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Owning Up to the Obamacare Lies: Admitting, quietly, that conservatives were right all along
The National Review ^ | January 7, 2014 | Charles C. W. Cooke

Posted on 01/07/2014 2:33:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Those who have elected to keep close tabs on the reactions to Obamacare’s blotchy rollout will presumably have noticed that it has been marked by admissions of guilt. The latest such confession comes from The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber, who bluntly conceded yesterday that “Obamacare actually paves the way toward single payer.” Pushing back against Michael Moore’s unsettling criticisms of the law, Schreiber tweeted:

Noam Scheiber @noamscheiber

Dear liberals bummed about Obamacare: Don't sweat it.
It's going to get us to a single-payer system before long.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116105/obamacare-will-lead-single-payer-michael-moore …

11:42 AM - 6 Jan 2014

26 Retweets 12 favorites

This, Scheiber made sure to explain, was not an accident, and nor was it merely a dose of post hoc optimism. Obamacare, he claimed, is in fact “a deceptively sneaky way to get the health care system both of us really want” — that is, single payer. And “Republicans are in some sense playing into the trap Obamacare laid for them.”

I honestly do not know whether Scheiber’s prediction is correct. When government wishes to expand itself, it is tough for people to resist, and the instances are legion of people who wanted a little change but were subjected instead to a lot. Still, I suspect that this will not be the case with Obamacare. For a start, the rollicking disaster that has been the law’s launch will now be projected into every home each and every time an expansion of government is suggested. And, disappointingly for the movement that spawned the change, Americans appear to be reacting to it by concluding that government should henceforth have less — not more — to do with health care. Either way, whatever happens in the future, I do know this: When Republicans have written their own version of Scheiber’s column, complaining that Obamacare is but a “deceptively sneaky way to get” to single payer, they have been immediately denounced for hysteria and mendacity and invited to remove the tin foil.

Accusing its opponents of lying has been the Left’s modus operandi since the first shots of the health-care debate were fired. Insofar as there was any at all, the ostensible theory was that, unable to muster any serious criticisms, almost certainly motivated by money and by racism, and tainted forever for having supposedly endorsed the scheme in the 1990s, conservatives were reduced to fabrications and to hyperbole — in other words, into scaring the public by telling them things that weren’t true. In the meantime, the law’s architects tripped over themselves to bend the truth — but that was fine because they were spreading “noble lies,” as the perpetually melting-down Brian Beutler now terms these tales.

Among the alleged falsehoods on which conservative opposition relied were that the scheme was effectively a “takeover” that would leave the president with capricious control over the nation’s health-care system; that insurance premiums would inevitably increase for some; that the president’s oft-repeated promise that all Americans could keep their health care if they liked it was obviously untrue; and that government was almost certainly unsuited to run a project of this magnitude and importance. Also claimed to be mendacious was the Right’s characterization of the measure as a severe departure from the status quo. Thus were we treated to a standard by which Joe Biden was able to call passage a “big f***ing deal” and the president was allowed to boast about his newest place in history with nary a squeak, but Republicans doing the same thing were accused of blowing a “moderate” and “modest” proposal out of all proportion.

Post-launch, however, these conservative “lies” are looking more and more like wisdom, historical literacy, and political foresight. The sheer number of canceled plans may have shocked “some on the Left,” but it certainly didn’t shock the law’s opponents — many of whom had been predicting it for years. Likewise, while the sheer audacity of the president’s unilateral changes have surprised nearly everyone, the fact that the law has dangerously conferred upon the executive branch an almost unlimited power to shape the regulations and the insurance market as it sees fit has not. This, as was observed ad nauseam during the debate, is not so much a law as it is an enabling act.

