Do You Believe Obama This Time? How About Now? …Now?

[Valin]

The foundry:

Amy Payne

November 15, 2013

 

Once upon a time, Obamacare was * settled law that was here to stay. Or so President Obama saidbefore Obamacare failed to survive contact with reality.

 

The reality is that the Administration is delaying the impact of major parts of the law, including the employer mandate and now the benefit mandates for health plans.

 

Theres a slight problem: As the President so readily reminded us, Obamacare is still the law of the land. Without undoing the law, everything that has people up in armsthe higher costs, mandates, plan cancellationswill still happen.

 

(Snip)

 

* You tube

[Valin]

Thread 1

 

Thread 2

 

Thread 3

[Valin]

What we learned about Obamacare today: Nov 14th, 2013

Natalie Scholl

November 14, 2013

 

[Valin]

Obamacare, meet Hayek

James Pethokoukis

November 14, 2013, 3:20 pm

 

The entire of Obama press conference today played out like some Hayekian cautionary tale where a befuddled central planner complains about the complexity of real life. As the president put it: What were also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.

 

Yup, reality is more complicated on the ground than from 30,000 feet or from White House meeting rooms. But Obamas discovery has led to no humility. In theory, insurers might be able to extend health insurance policies ones that might otherwise be canceled next year for current policyholders, thanks to Obamas administrative decision today. But maybe only in theory. Here is Jim Donelon, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners:

 

 

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. We look forward to learning more details of this policy change and about how the administration proposes that regulators and insurers make this work for all consumers.

And insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski:

 

 

This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer systems for policies, rates, and eligibility, send notices to the policyholders via US Mail, send a very complex letter that describes just what the differences are between specific policies and Obamacare compliant plans, ask the consumer for their decision and give them a reasonable time to make that decision and then enter those decisions back into their systems without creating massive billing, claim payment, and provider eligibility list mistakes.

But those are hardly the only issues:

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/CTJcIVJFLao

[nickydog]

Oh, heck. I think he would have been a good president. What an attractive couple.

[SrWoodchuck]

Fouad Ajami: When the Obama Magic Died http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579196440800552408

 

By Fouad Ajami Nov. 14, 2013 6:59 p.m. ET

 

The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more significantly, in the man himself. Charisma is like that. Crowds come together and they project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. The redeemer leaves the crowd to its imagination: For as long as the charismatic moment lasts—a year, an era—the redeemer is above and beyond judgment. He glides through crises, he knits together groups of varied, often clashing, interests. Always there is that magical moment, and its beauty, as a reference point.

 

Mr. Obama gave voice to this sentiment in a speech on Nov. 6 in Dallas: "Sometimes I worry because everybody had such a fun experience in '08, at least that's how it seemed in retrospect. And, 'yes we can,' and the slogans and the posters, et cetera, sometimes I worry that people forget change in this country has always been hard." It's a pity we can't stay in that moment, says the redeemer: The fault lies in the country itself—everywhere, that is, except in the magician's performance.

 

Forgive the personal reference, but from the very beginning of Mr. Obama's astonishing rise, I felt that I was witnessing something old and familiar. My advantage owed nothing to any mastery of American political history. I was guided by my immersion in the political history of the Arab world and of a life studying Third World societies.

 

In 2008, seeing the Obama crowds in Portland, Denver and St. Louis spurred memories of the spectacles that had attended the rise and fall of Arab political pretenders. I had lived through the era of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser. He had emerged from a military cabal to become a demigod, immune to judgment. His followers clung to him even as he led the Arabs to a catastrophic military defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. He issued a kind of apology for his performance. But his reign was never about policies and performance. It was about political magic.

A leader who set out to remake the health-care system in the country, a sixth of the national economy, on a razor-thin majority with no support whatsoever from the opposition party, misunderstood the nature of democratic politics. An election victory is the beginning of things, not the culmination. With Air Force One and the other prerogatives of office come the need for compromise, and for the disputations of democracy. A president who sought consensus would have never left his agenda on Capitol Hill in the hands of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

 

Mr. Obama has shown scant regard for precedent in American history. To him, and to the coterie around him, his presidency was a radical discontinuity in American politics.

 

Via TheoSpark

[SrWoodchuck]

Great Steyn here....but beware of the giant dick-tater's mug that greets ya at the link!

