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.
OK. We are going through all this drama because 30 million Americans didnt have health insurance?
Delicious
And today at his presser, didn't Idi Obama announce that the ONLY plans canceled were sub-par, garbage health plans that HE will ALLOW to be reinstated so that people can keep their sub-par, garbage health plans for another year before they get re-canceled?
....but it really was an effort to take over the Health Care Industry!
“If they are thinking about subsidizing the insurance companies to cover this the price is going to wipe out the entire GDP. “
And you think the media can’t get enough voters to do just that...
Because the voters are too smart?
Because the voters don’t want ‘free stuff’?
Because the media wouldn’t lie?
The only way I can see to pay for Obamacare is to invade China and take all it’s wealth and enslave it’s peoples LOL!
He doesn't want either the House bill or the Senate bill to pass,.
Send him their new address back in their home districts where he can send their final checks.
Why does Congress even bother?
The emperor will just make a decree.
Nice!
From the results of the signups, it looks like only 22% of those who were uninsured intend to take advantage of obamacare, so we only needed to account for 6 million -
what would it have cost to pay 6 million people’s premiums?
Not what obamacare costs.
If they are thinking about subsidizing the insurance
Conventional wisdom is they can’t do this because to get the money they would have to get it through the house....rutrow!!!
The insurance that will save boatloads of money - so much money that all of these special cases will be able to be covered at no added cost, not one thin dime - will need to be funded?
Only about 9-10 million legal residents wanted health insurance but could not afford it. The 45 million is the number who did not have employer provided health insurance.
NAIC STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING ONE YEAR EXTENSION FOR EXISTING PLANS
******************************************EXCERPT*****************************************************
For three years, state insurance regulators have been working to adapt to the Affordable Care Act in a way that best meets the needs of consumers in each state. We have been particularly concerned about the way the reforms would impact premiums, the solvency of insurance companies, and the overall health of the marketplace. The NAIC has been clear from the beginning that allowing insurers to have different rules for different policies would be detrimental to the overall market and result in higher premiums.
We have expressed these concerns with the Administration and are concerned by the Presidents announcement today that the federal government would use its enforcement discretion to delay enforcement of the ACAs market reforms in 2014 for plans that are currently in effect. This decision continues different rules for different policies and threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond.
In addition, it is unclear how, as a practical matter, the changes proposed today by the President can be put into effect. In many states, cancellation notices have already gone out to policyholders and rates and plans have already been approved for 2014. Changing the rules through administrative action at this late date creates uncertainty and may not address the underlying issues.
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...
Um, Congressman Cohen, I think it’s highly unlikely that they would get an A on that test. Their math is more deserving of an F.
Me either, but let's face it: the pansy men have a limit to their violence. Perhaps slapping someone with a purse. However, the women are pretty testosterone-laden. They might make it interesting instead of simply funny.
Heard our rat senator, Begich, in a commercial today saying that, if something is broke you keep working at it to fix it, you don’t give up. So, he voted to force this crap upon America unnecesarily, and then because it’s crap and doesn’t work at all, we have to keep working at it! That’s the American spirit! Keep working at putting those chains on America!
You’re right. I certainly wouldn’t want to get punched in the face by Janet Reno. She’s got arms like a truck driver’s...
You ever try to read 2,000 pages of computer code? You need two lawyers, a programmer, and an SEIU advisor and a solid month!
LOLOL.
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