Posted on 10/23/2013 7:21:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The best part of this is that he admits he doesn’t know if the site actually needs more money or not. “Give them a little” is something he seems to say almost reflexively, I guess because when a government program is failing badly, that’s just what you do. For Hoyer, throwing another hundred million or two into this quicksand is really just a symbolic vote of confidence in it, I think, nothing more. When you’re $17 trillion in debt, it’s all Monopoly money at this point anyway.
I wonder if he knows that the site’s already three times over budget. I know he wouldn’t care if he did know, but does he know? I’m curious to see just how closely the Democratic leadership is following the growth of this precious little pony they gifted to America.
Asked Tuesday how Congress could help improve the system by which millions of Americans must buy insurance by the end of the year, the House minority whip and Maryland Democrat said, “We can give them a little money.”
“[Republicans have] been pretty much focused in the House of Representatives on undermining the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in every which way that we possibly could,” he said.
Hoyer admitted that he does not know whether the project, which has already cost more than $400 million, has faced funding problems. “I don’t think that’s the reason,” he said. “If I know that, I’ll blame it.”…
“I certainly believe it’s a bad performance,” Hoyer said. “Obviously this was not done the way it should have been done, and I’m sure if I was a Republican I would yell and scream about it as well.
Ace notes that that line about Republicans undermining implementation may signal a sly inchoate Democratic attempt to suggest, without clearly stating, that it’s the shutdown that caused Healthcare.gov’s problems, not Obama’s incompetence. That’s false, of course, but there are indeed people out there in this great big country of ours who believe it. Expect to hear more of it as “repairs” to the site drag on and on, and on. Meanwhile, Ben Domenech saw the “more money” gambit coming a few days ago:
4. With the White House’s blessing, a Gang of Insert Number Here with some vulnerable/moderate Dems (Manchin, Landrieu, Pryor, Begich, Heitkamp, Warner… maybe Baucus?) could press for a package of “fix the exchanges” legislation, which could conceivably offer Republicans a chance to pass delay while appropriating more funding for the exchanges – something like: delay the mandate, delay some of the goodies, and take the exchanges offline and give them more money to fix them.
Are there even six Republicans in the Senate willing to be part of a gang like that, though? The idea of any GOPer colluding with Democrats to fix the exchanges, even if they’re able to win a delay of the law in the process, seems unthinkable to me. They’d be accused of rescuing O’s boondoggle at a moment of supreme weakness; everything you heard after the shutdown ended about RINOs like Boehner and McConnell now “owning” O-Care because they couldn’t figure out a way to stop it would multiply by a hundred. On the other hand, if the caucus unites in opposition and vows not a penny more for “repairs,” they risk being perceived as endorsing the “let it burn” approach to O-Care. Even Ted Cruz has problems with LIB — for good reason, says Breitbart’s Joel Pollak:
It is tempting, now that President Barack Obama and the mainstream media are rubbing Republicans’ noses in the mess that was the government shutdown, to let them take the “credit” for Obamacare and force them to implement it as “settled law.” After all, they played their part in forcing the shutdown by resisting any change or delay at all to Obamacare. So let them take the “credit” for that supposedly triumphant stance.
The problem is that a member of Congress has to face his or her constituents and explain what he or she is doing to help them–not in 2017, when the only realistic possibility for repealing Obamacare will arise, but today. It would be unacceptable for Rubio or Cruz to tell their constituents that the voters have to be taught a lesson. So they have to take some kind of action to “fix” Obamacare, while still pressing for its repeal.
The only way to spare the public pain from ObamaCare, the “defunders” will say, was to defund it before it started. True, but Senate math being what it was, it wasn’t going to happen. And it didn’t happen, so what’s the Plan B to spare people now? Rubio proposes delaying the individual mandate to prevent them from suffering an unjust penalty, but if Democrats agreed to do that, it would wreak more immediate havoc on the insurance industry than fixing the website would. I’m not sure what Cruz’s Plan B is but no doubt we’ll find out in the next few days. This is why Domenech thinks the gang option is, although improbable, at least possible: You may get six purple-state Republicans who decide that the least bad option here between cutting O a blank check and declaring that not a penny of money will be spent to rescue ObamaCare no matter how many Biblical plagues its half-assed implementation unleashes upon the land is to give Obama the money he needs for the site in return for major concessions on the order of delaying the law for awhile. Can’t wait for that next round of RINO/true conservative throat-slitting.