 

Thus Spake Obama http://m.nationalreview.com/article/364093/thus-spake-obama-mark-steyn

 

The incompetence of our neo-monarchy

By Mark Steyn

 

It is a condition of my admission to this great land that I am not allowed to foment the overthrow of the United States government. Oh, I signed it airily enough, but you’d be surprised, as the years go by, how often the urge to foment starts to rise in one’s gullet. Fortunately, at least as far as constitutional government goes, the president of the United States is doing a grand job of overthrowing it all by himself.

 

On Thursday, he passed a new law at a press conference. George III never did that. But, having ordered America’s insurance companies to comply with Obamacare, the president announced that he is now ordering them not to comply with Obamacare. The legislative branch (as it’s still quaintly known) passed a law purporting to grandfather your existing health plan. The regulatory bureaucracy then interpreted the law so as to un-grandfather your health plan. So His Most Excellent Majesty has commanded that your health plan be de-un-grandfathered. That seems likely to work. The insurance industry had three years to prepare for the introduction of Obamacare. Now the King has given them six weeks to de-introduce Obamacare.

 

“I wonder if he has the legal authority to do this,” mused former Vermont governor Howard Dean. But he’s obviously some kind of right-wing wacko. Later that day, anxious to help him out, Congress offered to “pass” a “law” allowing people to keep their health plans. The same president who had unilaterally commanded that people be allowed to keep their health plans indignantly threatened to veto any such law to that effect: It only counts if he does it — geddit? As his court eunuchs at the Associated Press obligingly put it: “Obama Will Allow Old Plans.” It’s Barry’s world; we just live in it.

 

The reason for the benign Sovereign’s exercise of the Royal Prerogative is that millions of his subjects — or “folks,” as he prefers to call us, no fewer than 27 times during his press conference — have had their lives upended by Obamacare. Your traditional hard-core statist, surveying the mountain of human wreckage he has wrought, usually says, “Well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” But Obama is the first to order that his omelet be unscrambled and the eggs put back in their original shells. Is this even doable? No. That’s the point. When it doesn’t work, he’ll be able to give another press conference blaming the insurance companies, or the state commissioners, or George W. Bush . . .

 

The most telling line, the one that encapsulates the gulf between the boundless fantasies of the faculty-lounge utopian and the messiness of reality, was this: “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Gee, thanks for sharing, genius. Maybe you should have thought of that before you governmentalized one-sixth of the economy. By “we,” the president means “I.” Out here in the ruder provinces of his decrepit realm, we “folks” are well aware of how complicated insurance is. What isn’t complicated in the Sultanate of Sclerosis? But, as with so many other things, Obama always gives the vague impression that routine features of humdrum human existence are entirely alien to him. Marie Antoinette, informed that the peasantry could no longer afford bread, is alleged to have responded, “Let them eat cake.” There is no evidence these words ever passed her lips, but certainly no one ever accused her of saying, “If you like your cake, you can keep your cake,” and then having to walk it back with “What we’re also discovering is that cake is complicated to buy.” That contribution to the annals of monarchical unworldliness had to await the reign of Queen Barry Antoinette, whose powdered wig seems to have slipped over his eyes.

 

Still, as historian Michael Beschloss pronounced the day after his election, he’s “probably the smartest guy ever to become president.” Naturally, Obama shares this assessment. As he assured us five years ago, “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors.”

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

[SrWoodchuck]

Won't you please help us find FLOTUS?

 

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/11/wont-you-please-help-us-find-flotus.html

 

We're growing concerned and the helpful uber-progressives at The People's Cube have created their own poster.

 

One would think that after using her substantial influence in selecting Obamacare's website developer, she should be alongside her husband, sharing in the well deserved praise from an admiring public.

 

Perhaps her characteristic modesty explains why we don't see much of her these days.

 

Other possible explanations by the kollective would be greatly appreciated.

 

Krasnodar
Vagabond of the Outer Parts
& Concierge Lobotomist

 

 

 

 

Peoples Cube: http://www.thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/where-s-michelle-t12190.html

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

[nickydog]

Great Steyn here....but beware of the giant dick-tater's mug that greets ya at the link!

