Posted on 11/12/2013 2:46:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Barack Obama’s “if you like it, you can keep it” promise has House Democrats facing a dilemma as they look ahead to a vote on Republican legislation to preserve existing health plans.
“There will be defections,” a House Democratic leadership aide predicted.
The bill, sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., would give insurance companies the option of continuing all existing health plans for a year. It’s considerably weaker than a proposal by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., that would require insurance companies to continue offering existing plans, but the political power of the legislation may be no less potent: Are you in favor of keeping the president’s promise or not?
The problem for the White House, and House Democrats, is this: Keeping those old plans undermines the new insurance exchanges and reforms at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. They’d much rather have people enter the new exchanges and see them take advantage of the options for comprehensive benefits with the law’s other attributes — such as no more penalties for pre-existing conditions and no more gender discrimination — intact. That has presented two additional problems: The website woes have made signing up difficult for many, and others, particularly those making too much money to qualify for subsidies, are seeing higher premiums than they had under their old plans.
In a House Democratic Caucus conference call at the end of last week, leaders, unsurprisingly, said that they would urge a “no” vote on Upton’s bill.
Though the vast majority of Democrats will likely side with leadership, a sizable contingent of vulnerable caucus members — mostly freshmen — are expected to side with Republicans in bids to win over their more moderate-minded constituents ahead of the 2014 elections.
It’s a challenge to Democratic leaders who pride themselves on maintaining party unity — in stark contrast to GOP leaders who regularly struggle to corral their rank and file — and who hail passage of the health care law as their premier legislative accomplishment.
Both factors were weighing on Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when legislation came to the floor this summer to delay implementation of the individual mandate by one year. Pelosi lobbied members hard to oppose the bill, even as targeted lawmakers argued that their re-election chances hinged in part on that vote.
In the end, 22 Democrats voted “yes,” a number one senior House Democratic aide said would probably have been higher without Pelosi’s work.
That same aide told CQ Roll Call that a similar scenario could play out this week, and it could be even more of a challenge for Pelosi. Millions have received cancellation notices from insurance companies, despite the president’s promise that they could keep their health plans if they like them, “period” — leading to a rare presidential apology and turbocharging political pressure for a fix in both parties.
“The president has apologized, but that apology will be hollow unless Washington Democrats work with us to actually stop this train-wreck,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “If they do not, the American people will certainly take notice.”
In conversations with CQ Roll Call, many House Democratic aides said that it was crucial to allow “front-liners” to do whatever it takes to keep their seats in the next Congress and not be bullied into upholding the party’s ideological purity.
One staffer for a senior House Democrat suggested the party should rethink broader Obamacare strategy and back some changes to the law.
Democrats, he wrote in an email, have “bitten the reins and been the work horse for this administration time and time again. We’ve defended health reform to the hilt with the promise that once it went into effect, the pain would have been well worth the struggle.
“It may be time to rally around some adjustments to the law,” he continued. “If the president can’t or won’t aggressively confront the insurance industry for exploiting this loophole, we’ve got to be proactive going into ’14.”
But a House Democratic leadership aide countered that the need for party loyalty, and a unified commitment to defending the health law, couldn’t be overstated. While some House Democrats might feel it “safe” to vote for the Upton bill because they don’t see it going anywhere in the Senate, a few Senate Democrats like Landrieu are starting to rally behind similar legislation.
“Members are going to have to realize that, to some extent, you can cause problems in the Senate if there is considerable House Democratic support on some of these things,” said the aide of the adverse effect those Upton “yes” votes could have if they provide leverage to Senate Democrats.
Of course, with the bill not scheduled to come to the House floor until the end of the week, a lot could change. The current legislative text could fall prey to conservative amendments, vaporizing Democratic support. The White House, which is exploring an “administrative fix” to address the dilemma, could unveil a plan that satisfies Democrats and, in their estimation, renders Upton’s bill irrelevant.
In the meantime, front-line Democrats are staying mum on their stances: None of the offices of the 22 Democrats who voted for the individual mandate delay would tell CQ Roll Call how the lawmakers planned to vote come Friday.
Correction 10: 46 p.m.
An earlier version of this post misstated the way 22 Democrats voted on legislation this summer to delay implementation of the individual mandate by one year. They voted “yes.”
She knew.
Rumor has it about 1100 per day have been enrolling---that means it will take (drum roll please) 800 YEARS to get to the numbers lamebrain Obama figured he'd need to sustain the boondoggle-----AND---not a penny will be added to the deficit."
