.jpg)
Ron Fournier, a supporter of Obama Care, admits the obvious: It's getting difficult and slinking toward impossible to defend the Affordable Care Act. The latest blow to Democratic candidates, liberal activists, and naïve columnists like me came Monday from the White House, which announced yet another delay in the Obamacare implementation.
For the second time in a year, certain businesses were given
more time before being forced to offer health insurance to most of their
full-time workers. Employers with 50 to 99 workers were given until 2016 to
comply, two years longer than required by law. During a yearlong grace period,
larger companies will be required to insure fewer employees than spelled out in
the law.
Not coincidentally, the delays punt implementation beyond
congressional elections in November, which raises the first problem with
defending Obamacare: The White House has politicized its signature policy.
The win-at-all-cost mentality helped create a culture in
which a partisan-line vote was deemed sufficient for passing transcendent
legislation. It spurred advisers to develop a dishonest talking point—"If
you like your health plan, you'll be able to keep your health plan." And
political expediency led Obama to repeat the line, over and over and over
again, when he knew, or should have known, it was false.
Defending the ACA became painfully harder when online
insurance markets were launched from a multi-million-dollar website that didn't
work, when autopsies on the administration's actions revealed an epidemic of
incompetence that began in the Oval Office and ended with no accountability.
Then officials started fudging numbers and massaging facts
to promote implementation, nothing illegal or even extraordinary for this era
of spin. But they did more damage to the credibility of ACA advocates.
Finally, there are the ACA rule changes—at least a dozen
major adjustments, without congressional approval. J. Mark Iwry, deputy
assistant Treasury secretary for health policy, said the administration has
broad "authority to grant transition relief" under a section of the
Internal Revenue Code that directs the Treasury secretary to "prescribe
all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement" of tax obligations, according
to The New York Times.
Yes, Obamacare is a tax . . . . and the rest of Fournier's complaint can be found, here. Keep in mind that Fournier is an Associated Press lib who voted for Obama and supports the idea of real health care reform.
___________________
No comments:
Post a Comment