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In a beyond-hypocritical and beyond-ironic article from 2009 entitled “Facts Are Stubborn Things,” WhiteHouse.gov declared that “if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them.” Of course, we all know now that these “stubborn facts” were bald-faced lies since the very beginning. The article, which is still up on the site at the moment, goes into a tirade against "the internet" for spreading “misinformation” to voters. The piece, written by White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips, blares that these internet people are lying when they have stated that people might...

In 2009 and 2010, President Barack Obama offered incessant promises that the arrival of the Affordable Care Act would mean savings for just about everyone and that everyone would be able to keep their doctors. Just last month, he told the Spanish-language network Telemundo that critics of his signature law were simply “wrong,” and that Americans would quickly develop an appreciation of its wonders after implementation began Oct. 1. If the president made any of these claims now, he would be laughed off the stage. Yes, the U.S. health-care system was deeply flawed before the Affordable Care Act. Yes, reforms...

America is lucky to have had two great social theorists: Yogi Berra and Richard Feynman. Had the Democrats heeded their words of wisdom when the issue of ObamaCare arose they'd not be sliding down the slippery slope they greased all by themselves. Yogi's warning is nice and succinct: "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Professor Feynman said much the same thing but in a few more words: "The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has...

Looking for a little extra cash? If you’re interested in defrauding taxpayers, it might be as easy as writing down a number on a form. The number is your income. The form is the Obamacare application. If you do not have “affordable” employer-sponsored health insurance and your income is between about $31,800 and $94,200 for a family of four (that is, between 138 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level), you qualify for an insurance subsidy through Obamacare. But when you apply for coverage in the Obamacare insurance exchange, it’s up to you to report your income accurately....

Most people find it difficult to lie; but most people are not White House Press Secretaries like Jay Carney. He finds lying quite easy to do. This week he flippantly dismissed Republican charges that Obamacare has forced employers to move away from full time employees because of the law’s oppressive requirements. With the kind of straight face only a studied liar could put on, Carney countered the charges by saying, “The data reflects that there is no support for the proposition that businesses are not hiring full-time employees because of the Affordable Care Act,” Now here’s the truth. The actual...

Last week, President Obama approved a one-year, unilateral (and thus illegal) repeal of ObamaCare’s requirements that the federal government verify the incomes and insurance options of people applying for the law’s new subsidies—a move that eviscerated the law’s anti-fraud protections. Rescinding anti-fraud protections is nothing new (or defensible). There is a very powerful fraud lobby in Washington, D.C. Normally, such steps just mean an increase in fraudulent and improper payments from the federal treasury, and a few more ignored reports from the Government Accountability Office and HHS Inspector General. Obama’s move, however, is so sweeping that he effectively expanded the eligibility...

Reid: 'Obamacare Has Been Wonderful for America' Daniel Halper July 14, 2013 9:46 AM Harry Reid said this morning that "Obamacare has been wonderful for America." "Obamacare has been wonderful for America," said Reid on NBC. "Six million seniors get wellness checks now, 3.1 million young people now have insurance that insurers can't rip off people anymore. That's why people got millions of dollars of refunds last year. If you have a pre-existing disability, you're covered. They should just get real and understand this is a law that's important. and they need to work with us to improve it."

the Affordable Care Act has a new, high profile set of dissenters: Unions. The leaders of three major U.S. unions, including the highly influential Teamsters, have sent a scathing open letter to Democratic leaders in Congress, warning that unless changes are made, President Obama’s health care reform plan will “destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.” If that’s not bad enough, the Affordable Care Act, if not modified, will “destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans,”

To hear the Alinskyian organizers tell it, their brand of organizing is all about giving the “little guy” civic tools to fight city hall on behalf of his own “self-interest.”   Of course, what they don’t tell you is that the little guy’s “self-interest” has already been determined by the organizer and that the civic tools in which the little guy is trained are no more than rubber stamps for national programs.   Take Arizona and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).  For anyone unfamiliar with the name, the IAF was Saul Alinsky’s prototype for faith-based organizing…organizing among religious institutions.  The...