ROTFL.
Bump!
Bump!
There is only one Bill that can fix this disaster, REPEAL!
Now is the time, if the Bill is voted down, keep bringing it up over and over, until it passes, the closer we get to 2014, the more likely it will pass, let the record constantly show who votes to overthrow the economy.
I read current count estimates are :
40 to 50 thousand signed up for for federal exchange, private insurance
50 thousand for state exchanges, private insurance
Free medicaid ~ 1.5 million
4 to 5 million cancellations of existing insurance
Obama has some of his campaign organization going door to door, Enroll America President Anne Filipic says her thousands of volunteers will target Hispanic moms to tell their adult children they must sign up to be covered.
‘YES WE CAN!’
Seems ‘navigators’ are helping lowlifes lie to get the best deals on ObamaCare. That should up the numbers. Democrats? Stupid or Criminal... or both?
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363699/truth-about-navigators-john-fund
Liz, here’s how dems are pushing the numbers up - they’re telling people to lie on the forms.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363699/truth-about-navigators-john-fund
Thanks for the transcript:
From your LINK:
“..........The events of O’Keefe’s video of a Texas navigator site run by the National Urban League are a familiar sight to viewers of his past efforts exposing Medicaid and voter fraud. Government-paid workers supposedly trained to uphold the law advise clients on how to lie on government forms, evade legal requirements, and ignore proper procedures.
“You lie because your premiums will be higher,” one navigator advises an investigator for O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, who tells the worker he sometimes smokes. “Don’t tell them that. Don’t tell ’em.”
The investigator then poses as a low-income worker at a university who has unreported cash income on the side, worrying about how that might affect his premium subsidies. That’s no problem for a navigator, who says, “Don’t get yourself in trouble by declaring it now.”
“Yeah, it didn’t happen,” another navigator says. One more chimes in: “Never report it.”
Records show that the National Urban League was paid $376,000 by the federal government for its Obamacare outreach in Texas.
O’Keefe’s cameras then visit Enroll America, a nationwide nonprofit group that has launched a multi-state grassroots campaign to help millions of Americans sign up for health coverage. Daniel Clayton of Enroll America says the group is “purely nonprofit. It’s not partisan, non-political.” But when Brian Pendleton of Enroll America is introduced at a speaking engagement, Enroll America is described as “the official group for the DNC [Democratic National Committee].”
Enroll America, O’Keefe reports, appears to be sharing data and working directly with an explicitly political group called Battleground Texas, activities that he notes “are prohibited unless certain conditions are met..........”
I know I saw one where she says to not report unreported cash income to IRS because that will lower the subsidies they will get.
I got a better one.
I tell people that if they don't pay the mandate fine that there is little the IRS is allowed to do about it, per federal law.
The IRS will figure out a way to collect their fines. You know that sick. Stop telling people not to pay them... we’re not like the creepy liars liberals are... And yeah, some here say it, but you have too much credibility to be pushing that kind of stuff... Don’t want our side to ever become like the scum liberals are. If we don’t like the law because it’s a horror - we need to work to change it.
Good luck to them, all the Americans who will not meet the requirements would overwhelm them if they don't pay the fine/tax.
Dems made that part of that law very weak specifically to ease their political gain but unfortunately the truth hasn't got out enough yet.
Key parts of Obamacare ONLY work if we comply. Only if we walk into those showers willingly.
Americans need to resist.
Thank God the Founders didn't put English law above all else.
OOOPSS
‘...to ease their political PAIN.’
Not ‘gain’
Check out the O’Keefe video. Democrats lying and breaking the law and no one cares. But if a Republican did that the full force of the Orwellian face grinders would be front and center... marching behind New York Times suck-ups - screaming to expose each and every one one of us.
You know there’s a double standard. You know dems are thugs... why pretend otherwise?
If it was some Republican that no-one knows it might get aired on MSNBC if juicy. Definitely on the Al Sharpton show,
Speaking of not paying taxes, I got a lecture here not long ago for saying I don't send my liberal governor 6% sales tax when I buy from Amazon.
I thought the video they got getting the Obama-phones had more provocative stuff it in than this one about reporting cash income to IRS (no-one likes the IRS) .
They asked if they could come in every day and get a new free Obama phone and sell them for crack,
And were told ‘no problem’
What did you think of the part where the guy is told to lie about his smoking?
I thought that was funny. That one was better.
That seems to defeat the purpose of that nanny state clause to discourage us from smoking.
Shows how stupid Dems are.
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