Okay, I figure some people might be getting tired of all the recent ObamaCare posts, which I get--on the other hand, it's such a day-to-day train wreck you almost don't want the coverage to end, you want to make another bowl of popcorn. Besides, there's a specific point I want to harp on here.
A lot of the fun we're having with this clusterf**k comes from the fact that the Democrats' earlier words can be so easily used against them. Case in point: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan"--words I suspect Obama now deeply regrets ever uttering. (Can't be sure, though. He might be so dense he really believes he spoke the truth.) But I'm actually thinking of a different lie--or rather, a different manipulation.
As you know, the overwhelming majority of Americans had health insurance, of one form or another, long before Obama took office. I had it, my family had it, practically everyone I knew in my hick town had it, and so on. And as Andrew helpfully explained during the passing of 404Care, the people who didn't have it, in most cases didn't have it for very good reasons. All good reasons for a reality check, or at least for some perspective. After all, you shouldn't risk screwing over the 80 or 90 percent of people with health care, just for the 10 or 20 percent without it.
But no. Obama and his buddies pounded, from day one, on the fact that millions of people were without health insurance, and that this was a great injustice that must not be. From obamacarefacts.com: "About 15% of Americans are uninsured, which is a little less than 50 million men, women and children." (Of course, right below that, they mention that the mandate and the health care marketplace will only affect uninsured people, but still, let's assume they're right about the 15 percent thing.) Back in June 2009, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers included in a report the breathless soundbite "Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance," and a month after that, Obama himself doubled down by saying "This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance...," blah blah blah.
So, you get it. Despite making up 15% of the population or less, these uninsured Americans are such a huge problem there needed to be a major overhaul of the health care system, etc. We've heard all this before. So ACA was passed, its provisions have started kicking in, and, well...hell, handbasket, some assembly required.
And if you've followed closely, among all the stories of sites crashing and enrollment taking longer than the Big Dig, you've started hearing about all the people who have gotten royally screwed by the reform plan itself. People who had quite affordable and quite functional health-care plans already, but now don't. Like these guys. Or these. Or these. Now, by their own admission, many of these people voted for Obama--some twice--so I for one am having a little bit of lowbrow "Serves you right, idiots!" glee from their misfortune. But I'm immature and vindictive and all that; surely the empathetic liberals who want to take care of everybody will be upset by this failure, right?
Okay, of course not. Apparently the people whose plans are getting canceled don't matter. Last week, when JayPoindexter Carney was pressed about them, he complained that reporters were acting like these made up a majority of Americans, when it's really only "5 percent of the population." Well, in a country as big as ours, "5 percent" is still a lot of people. Some conservative pundits have had good fun with this; an NRO columnist pointed out that "5 percent of the population is 15 million people — or the collective population of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, West Virginia, Nebraska, New Mexico, and both the Dakotas."
15 million is, of course, less than 46/47/50 million; I'll give the White House that. And I don't expect Obama to up and cancel the whole reform plan. But for 15 million people? I would expect him to be holding round-the-clock powwows, have people working on the problems 24/7, or at least calling Sebelius and others on the carpet for their incompetence. Instead, we get his spokesman wondering why people are making mountains out of molehills, while TOTUS himself goes around thumping his chest about how awesome his achievement is.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. And given the overall incompetence we've seen from the White House, I'm not nearly as surprised as I might be. But you would think that if liberals really believed what they say they believe in, they would be truly bothered by all the people losing their health care and be trying to fix it. Apparently no double standard is too shameless, as long as it helps them stay in power.
To close, here's Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood singing about ObamaCare at the CMA Awards Wednesday night. Enjoy.
A lot of the fun we're having with this clusterf**k comes from the fact that the Democrats' earlier words can be so easily used against them. Case in point: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan"--words I suspect Obama now deeply regrets ever uttering. (Can't be sure, though. He might be so dense he really believes he spoke the truth.) But I'm actually thinking of a different lie--or rather, a different manipulation.
As you know, the overwhelming majority of Americans had health insurance, of one form or another, long before Obama took office. I had it, my family had it, practically everyone I knew in my hick town had it, and so on. And as Andrew helpfully explained during the passing of 404Care, the people who didn't have it, in most cases didn't have it for very good reasons. All good reasons for a reality check, or at least for some perspective. After all, you shouldn't risk screwing over the 80 or 90 percent of people with health care, just for the 10 or 20 percent without it.