“Bricks thrown through your window.....Call Al’s Glass.”
Apparently a half a billion dollars is not enough.
If only the sick people who really need insurance sign up, then the health insurance industry could collapse. They would have to raise premiums at a massive rate for everyone, which people couldn’t afford. If every health insurance company goes bankrupt, then even the Republicans won’t be able to refuse signing up for single payer, because there will no longer be a private sector option for citizens to cover huge medical bills.
The law says health insurance companies cannot charge more for sick people, and they cannot deny any people with pre-existing conditions from signing up. That’s why premiums for most people are going up. If the healthy people don’t sign up, which the individual mandate was supposed to force them to do, then the insurance companies will collapse under the dictates of Obamacare.
Republicans calling for a delay in the individual mandate with no other delays in the law are hastening the collapse of the insurance industry and the arrival of single payer.
Yes they will be able to, as the pain spreads from Obama care and the GOP stays out of the way of this story , an feeds THIS STORY a bit, then pressure to repeal Obamacare will mount.
Even Dems know they cant get people to buy into gov run single payer if they prove to us that they cant even produce a working website.
I know Rush is now claiming Obama created a non-working website to promote single payer, much of Rush's logic is ridiculus and that is a great example.
SOunds like guvmint schools - more money = worse results.
Many people will get taxpayer paid subsidies for the exchanges. As the uninured GO UP then Dems lose the argument completely.
Oh, read between THESE lines. If Hoyer was a Republican he'd scream about financial mismanagement, malfeasance and incompetence. But he's not, so he's not screaming? That'll play well.
Obama's answer to the failure of the website will be to blame the private sector insurance companies - Waxman is already promoting that meme.
He will point out the needless complexity of multiple insurance companies with a plethora of products.
By limiting the choices to only those developed by the government and having the collective pick up the tab (single-payer) the solution becomes trivial and a half-a-billion-dollar website becomes perfectly functional (by government standards).
We may then all go back to praising the wonder that is Obama (Mmmm...Mmmm...Mmmm...)
Obama and his thugs are at fault for constantly changing the requirements, spending too much, and for picking a company which may not have been capable.
You have to write the check to know what the amount is.
We are going to have single payer. I have no doubt of that. People aren’t blaming the Democrats for the problems, yet. By the time they do, it won’t matter, as they will have destroyed enough of the private sector we will have little alternative.
He has received his orders from the White House. Let’s print more money we don’t have to pay a bill we don’t need, and go deeper into a hole that we DO have.
didn’t lucifercare require no reimbursement for doctors who make mistakes and want to charge twice for the same medical issue?
Not enough time and money to do it right the first time.
So let’s fix it with more money and more time. THIS time it will work for sure!
I hope they hire even more incompetent idiots to fix the “glitches”
bump
No, it's a way to be able to blame somebody else when they don't spend the money.
It just needs more money.
Typical Dem.
Thanks, Steny.
I hope the Americans out of work and on reduced hours appreciate your comment for what it is.
Dhim, very Dhim.
As long as the GOP ignores Rush and stops interfering with the news stories about how bad Obama-care is, then the Obamacare deterioration will create a souring on Obama-like big government solutions.
The shutdown is over. Those crisis news themes are over.
Now the current juiciest crisis news theme after the shutdown debt limit is what a disaster Obamacare is and how January 1 is coming soon.
It no longer :
When will the GOP pass clean a CR to open the government?” or
“Why does the GOP want to stop Americans from getting health care?”
Its now :
“Why is Obamacare so ... f....ed up?”
So it begins...”If we only had more money for Obamacare.”
(”Politicians say more taxes will solve everything
and the band played on... Ball of Confusion-Temptations 7 May 1970. Nothing’s changed.)
This morning Greenspan tried to explain that Social Security and Medicare are welfare programs since the tax money you’ve sent has already been spent. A majority of people do not understand that.
We’re so screwed.
Exactly! Let's no forget John McCain, Graham, King and the rest of that RINO gang went public validating the democrats' false premise that the GOP House shur down the government.
I'm not voting for the re-election of my "republican" Senator in Nov. 2014. Better to have a democrat in the seat blaming the republicans than it is to have a republican sitting in that seat blaming republicans. At least we can call the democrat statements "political rhetoric" and be believed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.