Monday, November 18, 2013

The Joke that is Obama and ObamaCare (Part I)

Let’s reconstruct what has transpired over the past couple of months once ObamaCare implementation began:

First, there was a government shutdown and Obama would not negotiate with Republicans. Ted Cruz and Republicans were made out to be the villains by the media and they took the brunt of the blame. The government shutdown may have been the most likely culprit in costing the Republicans the governor’s race in Virginia (IMO, since many affected by the shutdown live in DC suburbs in Virginia). What did Republicans want from the President and Democrats – at a minimum they would have liked to have delayed the implementation of ObamaCare by one-year. If Obama agreed to this the government would have reopened sooner. Instead, Obama and liberals alike made the Republicans out to be obstructionists, terrorists, extremists, and a few other niceties.

All that being said, during the government shutdown many of the flaws of ObamaCare began to surface as the law opened for business. First, the government website was a total disaster and could not enroll anyone into the healthcare exchanges because it could not handle any volume without crashing. What’s worse, people navigating the website as government employees could be convicted felons and the security of the site was non-existent placing thousands of Americans at risk for identity theft. Secondly, no one was enrolling into any exchanges and the few that were enrolling were already sick and in need of healthcare. In other words, the young healthy people needed to make the system solvent were not enrolling. Thirdly, millions of Americans across the country began to receive notices that there insurance plans were being dropped because they did not meet ObamaCare guidelines. This was contrary to hundreds of promises made by Obama and Democrats that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period!” After all this, the stubborn liberals refused to delay ObamaCare and kept the government shutdown.

Fast forward a month later and the Democrats were preaching a different message and story. They urged the President to fix the “keep your plan” promise. What made Democrats change their minds so quickly? The most important change in events was the media. After the government shut down, the liberal lie that Americans can keep their health insurance plans was the main topic – even on liberal media outlets. Why did this story gain traction where other administration scandals such as Fast and Furious, IRS targeting, Benghazi, EPA targeting, and DOJ targeting could not? The main reason is simply because many liberals are being affected by the ObamaCare lie that Americans could keep their health insurance if they liked it - including many media pundits. Liberals only care about something when it affects them negatively. The other scandals did nothing to affect liberals negatively and the fact these scandals mostly affected conservatives negatively, well that is acceptable. As Hilary Clinton said about Benghazi “What does it matter!” Sure, what does it matter that a few hundred Mexicans died due to Fast and Furious and what does it matter a few people died in Benghazi? After all, it did not affect a plurality of liberals. But now, millions of liberals may be out of luck with their health insurance plans and be forced to pay more when they enroll in health care exchanges.

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