But no. Obama and his buddies pounded, from day one, on the fact that millions of people were without health insurance, and that this was a great injustice that must not be. From obamacarefacts.com: "About 15% of Americans are uninsured, which is a little less than 50 million men, women and children." (Of course, right below that, they mention that the mandate and the health care marketplace will only affect uninsured people, but still, let's assume they're right about the 15 percent thing.) Back in June 2009, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers included in a report the breathless soundbite "Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance," and a month after that, Obama himself doubled down by saying "This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance...," blah blah blah.
So, you get it. Despite making up 15% of the population or less, these uninsured Americans are such a huge problem there needed to be a major overhaul of the health care system, etc. We've heard all this before. So ACA was passed, its provisions have started kicking in, and, well...hell, handbasket, some assembly required.
And if you've followed closely, among all the stories of sites crashing and enrollment taking longer than the Big Dig, you've started hearing about all the people who have gotten royally screwed by the reform plan itself. People who had quite affordable and quite functional health-care plans already, but now don't. Like these guys. Or these. Or these. Now, by their own admission, many of these people voted for Obama--some twice--so I for one am having a little bit of lowbrow "Serves you right, idiots!" glee from their misfortune. But I'm immature and vindictive and all that; surely the empathetic liberals who want to take care of everybody will be upset by this failure, right?
Okay, of course not. Apparently the people whose plans are getting canceled don't matter. Last week, when Jay
15 million is, of course, less than 46/47/50 million; I'll give the White House that. And I don't expect Obama to up and cancel the whole reform plan. But for 15 million people? I would expect him to be holding round-the-clock powwows, have people working on the problems 24/7, or at least calling Sebelius and others on the carpet for their incompetence. Instead, we get his spokesman wondering why people are making mountains out of molehills, while TOTUS himself goes around thumping his chest about how awesome his achievement is.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. And given the overall incompetence we've seen from the White House, I'm not nearly as surprised as I might be. But you would think that if liberals really believed what they say they believe in, they would be truly bothered by all the people losing their health care and be trying to fix it. Apparently no double standard is too shameless, as long as it helps them stay in power.
To close, here's Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood singing about ObamaCare at the CMA Awards Wednesday night. Enjoy.
32 comments:
Before commenting, let me point out something hilarious I saw today. Delaware spent $4 million to sign up a total of 4 people.... FOUR. The Washington Post tried to defend this by noting that they had 31 more applications.
Wow.
I should point out that a few hours ago, Obama talked to NBC (who else?) and kinda sorta apologized for the website being so crappy and for misleading Americans. Which....well, it's better than nothing, true enough; but he couldn't not have known when he made all these "if you like your plan" comments that they weren't really true. Not that that will stop the media from praising him as The Most Responsible President Evah.
Andrew, in fairness, when you do factor in those applications, that raises the total to a hefty 0.003 percent of the population. So there.
T-Rav, The thing about the apology is that it will keep the pain coming. The people who are upset but still believe him will now expect him to fix their problem because he said he would do everything he could... which is nothing. But they don't know he meant nothing, so they will expect that he will stop this. So when this doesn't stop and as more and more of these letters go out, he's just bought himself a second round of "Obama lied to me!"
Whoops.
0.003%? LOL! I stand corrected. :)
T-Rav, On your article... over the years, I've noticed that whenever the government looks for a solution, it seems incapable of isolating a problem. Take air pollution. 5% of cars accounted for 95% of pollution. So the obvious solution should involve doing something about those 5%, right? No. That's not how the government thinks. To them, the obvious solution involves changing ALL cars.
This type of thinking has been shown over and over and over by the government... never address a problem in the most effective way, always find a "solution" that is spread as broadly as possible.
Here you see it again. For what they are getting, there was ZERO reason to tinker with any existing policies, yet the solution was to change all policies.
I don't pretend to understand the rational, but I see it every time.
Andrew, pretty much, but with the added twist that when someone points out a third of all cars are now junked, they shrug and say, "Oh well."
I don't get it either. I get liberals lying to the rest of us, but you'd think they would try to stick to what they think their beliefs are.
T-Rav.....Many of us on the right get what's going on with libs. They think they are so much smarter than everyone else (because they went to an "elite" school and were constantly told so) and therefore THEY have the brains to fix what has bedeviled mankind IN THEIR LIFETIME. Bring up historical failures similar to what they're trying to do.....Rome, Greece, French Revolution, military strength, social change, socialism, communism, etc.....and we always hear the same refrain..."That was different. WE know better now and can finally do it right"..... Yet it never goes right does it?
