A pair of Senators – one Democrat and one so-called “Republican” – want to delay the most controversial portion of U.S. President Barack Obama’s socialized medicine monstrosity by one year.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) are introducing legislation that would delay Obamacare’s individual mandate by one year.
“We need to start working together to fix this law and make it work so that all Americans have access to affordable and reliable health care coverage,” Manchin said in a statement.
Really? Clearly these guys aren’t familiar with the way Obama runs Washington, D.C. He doesn’t ask permission – he does what he wants (as evidenced by his unilateral decision to delay the controversial “employer mandate” component of Obamacare).
Law? He don’t need no stinkin’ law …
Here’s the other irony of Mankin and Kirk’s proposed resolution: Delaying the individual mandate won’t fix Obamacare.
For starters, the mandate is one of several new taxes contained in the legislation that’s necessary to fund its various provisions. Seriously … how else do you think Obamacare is going to pay for all that “expanded coverage?”
Delaying yet another revenue generating component of the legislation would begin to put a real strain on the law’s ability to pay for itself – jeopardizing Obama’s promise that it will not add a single penny to the deficit.
So … what’s an administration to do?
The sticky situation in which Obama and his law currently find themselves was summed up neatly in a column last week by Marc Theissen – which focuses on the mandate debate within the context of Obamacare’s biggest broken promise, the one about being able to “keep your existing health care plan.”
“Because of the Web site fiasco, Americans losing their current insurance because of Obamacare can’t sign up for new insurance under Obamacare,” Theissen wrote. “That leaves them with two choices: Pay the skyrocketing rates now being demanded by insurers to keep comparable coverage on the individual market (because Obamacare mandates and regulations have driven prices through the roof), or go without coverage. Many can’t afford the exorbitant replacement plans. So unless Obamacare starts working as advertised, massive numbers of currently insured Americans could find themselves without insurance on Jan. 1.”
Wow …
So in other words, Obamacare is yet another government program sucking up tax dollars to do precisely the opposite of what it was supposed to do.
Only on a massive scale …
32 comments
yeah! That money could go to rebuild Afghanistan, or invade Iran, or Syria!
…not to mention if we cut back on this stupid home improvement stuff, we could give Israel the loin cut again.
Nobody mention Israel’s insurance mandate! Shh! None of our closest allies have universal health care!
We don’t have any close allies after five years of President Obama.
You’d think he’d be able to have fixed that by now.
I’m not sure he’s done breaking it yet – At least Blair, Sarkozy, Omert and Merkel still liked us when Bush left.
It’s often said that diplomacy is the art of lying for one’s country, and that a skillful diplomat is one capable of fabricating credible lies. But lying has its limits, even for diplomats. Listen to Price Floyd, who served as director of media affairs at Condoleezza Rice’s State Department:
“We have eroded not only the good will of the post-9-11 days but also any residual appreciation from the countries we supported during the Cold War. This is due to several actions taken by the Bush administration, including pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol (environment), refusing to take part in the International Criminal Court (rule of law), and pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (arms control). The prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib and the continuing controversy over the detainees in Guantanamo also sullied the image of America.
Collectively, these actions have sent an unequivocal message: The U.S. does not want to be a collaborative partner. That is the policy we have been “selling” through our actions, which speak the loudest of all.”
Floyd goes through a laundry list of the sorts of things needed to reverse these depressing developments. His analysis is spot on, and his prescription is extremely sensible.
Bush, and the Bushies who supported his every colossal mistake without wavering, collectively told our allies to “drop dead.” Pouring French wine into the gutter, serving “freedom fries,” not to mention dub’s “shoulder rub” to Angela Merkle… the dumbass in the china shop made a mockery of the United States as a sober superpower and the entire idea of diplomacy.
Funny thing – the Bush Administration “decamped” over five years ago and thing have gone from bad to much, much worse
We all have our opinions. I wipe mine.
Plenty of our Allies have universal care – and most of their systems are as broke as their governments.
Obamacare is a rabid dog
Kill it, Kill it now
Buck Farack
more like a crocodile that eats its own…….
the fearful crocodog! (OMYGODI’VEBEENWATCHINGTOOMUCHSYFY!)
I blame the republicans during Bush Jr’s administration. They mismanaged the gov’t so terribly that they gave away the White House and both houses of congress in two elections. Had they shown some fiscal responsibility and/or pulled out of the Iraq War, they would have been able to stop the ACA.
(In GW’s smarmy voice) “But we need to stay the course.” “The Iraqi pee-pull are fighting for their freedom and it is imperative that we stay the course.”
You are on to something. President Reagan carried the torch of Republican conservatism, reinvigorated by William Buckley Jr since the 1950’s. Four years of Bush 1 and eight years of Bush II killed the conservative movement and Reagan’s legacy. Further damaging the Republican brand, Bush II did nothing to build the party leaving no viable experienced GOP candidates for 2008 or 2012 for President. It boils down to the Bush family interests and loyalties they advanced destroying Reagan Republicans and smashing Blue Dog Democrats.
Dead on arrival, Reid will likely bury it.
Manchin’s a Democrat? Hard to tell, the way he votes.
The aca website is working tonight, Even without any subsidies (I’ll get a small one) the prices are better than what I (with wife 2 kids) pay now (I could replace siver with platinum for same cost) . Yo.
Liar
Pytel calling someone a liar is like Chris Christie being a poster boy for slimfast.
Not so much.
If you’re going to troll, you’ll have to do a lot better than that. Yo.
You’re always trolling and you’re certainly not “doing better than that” fool . . .
Your welcome!
And so you signed up and made your first payment arrangement, right?
“Delaying yet another revenue … would … jeopardizing Obama’s promise that it will not add a single penny to the deficit.”
Why would keeping a promise matter to Obama? The only one he remotely kept is Obamacare itself and it is a far cry from wht he ran on.
Gitmo – nope, still there
Afghanistan – nope, still there
Iraq – nope, still have troops there (yes we do boys and girls)
State of the World Report – are you kidding? After he promised to improve our standing in the world and then basically turned most of the rest of the world against us?!?
Veterans Jobs Corps – nope
Offshore Tax Deductions – nope
Buffett Rule – nope
Repeal DOMA – nope, just throroughly muddied the waters
Creat a Secratary of Business – nope (thank GOD)
Non-Discrimination Act – nope
Clean Electricity – no, just made it more expensive by threatening coal production
Screw the delay, push this thing through the way Obama wanted it done before finding out the whole system is so fucked up it’ll never work.
If you’re going to troll, you’ll have to do a lot better than that. Yo.
This cluster fuck is by design. Creating chaos that will be “fixed” with a single-payer system.
It’s never happen. Hey GOP why don’t you expand Medicaid in South Carolina so that thousands of poor needy families can get health care? That would be a good start to demonstrate how you care about people. But you don’t, and it won’t happen. What would Jesus do????
Why don’t you give everything you have to the poor, including your clothes?
CBO estimates of budgetary impact are much too low. They will have to update them soon.