Posted on 11/14/2013 11:45:56 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Heres your early-afternoon reminder that these people are either (a) imbeciles who didnt understand when they voted for O-Care that mass cancellations were part of the plan or (b) lying schmucks who understood it full well but who are too gutless to take the heat now that its happening.
Did somebody here order the schadenfreude?
A private meeting on Capitol Hill with House Democrats and White House officials on Wednesday became heated when rank-and-file members expressed frustration about continued Obamacare problems, according to multiple sources in the room.
One congressional Democrat who attended the meeting said senior Obama administration officials Mike Hash and David Simas really got hit by House Democrats about everything from the troubled website to the broken promise that people can keep the insurance plans they like
Several lawmakers even liberals who adamantly support Obamacare stood and warned the officials that the White House must come up with a solution before the vote [on Fred Upton's "Keep Your Plan Act"]
Democratic Rep. Jose Serrano of New York told reporters he thinks something will develop over the next 24 hours.
And for dessert: ***************
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The fact that they also screamed about the website and didnt emerge from the meeting conciliated makes me think the White Houses denial this morning about missing the November 30th deadline was indeed just a pro forma thing designed to buy time before admitting final defeat. As for the sturm and drang over Fred Uptons and Mary Landrieus bills, Obama has two potential failsafes. Harry Reid could kill Landrieus bill in the Senate so that no one has a chance to vote on it, but red-state Democrats like Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, and of course Landrieu herself wont like that. They need to do something to show their constituents that theyre trying to get plans un-canceled; if Reid doesnt let them, he may end up as the Senate minority leader in 2015. If he brings the bill to the floor, though, it might very well reach 60 votes and pass and he wont be able to count on Boehner and the GOP killing it in the House. None other than Fred Upton himself said today that Landrieus bill might actually be better than his own. If it gets through the Senate, I assume Boehner will bring it to a vote in the House just to maximize the humiliation for Obama as Democrats cross the aisle en masse to vote for it.
That would leave Obama with his last failsafe a presidential veto. But that too would be hugely risky for Democrats, even ones who voted for Landrieus bill. For better or worse, the president is the figurehead of his party. When his approval ratings end up in the tank, so too do the fortunes of his partys congressional members in the midterms. If he vetoes it, the GOP will destroy him for singlehandedly condemning millions of canceled consumers to their new, more expensive plans. If he signs it, though, hes willingly sabotaging ObamaCare in the name of protecting his party. Remember: By bringing back canceled plans, both Uptons bill and Landrieus bill are destroying the economic assumptions on which the new, post-ObamaCare insurance regime has been built. The only way O-Care works is by moving healthy people into new, more expensive coverage; if you let them return to their old plans, theres no new revenue to cover preexisting conditions that insurers are now legally required to pay for. In fact, Landrieus bill is even worse for the law than Uptons is because it requires insurers to bring back canceled plans rather than giving them the option and it would operate indefinitely rather than just for 2014. Its not as comprehensive as a bill to repeal O-Care outright would be, but its a step in that direction by making the new economics of health insurance unsustainable. So thats Os choice if this lands on his desk. Either he can knife consumers with canceled policies in the back by confirming that he never meant for them to keep their plans or he can knife his pals in the insurance industry in the bank by validating the giant mess that Landrieus trying to make for them. Government health-care fever catch it.
Update: Schmucktastic.
Theyre telling us all about actuarial tables and all about how the process would work and all of this is fine and great and it would be great in a classroom and you would get an A on your test, but this isnt about getting an A on your test, this is about ads, said Rep. Steve Cohen, a Memphis liberal
Its ugly, said one Democratic source in the meeting. Theres no way Obama and Pelosi will let their legacy go down in flames. I just wouldnt want to be from a swing district right now. Or anything that closely resembles one.
If they stand with the White House on Fridays vote, they face the worst of all possible worlds: Campaign ads pointing out that they not only backed Obamas broken promise but also opposed legislation to fix it. The White House has two days, they warned, to come up with an alternative way to ensure Americans arent thrown off their health plans. The president has vowed to find an administrative fixrather than a legislative onebut that has proved difficult so far.
If O-Care starts to fall apart because House Dems begin voting with the GOP en masse, thats its epitaph. This isnt about risk pools and premiums and egghead stuff that might conceivably make the law sustainable in the near term at least. This is about ads.
Some are implying the phone is being answered in India LOL
http://twitchy.com/2013/10/21/even-if-i-were-american-are-obamacare-call-centers-outsourced-too/
Your comparison doesn’t work. When Republicans screw up, the full weight of the MSM comes down, regardless of the facts.
When the progressives (progressive, you know, like cancer) screw up, the press will carry them all the way up to and including going out of business.
The NYT and CNN are on the verge as we speak. Politico too. It’s amazing to watch just how far the press will go to cover for what can only be called fascism.
Fred Upton is the bozo who voted to ban incandescent light bulbs. Don’t expect any solutions from him.
:)
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