That is what makes the American experiment unique in world history. For the first time in ages, a new nation/country was being formed around INDIVIDUAL decisions, not royalty, tyranny, usurpers, or what have you. To me, that is the beauty and wisdom of what the Founders left us. As Franklin said when asked what they had created..."A Republic ma'am, if you can keep it."
Libs have been chipping away at that ideal since the founding. The ideal that ordinary people, banding together, can decide what is in their best interests infinitely better than some egghead politician far removed from their communities. Even when they are not as smart as the eggheads.
This desire of man to keep trying to control every aspect of "the little people" (we call them low information voters now) works for a time, yet always leads to consolidation of power, wealth and decision making. Look at how many Western lib suckers were taken in by the glorious Russian Revolution..."The New Man" "Scientific Government based on facts, not emotion"
As for me...and my family throughout the last 400 years here in America, just leave me the f$!# alone. Unfortunately, it is getting harder, if not impossible, to remove ourselves from the long arm of our betters.
So...anyone have any ideas on how to drop off the grid?
Oh...And the solution to O'Care? Repubs in the House keep passing bills "fixing" certain aspects of the bill that suck.
The mandate to buy?
Repeal it
One size fits all policies?
Back to the old ways
Losing your doctor?
Any doctor can treat any patient if they want
Insurance rates rising way too high?
Introduce market forces / competition
Tax/fee/fine for not having insurance?
Introduce optional basic policies for healthy folks at nominal cost
Cronies getting waivers?
Publicly list ALL groups getting waivers and constantly ask WHY?
Pre-existing coverage?
Offer it at a steep premium.
Dropping someone when they get sick?
Pass a law outlawing the practice with extremely punitive measures against the insurance company's executives..personally
Basic healthcare for all?
Have the gov't pay for med school and then those doctors are required to give 7 years at an ACA clinic in urban and rural areas. Similar to military commitment to med school.
Anyhoo.....just some ideas.
Obamacare is hilarious, a bigger disaster than anyone thought it would be. As Andrew has been saying for a long time, the worst thing one can do to the Democrats is let them achieve their goals.
Both modern parties are obsessed with crap most voters don't care about, so the bigger they win/more power they get, the quicker voters turn on them.
The agenda Andrew laid out in his book could mark a turning point, but I'm not convinced that either party (both dominated by people who see their own obsessions as sweet reason/the real feelings of the silent majority) see a problem. The see saw is easier because it means not having to fight the fringes.
Andrew,
Government in a nutshell.
Patriot, that's all very true. Ironically, what they also have in common is the marshaling of "facts" and power to support their simplistic view of the world.
As for the House GOP's plans, the problem is piecemeal measures like that, applied to ObamaCare as a whole, will render the system so unworkable it'll crash and burn that much sooner. And I think the Dems are aware of that, which is why they'll block said measures at every turn.
Kit: Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
I'm reminded of a quote a professor of mine attributed to Reagan: "For government, the principle should be 'Don't just do something, stand there!'"
Anthony, I think it's taken everyone by surprise--not that ObamaCare would blow up in their faces like this, but that it would happen this fast and this spectacularly. No matter what else was going to happen, it was assumed they would at least get the website right, and the screwing would come later. Nope.
Anthony, Thanks. I do think that my agenda would be a game changer on many levels. I think it would sweep whoever used it into power with a real mandate from the public. It would focus that party on doing things the public wanted and away from doing the things the public didn't want. And it would really change the tone. It would also change America in a big way -- much more prosperous, much more free.
But as you say, I can't see either party adopting that because they are so blinded by their own pet peeve issues and it's just easier to keep fighting about the same 3-4 issues they've always fought over. It's sad.
On Obamacare, I didn't expect them to mess up this badly this early, but as I've said (and you note) the worst thing you can do to the Democrats is let them put their policies in place... guaranteed implosion. At this point, I expect things will only get worse as more and more people lose their coverage and they find the exchanges to be far too expensive.
...At this point, I expect things will only get worse as more and more people lose their coverage and they find the exchanges to be far too expensive.