 

Thus Spake Obama http://m.nationalreview.com/article/364093/thus-spake-obama-mark-steyn

 

The incompetence of our neo-monarchy

By Mark Steyn

 

It is a condition of my admission to this great land that I am not allowed to foment the overthrow of the United States government. Oh, I signed it airily enough, but you’d be surprised, as the years go by, how often the urge to foment starts to rise in one’s gullet. Fortunately, at least as far as constitutional government goes, the president of the United States is doing a grand job of overthrowing it all by himself.

 

On Thursday, he passed a new law at a press conference. George III never did that. But, having ordered America’s insurance companies to comply with Obamacare, the president announced that he is now ordering them not to comply with Obamacare. The legislative branch (as it’s still quaintly known) passed a law purporting to grandfather your existing health plan. The regulatory bureaucracy then interpreted the law so as to un-grandfather your health plan. So His Most Excellent Majesty has commanded that your health plan be de-un-grandfathered. That seems likely to work. The insurance industry had three years to prepare for the introduction of Obamacare. Now the King has given them six weeks to de-introduce Obamacare.

 

“I wonder if he has the legal authority to do this,” mused former Vermont governor Howard Dean. But he’s obviously some kind of right-wing wacko. Later that day, anxious to help him out, Congress offered to “pass” a “law” allowing people to keep their health plans. The same president who had unilaterally commanded that people be allowed to keep their health plans indignantly threatened to veto any such law to that effect: It only counts if he does it — geddit? As his court eunuchs at the Associated Press obligingly put it: “Obama Will Allow Old Plans.” It’s Barry’s world; we just live in it.

 

The reason for the benign Sovereign’s exercise of the Royal Prerogative is that millions of his subjects — or “folks,” as he prefers to call us, no fewer than 27 times during his press conference — have had their lives upended by Obamacare. Your traditional hard-core statist, surveying the mountain of human wreckage he has wrought, usually says, “Well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” But Obama is the first to order that his omelet be unscrambled and the eggs put back in their original shells. Is this even doable? No. That’s the point. When it doesn’t work, he’ll be able to give another press conference blaming the insurance companies, or the state commissioners, or George W. Bush . . .

 

The most telling line, the one that encapsulates the gulf between the boundless fantasies of the faculty-lounge utopian and the messiness of reality, was this: “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Gee, thanks for sharing, genius. Maybe you should have thought of that before you governmentalized one-sixth of the economy. By “we,” the president means “I.” Out here in the ruder provinces of his decrepit realm, we “folks” are well aware of how complicated insurance is. What isn’t complicated in the Sultanate of Sclerosis? But, as with so many other things, Obama always gives the vague impression that routine features of humdrum human existence are entirely alien to him. Marie Antoinette, informed that the peasantry could no longer afford bread, is alleged to have responded, “Let them eat cake.” There is no evidence these words ever passed her lips, but certainly no one ever accused her of saying, “If you like your cake, you can keep your cake,” and then having to walk it back with “What we’re also discovering is that cake is complicated to buy.” That contribution to the annals of monarchical unworldliness had to await the reign of Queen Barry Antoinette, whose powdered wig seems to have slipped over his eyes.

 

Still, as historian Michael Beschloss pronounced the day after his election, he’s “probably the smartest guy ever to become president.” Naturally, Obama shares this assessment. As he assured us five years ago, “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors.”

 

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

 

 

"But on he staggers, with a wave of his scepter, delaying this, staying that, exempting the other, according to his regal whim and internal polling." Great line! The whole thing was good, but I especially like the image of him staggering forward confused, out of control, and almost ready to fall. The only thing is, we still have 3 more years of this awful mess.

 

(Edited for clarity and grammar. )

Edited November 16, 2013 by nickydog

[nickydog]

Won't you please help us find FLOTUS?

 

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/11/wont-you-please-help-us-find-flotus.html

 

 

We're growing concerned and the helpful uber-progressives at The People's Cube have created their own poster.

 

One would think that after using her substantial influence in selecting Obamacare's website developer, she should be alongside her husband, sharing in the well deserved praise from an admiring public.

 

Perhaps her characteristic modesty explains why we don't see much of her these days.

 

Other possible explanations by the kollective would be greatly appreciated.

 

Krasnodar

Vagabond of the Outer Parts

& Concierge Lobotomist

 

 

 

 

 

Peoples Cube: http://www.thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/where-s-michelle-t12190.html

 

Via DougRoss@Journal

 

 

Yes, I, too, have noticed we're not hearing from or about Michelle lately. Nothing about her vegetable garden, her work with military families, her promotion of healthy school lunches that nobody will eat. She's probably busy with her girls.

