Before delving into things too deeply here, let’s not forget the fact that it was every single Democrat in Congress who was eager to vote for this monstrosity commonly referred to as Obamacare. And now, many of those now doing some of the loudest howling about it, are, in fact, some of those very same Democrats? Particularly those up for re-election next year. And if it can be said that Barry’s one-year reprieve for Americans losing health insurance, announced yesterday, achieved anything, it just might have achieved at least one political aim: to slow a Democrat rush toward a Republican bill to curtail Obamacare coming to a vote today in the House.
Now with that being said, I think it safe to say that Barry’s rather silly little hour-long attempt at contrition yesterday over his signature health-care law, fell far short of quelling what may be a longer-term political crisis that seems to be engulfing both Barry, and his decrepit party of power-hungry malcontents. A crisis that goes well beyond the botched rollout of what is rapidly becoming an even more unpopular program than it was just a few month ago. Democrats running for re-election in 2014, particularly those in the Senate, are continuing to push for revamping the law. However, according to aides, it doesn’t appear that a Senate vote isn’t imminent.
However, the more immediate pressure came from House Democrats who will vote today on a measure from Republican Fred Upton that would let Americans keep, through the end of 2014, insurance plans that don’t meet the health law’s stringent requirements. By proposing a similar move administratively, it’s claimed that Barry limited what could have been an embarrassing series of defections by Democrats. And something that lays bare the blatant hypocrisy of the Democrats doing all the ‘complaining’, Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen said at most 20 to 25 Democrats would vote for the plan, now that Democrats think the administration has taken action.
Republicans, and rightly so, dismissed the Barry’s transparently political move, and described it as what it really was, which was nothing more than an attempt to insulate his party rather than to actually do something to help those millions of Americans who have already received cancellation notices from insurers. "Dressing up the same failed policy and pushing it past the 2014 elections is cynical politics at its worst," Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said in a statement. Obama was trying to fix a "broken promise by making more empty promises," and "hoping to shift the blame to states and insurance companies."
In their 2014 campaigns, I think it safe to say that every Democrat can be said to be bracing for attacks from Republicans that they perpetuated a false pledge to voters about the supposed benefits of Obamacare. What Barry attempted to do yesterday was nothing more than to deflect such accusations, saying lawmakers who promised people that could keep their insurance plans "were making representations based on what I told them and what this White House" indicated. He went on to say, "It’s not on them -- it’s on us." At the same time, Barry said he’s aware that the law’s debut has already hurt Democrats. What goes around, comes around!
Two of Obamacare’s biggest supporters, Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana are now trying to do their best to dodge the Obamacare bullet. Begich, who is facing re-election in a state Obama lost by 14 percentage points in 2012, has co-sponsored legislation that would extend current plans for two years. Landrieu, whose state Obama lost by 17 percentage points last year, has her measure that would ensure people could keep health insurance plans they liked. Barry’s action "was a great first step, and we will probably need legislation to make it stick," Landrieu said. "We made a promise and we didn’t keep it."
While Obama seems to have relieved at least some of the immediate political pressure on Democrats with yesterday’s ridiculously empty announcement, he has to do more to repair the damage, at least according to one Democratic pollster, some bimbo by the name of Celinda Lake. "He mitigated some of it, he needs to keep on it and mitigate it more," said Lake, the president of Washington-based Lake Research Partners. "What I heard the president say is, ‘I’m going to be part of fixing it,’ but what I also heard Democrats say is they’re not going to wait for the president -- they’re going to go ahead and fix it themselves."
As bizarre as it may sound, Lake made the claim that Democrats still enjoy greater credibility on health-care issues than Republicans according to public polls, and they need to exploit that advantage by being more aggressive than they have been to date in making their case on the law. "I don’t know why we’re not taking a tougher stand with the insurance companies -- you’re not going after Mother Theresa, you’re going after Darth Vader," Lake said. "We should say, ‘They sold people policies that they knew they were going to have to discontinue, this is wrong, and we’re not going to let it stand.’" So her advice to Democrats appears to be, "Lie your assess off!"
Democrat Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, followed that same leftist approach, telling reporters that insurers must "honor their side of the bargain." "It requires not only the government side, but it requires insurance companies to keep offering the polices and not cancel them on folks," he said yesterday. "I’ll be certainly calling on insurance companies in Oregon to continue to extend the individual plans that citizens currently have." Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, warned that Barry’s move "could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers."
Look, the bottom line here is that we do not have the luxury of allowing ourselves to be bamboozled, yet again, by these sleazy Democrats as they attempt even more political trickery in what is nothing more than an effort to distance themselves from this debacle of their own making, Obamacare. Many Democrats are now trying to make it appear as if they are completely guiltless. But to a person they voted in favor of making sure that those who had healthcare coverage, that they liked, would be forced to lose it. The most important thing was to ensure that the government would be put in charge of what kind of healthcare would be available to whom.
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