Actors. Actresses. NFL football players. Baseball players. Librarians. Mayors. City councilmen. Members of AARP. The Obama administration is looking far and wide, leaving no stone unturned in a relentless search for…well…for help. Help with what? Help with getting people to enroll in health insurance plans this fall. And why is that? Because the administration is facing the very real possibility that its signature piece of legislation may fall flat on its face. Last week's announcement that the employer mandate will be delayed for a year and that income verification for people getting subsidies will also be delayed are the latest...

The White House held a background briefing Friday to discuss Obamacare implementation with a handful of journalists from liberal and progressive outlets.

House Speaker John Boehner today announced that the House will take votes next week on a one-year delay to both the employer mandate and the individual mandate in the president’s signature health care law. Boehner’s vow was instigated by the Obama administration’s decision last week to postpone implementation of the mandate for businesses. Thursday, the speaker ticked off examples of the types of people who would have to overcome the burden of the mandate – young professionals with student loans, single parents and families – and contrasted their struggle with financial companies, government contractors and big banks who stand to...

The White House held a background briefing Friday to discuss Obamacare implementation with a handful of journalists from liberal and progressive outlets. Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias posted a photograph to Instagram Friday featuring himself and other liberal journalists at the White House, with the caption “#thistown.” Yglesias’ photograph features American Prospect staff writer Jamelle Bouie and MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin attending the briefing.

A Republican Senate gang of 10 are pushing Congress  to strip all funding from ObamaCare, even as Senate Dems, Thursday, struck down a separate effort to kill the law’s most controversial mandates. With Senator Cruz leading the charge, the Senators  assailed the White House’s sudden decision to delay until 2015 the employer mandate, which requires businesses with more than 50 full-time workers to provide health insurance or pay fines. Via The Washington Times: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a bill with nine GOP co-sponsors to defund implementation of the Affordable Care Act, calling the 2010 law “a colossal mistake”...

On Obamacare, as on immigration enforcement and welfare requirements, Barack Obama is following the course that cost King James II his throne. He is dispensing with the law. James II was ousted in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, in large part for claiming that he could in particular cases dispense with -- that is, ignore -- an act of Parliament. (Shameless plug: Readers who want more information on this can consult my 2007 book Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers.) The law in question was the Test Act of 1673, which required that all...

“The point is, is that the mandate was not delayed. Certain reporting by businesses that could be perceived as onerous, that reporting requirement was delayed, and partially to review how it would work and how it could be better. It was not a delay of the mandate for the businesses, and there shouldn’t be a delay of the mandate for individuals.”— House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), news conference, July 11, 2013After all of the headlines in the past week, we were surprised to see Pelosi’s assertion that the “mandate was not delayed.” Indeed, just minutes before Pelosi made these...

In September 2009, President Obama promised the country that "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future." But it turns out Obama did sign such a plan — in fact, ObamaCare could add upwards of 180 billion dimes to the deficit in its first 10 years, an IBD analysis of various official budget reports found. According to the Congressional Budget Office's initial forecast made in March 2010, ObamaCare was supposed to cut the deficit a total of $124 billion in its first decade. Democrats seized on this to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In light of the Obama Administration’s recent announcement that it will delay the ObamaCare employer mandate until 2015, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) co-sponsored two amendments today that would delay the individual and employer mandates. The amendments were introduced by U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (Kan.) to the FY2014 Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill. “Picking and choosing which aspects of this flawed law to postpone is like riding a bike with one wheel – it simply does not work,” said Blunt. “I’ll continue to support efforts to repeal and defund ObamaCare so that we can prevent this deeply flawed law...

At least they aren’t losing their jobs, like so many others in this ObamaCare-ravaged job market, but it looks like the part-time employees of Wegmans grocery stores will be losing their previously excellent health care, per U.S. News & World Report:

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected a Christian university's challenge to President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare overhaul, which the school said unconstitutionally imposes costly burdens on large employers and infringes religious liberty.