It's all about Obamacare again in 2014: Farmer

The Star-Ledger ^ | January 05, 2014 | John Farmer

[Kenny]

The year ahead promises tough gut-check tests for the nation, including domestic and foreign policy challenges likely to determine the fate of the Obama presidency. No domestic issue will have a greater impact on the president — and on the electoral fortunes of both parties — than the success or failure of the Affordable Care Act — better known as Obamacare.

Republicans are counting on it to flop spectacularly. It’s their big election bet. The health insurance plan, they believe, will prove a mortal mistake, undermining the Obama presidency and handing the GOP complete congressional power in this fall’s midterm elections.

But it’s a gamble. If by November the president’s plan, his signature domestic initiative, hasn’t recovered from its stumbling start, odds favor Republicans to score well in the elections, holding on to their House majority and gaining at least the six seats necessary for control of the Senate, now in Democratic hands.

If on the other hand, the ACA lives up to Obama’s sales pitch — with enrollees in vast numbers entering the system with relative ease and moderate premium costs — Republicans will be hard-pressed to explain their unrelenting assault on the program as Armageddon itself and their obstructionist tactics in Congress and in Republican-run states.

The stakes for Obama couldn’t be higher. Even his credibility and the value of his promises and other commitments are at risk in the success or failure of the ACA.

On the foreign policy front, the central issue is Iran and Obama’s hope of winning Tehran’s agreement to curtail its nuclear program in return for a minimal relaxation of the sanctions crippling that country’s economy.

Under terms of the tentative bargain reached late last year, Iran must agree to the West’s terms within six months or the current sanctions regimen remains in place, or is even toughened.

[gusopol3]

likely to determine the fate of the Obama presidency

Oh? There's really a big difference between abject failure and "unmitigated disaster?"

[IndispensableDestiny]

Obama illegally delayed the ACA employer mandate until 2015. It’s illegal because the President has no power to change a law by executive action. He did it to postpone the employer mandate until after the 2014 midterm elections. I don’t think the postponement will be enough to hide the bad things to come with the mandate. Companies and public organizations have already begun to reduce full time employees to part time. Layoffs will follow to get under 50 full time equivalents (FTEs). The cut off is 30 hours and 50 FTEs. Other companies may just dump offering health care altogether and pay the penalty. This summer will be ugly as more and more employers prepare for the mandate.

[MeshugeMikey]

hmmm postcards are failry inexpensive these days given the advent of printing professional four color images on glossy stock for a fraction of what it used to cost.

Great Idea!

whenever Ive tried to post this stuff on a couple of forums.... like the demagogue underground they keep throwing me out.... for some reason