It has not simply been that time has vindicated many of the conservative complaints. On the contrary: The Left has started to admit that much of what Obamacare’s critics said was true all along — even going so far as to unashamedly incorporate the grievances into their apologies. Earlier in the year, Jonathan Chait, Jonathan Cohn, and Ezra Klein — the administration’s golden trio — all of a sudden switched tactics and came clean. As reports of increased premiums started to flood in from across the country, the group tutted impatiently, rolled its eyes, and, with a how-stupid-are-you tone, explained that obviously one couldn’t cover a whole host of new people without some premiums’ being raised. In other words, once Obamacare’s launch was imminent, the Left admitted that conservatives’ key critique — which the president and Nancy Pelosi had promised over and over and over again was but a lie — had been correct all along.

So habitually has the administration insisted that the troubles with Obamacare are the fault of wreckers and traitors that it has occasionally lost touch with reality. As Mediaite’s Noah Rothman noted, on the last day of last year a White House health-care adviser named Phil Schiliro took to MSNBC to claim that that the CBO enrollment projections that the White House and HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius had been touting as a target all year had nothing to do with the administration. George Orwell’s name is rather overused in modern political journalism, but this really was a deception worthy of IngSoc, and its shifting, mutating truths the sign of deep dysfunction. Over and over, Sebelius had made it abundantly clear that the government wanted 3 million sign-ups by January, and 7 million by the end of March. But when the government only got 2 by the New Year, it simply pretended that the target had never existed. Have we always been at war with Eastasia?

Nonsense on both sides has been rife from the outset. That’s politics. And around the edges, some conservatives did indeed scream bloody murder — weakening their case with frivolous allegations and careless language. But where it really mattered, the Right’s barbs hit their target. Whether Obamacare was a stalking horse for something much worse, and whether it will succeed in metastasizing into a nightmare for liberty, remains to be seen. Still, at this early stage, one thing seems certain: By the time we find out what happens in Chapter 2, an awful lot more of the “lies” that were told about the law will — as quietly as possible, without an apology in sight, and only when it is safe for them to do so — have somehow, magically come true.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: abortion; deathpanels; democrats; msm; obama; obamacare; obamacarelies; obamalies; singlepayer; youcankeepit; zerocare

1 posted on 01/07/2014 2:33:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Although the left has been tacitly admitting the Republican arguments against ObamaCare were correct, they maintain the posture that it will all work out for the good of everyone and the only reason Republicans opposed it was based on racism and 'hating the poor'. Effectively, the same old BS.

That the ACA was always intended to be the gateway for 'single payer' is becoming too obvious to deny so bolder leftists are no longer denying it. They believe (or pretend to believe) that single payer is the only 'fair' way to dole out health insurance to the masses and make it 'equal', the new leftist buzzword.

That ObamaCare is and always has been all about control is only clear to those who have been paying attention. The 'general public' are just angry at losing their perfectly good health insurance, having to pay more for less coverage (higher deductibles) and that Obama, whom they trusted, lied to them all along. It's an opening for Republicans but only if they are willing to speak the truth about ObamaCare and jettison the whole thing, not attempting to 'fix' what is an insult to free people. We'll see.

2 posted on 01/07/2014 2:50:32 PM PST by Jim Scott
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To: All

"Those Democrats leering over my shoulder owe me bigtime. This
healthcare bill insures we have a permanent Democratic majority."

" All except those Tea Party types, swallowed hook, line and sinker my promises that they could:
(1) keep their existing health plans,
(2) keep their own doctors that they like,
(3) keep their 25-year-olds on the family health plan,
(4) never be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition,
(5) sign up instantly on my tech-savvy government Web site,
(6) buy insurance only after becoming seriously ill."
(7) save $2,500 in annual premiums in the bargain....
(8) All without any new taxes."

"Them sonovagun Tea Partiers will rue the day they criticized my wonderful bill."

3 posted on 01/07/2014 2:50:57 PM PST by Liz
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is a proven liar.


4 posted on 01/07/2014 2:55:35 PM PST by VRW Conspirator ( 2+2 = V)
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To: VRW Conspirator

Odumbo is setting you up for his one payer system.


5 posted on 01/07/2014 3:06:56 PM PST by DaveA37
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To: Jim Scott

It may have been intended to be a gateway to single payer, but the Dems never anticipated that the consequences of such an interim step would be the loss or their power and capacity to get to it.