[Casino67]

I heard Mooch went to Toronto to study how Ford remains so popular with the electorate. She may find out that Barry has been eating the wrong thing.

[Valin]

Obama's about-face too little, too late for some insurers

Adam Sichko

11/15/13

 

 

Three health insurers faced a prescient question the night of Nov. 13: What if President Obama suddenly preserves health plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act?

 

At that Wednesday panel, the question was posed to Denise Gonick, the CEO of MVP Health Care; John Bennett, CEO of CDPHP; and Brian O'Grady, vice president at BlueShield Northeastern New York.

 

"The unanimous response was, 'That's impossible. Those plans are gone,' " O'Grady says.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Sollege Insurrection: College Professors are Also Losing Health Plans Under Obamacare

Aleister

Saturday, November 16, 2013

 

Those would be the same college professors who donated overwhelmingly to Democrats.

 

[Casino67]

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Via TheoSpark

[Valin]

Lies of Obamacare: From the Romer file

Scott Johnson

11/17/13

 

Byron York rescues from the memory hole a prescient June 2009 exchange between Georgia Rep. Tom Price and Obama CEA Chair Christina Romer. The exchange took place in a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on a draft of Obamacare. As Byron explains, “Price pressed Romer to cite a basis for the president’s ["if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan"] promise, and in the process predicted much of what would happen more than four years later, in late 2013. Obama’s promise fell apart right there in the hearing room.” Here is the exchange:

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[clearvision]

I think many of us here knew this from day one.

 

 

http://www.therightreasons.net/index.php?/topic/32865-the-obamacare-bad-news-continues/#entry335632

[Valin]

[clearvision]

Oh the hits keep coming....

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579182061106839366

 

The Affordable Care Act's greatest hits keep coming, and one that hasn't received enough attention is a looming favor for President Obama's friends in Big Labor. Millions of Americans are losing their plans and paying more for health care, and doctors are being forced out of insurance networks, but a lucky few may soon get relief.

 

Earlier this month the Administration suggested that it may grant a waiver for some insurance plans from a tax that is supposed to capitalize a reinsurance fund for ObamaCare. The $25 billion cost of the fund, which is designed to pay out to the insurers on the exchanges if their costs are higher than expected, is socialized over every U.S. citizen with a private health plan. For 2014, the fee per head is $63.

 

The unions hate this reinsurance transfer because it takes from their members in the form of higher premiums and gives to people on the exchanges. But then most consumers are hurt in the same way, and the unions have little ground for complaint given that ObamaCare would not have passed in 2010 without the fervent support of the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the rest.

[SrWoodchuck]

It's Hunting Insurance Season! Watch for bucks fleeing!

 

 

Via iOTW

[Valin]

 

 

 

 

 

 

H/T Steven Hayward

[Valin]

Not sure if this has been posted

 

27 Democratic senators who promised you could keep your health coverage

BYRON YORK

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

 

President Obama has taken a lot of heat for promising that if Americans liked the health coverage that they had before Obamacare, they would be able to keep it under the new law. But the president wasn't the only Democrat in Washington who made that false promise. Many, many other Democratic officeholders said the same thing.

 

In fact, the keep-your-coverage pledge was key to some Democrats' decision to support the Affordable Care Act. For example, when the bill was being debated, New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said, "[A] requirement that I have for supporting a bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that." For many Democrats, the keep-your-coverage pledge was not a throwaway line; it was a fundamental part of their case for Obamacare.

 

How many Democrats made the promise? There's no comprehensive list of all of them, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office has compiled a list of 27 Democratic senators who pledged that Americans could keep their coverage under Obamacare. The list includes the entire Democratic leadership in the Senate as well as Democrats facing tough re-election races in 2014, like Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich, and Kay Hagan. Here is that list, compiled by McConnell's office:

 

(Snip)

[nickydog]

 

 

 

 

 

 

H/T Steven Hayward

 

 

Good for Steven Hayward for being able to watch all 6 minutes of Nancy Pelosi's "incoherent duplicity." I could not.

[Valin]

Good for Steven Hayward for being able to watch all 6 minutes of Nancy Pelosi's "incoherent duplicity." I could not.

That's because you're a woman hating misogynist! All of us who have become truly Enlightened sit at her feet and drink in her wisdom.

Some sarcasm may be present