But Obama apologized. Doesn't that make it all go away? But here's what to look forward to - you know that 90whatever% of people who get their insurance through their employer? Yeah, that's probably going to go south when the employer mandate kicks in right about...October 1, 2014 and the midterm elections. But I expect it to be much sooner since many businesses have contracts with brokers that probably will expire around June 1. Fun times will be had by all. It will give Memorial Day a whole new meaning.
Yes, Bev, Obama did apologize. Granted, it was more of the "Mistakes were made" kind of apology, but still.
Not only that (the loss of employer insurance); everything I've heard says that the "fixing" of the ACA website is taking care of the application problems first, rather than sorting out the difficulties in transmitting applicant information to insurance companies. So when the 404 screen goes away, the insurance providers may well get hit with an avalanche of applications and then they'll go south as well. Oh, and by the way, it also appears that the young middle-class bloc needed to make this house of cards viable is underrepresented in the applications/enrollments thus far, so won't that be fun....
So I finally heard the "apology" for myself. It basically goes like this:
- I'm sorry some people didn't want better insurance.
- I'm sorry they believed the things I told them.
- And I'm sorry they're in a tight spot, now.
Something interesting to note: on the MSNBC website, if you search for "Obama apology" you get zero results. Even if you use the Google search function "site:msnbc.com" you won't return any links to this story. And, of course, you won't find this story just pursuing their site, either. I guess he knew who he could count on.
Just to clarify, that does not mean that Google is in on covering things up. What it means is that MSNBC has literally zero articles, pages, even links regarding this story.
This article published on HuffPo kind of surprised me. These are Obama's polling numbers. What surprises me is not the numbers, but that HuffPo would publish this on their site without some snarky commentary or And these numbers are the low end of the polling spectrum too. It's a little too starkly realistic for Huffpo, though I didn't read any of the comments that went with it.
LINK
tryanmax, God can't be allowed to bleed. You know that.
Yeah, it really wasn't much of an apology, anyway. And even if he was sincere about it, it still leaves the question, how did he not know this would happen? Didn't he have advisers well-versed enough in this stuff to tell him about the long-term consequences? Again, assuming he was sincere.
Bev, I'm sure they didn't want to do it like that. But I think they know what's what. Even the network nightly news has been covering the ObamaCare problems and the growing disenchantment, and it's becoming increasingly punchline-worthy on late night. Mainstream mockery of ObamaCare is now a thing. And for a site like HuffPo, merged with AOL and having pretensions to being a legit news site, it's either run this story as it is or open yourself up to being exposed as left-wing shills. The first chance they get to blame this on the GOP or anyone else but Obama & Co., they will.
Keep in mind, one thing the left has to do since their guy didn't work out is to absolutely and utterly destroy him. That way, to their thinking, no one else on their side can be linked to him. You know that thing where every election is a referendum on the guy in the White House? Well, that's really only for Republicans, you know. Even with Republicans shooting themselves in the face at every opportunity, the Dems don't want to take chances. Come mid-term, no one's going to be running for Congress on Obama's coattails. And I guarantee you the next Dem runny for Preezy sure as hell won't!
Bev, Negative poll ratings are racist, so... huh. I guess that means Huffpo is promoting racism?
Andrew, don't forget sexism and homophobia.
tryanmax, it'll be interesting to see what happens come next year if this trainwreck still isn't functioning by then. Red-state Senate Democrats up for reelection are already saying major portions of the ACA should be significantly delayed (because, you know, "efficiency" and stuff); another month or so and they may well be trying to put as much daylight as possible between themselves and Obama.
I think someone's going to have to re-re-redefine racism one more time again. Because I know that calling Obama a liar is racist, and yet every liberal news outlet is doing just that. Heck, Obama himself tiptoed right up to that line of calling himself a liar. Clearly he's a closet racist himself.
tryanmax, you've heard of self-hating Jews? Meet the first self-hating black guy.
No, not the first: LINK
I knew it....I knew if I didn't link to that, someone else would. Oh well. (sigh)
You'll get it right next time.
T-Rav
I thought it was all those insurance companies fault for offering such bad health care plans they just HAD to be scrapped.
I mean now men get prenatal birth coverage and women get coverage for prostate exams. I mean before if a husband called the insurance company to ask why his health care insurance did not cover his prenatal pregnancy needs or his wife's prostate the insurance company would have just laughed at him.
Now with Obamacare the insurance companies must take these needs seriously .... honestly why can't people see what good news this is..
This is preaching to the choir a little, but from the 70-80% of physicians who were against ACA...
"We told you so."
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