The Dems need the White House, a Dem controlled House and a supermajority Senate. They’ll probably retain the White House in 2016, but they have an even chance of losing the Senate in 2014 and not a lot of hope of retaking the House.

So how do they take the next step? I don’t see how they can ...


6 posted on 01/07/2014 3:07:20 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: tanknetter
So how do they take the next step? I don’t see how they can ...

It's called tyranny, and the bastard in charge is succeeding tremendoudly.

7 posted on 01/07/2014 3:13:14 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Don’t blame the Republicans and Fox News for lies and broken promises of Obozo Care, aka the Unaffordable Care Act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDdmtJCEWPA


8 posted on 01/07/2014 3:15:38 PM PST by Grampa Dave ( Obamacare is a Trinity of Lies! Obamaganda is failing 24/7/365! Obamaganda will fail 24/7/365!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There is nothing for liberals to admit. Obama, Barney Frank, and other liberals all admitted the end goal is single payer and Obamacare is just one step.


9 posted on 01/07/2014 3:16:15 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The latest such confession comes from The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber, who bluntly conceded yesterday that “Obamacare actually paves the way toward single payer.”

Where you been Noam? FReepers on here, myself included, have been screaming nobamacare -> single payer for five years at least.

10 posted on 01/07/2014 3:17:22 PM PST by upchuck (My Internet addiction is so bad... it's alt of ctrl.)
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To: Jim Scott
It's an opening for Republicans but only if they are willing to speak the truth about ObamaCare and jettison the whole thing, not attempting to 'fix' what is an insult to free people. We'll see.

Indeed. We don't need a Republican 'fix' of health insurance, unless it's to make the market MORE free, and start to get government completely out of health care.

11 posted on 01/07/2014 4:18:02 PM PST by SuziQ
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You know a Democrat is lying when they say on one hand Government has to run Healthcare because you can’t trust the private sector to give you a “fair shake” while on the other hand they insist That public school Teachers and all other government employees must be unionized to protect them from abuses.

LoL

The real trick is getting a liberal to acknowledge that Government can be just as abusive as any other organization of men. “Profit motive” or not.

The only difference is we the individual victim have no impartial appeal or alternative when Government is the other party. Government either rewrites the contract with impunity as its own hand pick courts rarely bite the hand that feed them, or Government simply cuts back and there is no alternative to go to.

When Government decides that it doesn’t want to offer a particular service in a particular industry it has hijacked that service won’t exist for anyone that needs it or wants to provide it. This is the power of monopoly combined with the tyrannical force of the State, a Power of tyranny few here in the USA have yet to truly experienced.

The only mitigating factor in generations when those who depended upon that which has been destroy die off and the service itself is all but forgotten people won’t remember what they have lost.

Perhaps the left would call that ignorant a tyranny in itself if they weren’t also in bed with the State that imposed it.


12 posted on 01/07/2014 4:25:57 PM PST by Monorprise
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

There’s going to be nothing at all quiet about obamacare, as The REAL obamacare disaster has now started where hundreds, thousands and maybe even tens of thousands of folks start to be killed by obamacare towards the end of March because they no longer have medical insurance or medical care from their doctors because obamacare cancelled their insurance and they were unable to obtain comparable insurance or medical care.

I’m talking about chronically ill people who are being kept alive by highly specialized treatments by highly specialized doctors in highly specialized treatment centers. You don’t treat cancer, hemophilia, kidney failure, cystic fibrosis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, childhood genetic diseases, and thousands of other such diseases in the ER.

Those are the people who will truly suffer and die because their existing insurance has been cancelled and they are unable to sign up for new insurance, or unable to afford new insurance, or are offered only policies that no longer include their existing specialized care givers.

Obama and the Democrats will soon have blood on their hands as they persist in trying to implement their totally unworkable legislation, even when it starts to kill innocent children. We need to show the nation that blood so we can end this horror.


13 posted on 01/07/2014 5:01:41 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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