was on multiple levels. Seriously, they cannot order and deliver garbage cans? But it is more than that. In the several failures of the city to keep their word, never once did they let us know that there was a problem, what caused it, and what they would do to fix it. Never. They only looked at the issue when we complained. Imagine that in a private company. People would get fired. There are no consequences to failure in government. Failure in government is only ever proof that more money is needed.

What boggles my mind is that while government fails time and time again with no recognition or awareness of their failure with simple and stupid tasks like garbage cans, people will trust them with the infinitely more complex and important health care system. Are people really that gullible? I guess so.