Shock: Obama, Biden Stop Mentioning Obamacare in Speeches; Obama Hopes to, Get This, Pivot to a Different Subject

Remember when Obama said he didn't mind that people called it Obamacare? And that people would like it so much that calling it "Obamacare" would be complimentary to him?

Yeah, well. I guess that's not happening. So pretty soon we'll be hearing -- again -- that calling it "Obamacare" is "racist" or something.

Ken Cuccinelli has found -- we hope -- a winning message for tomorrow's gubernatorial election: Obamacare. Obama and Biden, campaigning for the loathsome longtime Democratic bagman Terry McAuliffe, aren't mentioning their signature legislation.

Obama plans on blitzing the country with a whole bunch of minor initiatives to keep people from noticing that Obama just taxed the shit out of them and gave them worse health care.

Via the Wall Street Journal:

The president’s senior aides had at one time planned for him to be holding events aimed at encouraging Americans to shop for insurance on the new federal health-care website, with stops in places with high numbers of uninsured people. But the problems plaguing the site have forced them to shift strategies.

Specifically, this vile political animal's grab-bag of childish distractions will include plumping for some sort of thirtieth iteration on jobs, pushing for a big minimum wage increase, and finally doing something or other about gay rights.

But remember, he's for And The Middle Class.

JammieWF thinks he knows why. As Jake Tapper reports, documents have leaked showing that Obama's Obamacare "War Room" is panicked about What Comes Next.

Officials expressed concern that the next shoe to drop in the evolving story about the Affordable Care Act would be disappointment from consumers once they are able to get on the troubled HealthCare.gov website – disappointment because of sticker shock and limited choice, according to a new document obtained by CNN.

“Mike described a general concern of PM (Project Management): getting to the point where the website is functioning properly and individuals begin to select plans; the media attention will follow individuals to plan selection and their ultimate choices; and, in some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience. Additionally, in some cases there will be relatively high cost plans,” say the notes from the Obama administration’s Obamacare 'War Room' from one week ago.

AllahPundit games this out and figures it's going to take a lot of Distractions to draw the eyes away from the months and months of trainwreckage on the horizon.

The point, though, is that horror stories about people losing their doctors en masse are still to come and the White House is preparing for them. Which makes me wonder: Given all the political agony that’s in store for red-state Democrats up for reelection next year, how much longer can they afford to stand by the law? Even if the website’s fixed tomorrow, they’re staring at a parade of horribles well into 2014. Rate shock is the story now; the next story will be whether O-Care can possibly hit its enrollment targets in order to make the program sustainable. (This assumes that Healthcare.gov will begin operating smoothly soon. If it doesn’t, the next story will be all about Democratic panic and Obama’s bad options in minimizing the damage from a busted enrollment drive.) The next story after that will be people outraged at how their provider networks have shrunk. After that comes the March 31, 2014 deadline for enrollment; will the administration reach its target on that or will the deadline be extended, raising the risk of an adverse selection problem for insurers? And then, as a cherry on top, after a long summer of the GOP showcasing ObamaCare nightmare stories, insurers will release the 2015 rates next October and there’ll be a new flood of small-business employees agonizing publicly about how high the premiums are on their new exchange-bought plans. It’s nothing but sh*t sandwiches for Senate Dems until next November. How long before they lose their appetites?

Yeah, while Obama delayed the employer mandate to take effect until after the 2014 elections, he, get this, f***ed it up: While the mandate won't take affect until January 2015 or so, insurers will have to announce their new rates in October 2014... just before the elections.

“What genius came up with that timetable?” asked one Democratic operative.

Why, Obama, of course. The Smartest Man Who Ever Lived.

I imagine this will change. They're very transparent about their complete devotion to politics and partisan advantage.

Carl M. Cannon wonders if the failure of Obamacare will make the public re-evaluate the shutdown.

How fast the conventional wisdom can change. Only three weeks ago, the liberal commentariat —joined by some hand-wringing Republicans—proclaimed the death of Tea Party, but not before it had stampeded the GOP over the precipice of extremism.

Yet, in our fast-moving world, the government shutdown of 2013 already seems an afterthought. The Affordable Care Act, by contrast, is not going anywhere. For those who do want to re-litigate the shutdown, the underlying rationale of the recalcitrant House Republicans, and their much-maligned Senate allies, suddenly doesn’t look so idiosyncratic.

...

“All the people a few weeks ago [were] saying there is no way you can win this fight,” [Ted Cruz] told Greta Van Susteren. “They also said there is no way any D’s are going to flip. We are starting to see Democrats flip as this thing—it’s a train wreck—it’s not working. In any political fight, when the truth is on your side, you are in a good situation.”

You guys know what happens when Obamacare fails to sign up enough young, healthy Taxable Units and the insurance companies incur major losses? Have you heard? @benk84 linked this in the Morning News Dump, but it's worth highlighting.

What happens is, get this, a huge federal bailout already provided for in the law itself.

You know what I love about this administration the most? Its transparency and eagerness to share real information with the public.

Which is a trait his minions share with Obama. They apparently keep reporting a Twitter account, which promotes stories about people's insurance being cancelled, as "spam," and then Twitter dutifully suspends the account.

Little update to an earlier story: Jonathan Karl asked Obama's Comically Evasive Mouthpiece Jay Carney about people not being able to sign up over the phone for Obamacare, as Obama had promised.

Jay Carney answered testily, answering, basically, that even though what Obama said was another Gigantic Lie, the people who were lied to won't have to waste their time going through the website anymore.

That link above is to the Vine (a short video) of Carney's angry response.

Note how Carney tries to shut Karl up using social pressure -- bullying -- by noting that his Nice Liberal Colleagues all "get it," and are giving Karl "quizzical looks" for asking about yet another Obama lie.

And, Open Thread.

posted by Ace at 06:52 PM

| Access Comments