Thursday, November 14, 2013

"'Fairy Tale' Continues as Obama Proposes Extralegal Obamacare Fix"

"In remarks today at the White House today, Obama said, "I completely get how upsetting this can be" lose insurance plans that I promised Americans would be able to keep. "To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear."
But there's a catch with president's proposed solution. The president is not proposing that the law be changed to allow all health insurance plans grandfathered into Obamacare's eligibility requirements.

No, instead the White House is saying that it will use "enforcement discretion" to allow illegal health insurance plans to be able to still be sold. That is, the Obama administration will not enforce the penalty on individuals for not having eligible health insurance plans and they'll allow the insurance companies to still sell so-called bad plans -- plans they technically can't sell under Obamacare.

"Under the White House’s approach, the Department of Health and Human Services will notify the nation’s state insurance commissioners that they have federal permission to allow consumers who already have such insurance policies to keep them through 2014," reports the Washington Post.

President Clinton famously dismissed Obama's candidacy for president of the United States by saying, "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen."

With Obama's reliance on "enforcement discretion," it would now seem that Clinton had a point -- and that the "fairy tale" continues.
Daniel Harper Weekly Standard.

27 comments:

Michael Haz said...

The Affordable Care Act is settled law. The President cannot choose to enforce only parts of it, nor can he change the effective dates of a Act that has been signed into law. Nor can he grant certain citizens exemption from that law.

He lied again. He cannot tell the insurance commissioners in all 57 states to disregard state law and re-institute the previously cancelled plans.

This is a total clusterfuck.

chickelit said...

We've seen how discretionary power gets wielded in an Obama Administration: IRS harassment based on party affiliation.

POTUS needs to yield, not wield.

(Like that will happen)

chickelit said...

He lied again. He cannot tell the insurance commissioners in all 57 states to disregard state law and re-institute the previously cancelled plans.

Practically speaking, it would be most expedient of Obama to get special assistance to those Congressional (D) districts facing reelection next year. Watch it happen. This man is a Chicago glad-hander.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Amazing, you mean Obama could tweak a disaster like ObamaCare into another friends of Obama porkulous.

How is it that Obama is still talking w/ any authority is the puzzle that keeps stumping me.

How reverential that press was.

deborah said...

"...Clinton had a point -- and that the "fairy tale" continues."

Oh, no he dint.

Mumpsimus said...

Megan McArdle notes:

"Remember that in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the mandate was a tax. And as a lawyer of my acquaintance points out, taxes have to be enforced uniformly; the Internal Revenue Service can pick and choose who it audits, but it cannot pick and choose who has to obey the law. If it declines to enforce the mandate against grandfathered consumers, it's conceivably opening itself up to a bunch of legal challenges."

chickelit said...

the Internal Revenue Service can pick and choose who it audits, but it cannot pick and choose who has to obey the law.

Rather obviously, McArdle ignores that the State of California, and the Holder DoJ does just that in "unrelated" cases.

chickelit said...

McArdle is all well and good until you realize that she's really on the other side.

Chip Ahoy said...

It is impressive how long the grown up have tolerated this. They've scrambled to cover him, he snaps the rug from under them, they scramble again, he snaps the rug again and some cover again and MOST DON'T

What took so long? Racist, or something?

But I wanted so badly to say and then my Comcast went out, the photo of Glinda the Good Witch of the North that Drudge ran at top and now has at the side, is real.

Yes. Look for yourself. It happened. One Halloween. Now that is ace matching of photo to item, I must say.

(This whole time I thought her name was Glenda and that is what I used to search)

The thing about rug snapping and tablecloth snapping, that is a clever trick, but it cannot be put back. Silly president isn't magic enough for that.

edutcher said...

IOW, this is only a 1 year delay and the axe still falls.

Sen Cruz, please pick up the white courtesy telephone.

test said...

Michael Haz said...
The Affordable Care Act is settled law. The President cannot choose to enforce only parts of it, nor can he change the effective dates of a Act that has been signed into law. Nor can he grant certain citizens exemption from that law.


I think had he not already done exactly this for explicitly political reasons (with immigration) he might get traction saying we need to allow this on an exception basis because the government screwed up the process. But since he's already proven the "exception basis" would be a lie, he can't.

There's a lesson there.

test said...

El Pollo Raylan said...
McArdle is all well and good until you realize that she's really on the other side.


(a) Is this so bad? If decent people like her had influence on "the other side" wouldn't the entire process be vastly improved?

(b) America isn't suffering because we include some moderate liberal priorities in our policies. We suffer when the far left enacts or "interprets" law. McArdle's a moderate. There are plenty of things she supports that I don't. But she's on "the same side" when facing the worst of the left.

Calypso Facto said...

The President cannot choose to enforce only parts of it, nor can he change the effective dates of a Act that has been signed into law. Nor can he grant certain citizens exemption from that law.

Horse has left the barn. Remember a little something called the delay of the Employer Mandate?

We live in a time of law enforcement at the discretion of the emperor. Because, Obama!

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Lem, did you make a bowl of popcorn?

bagoh20 said...

I feel like the child in a family where the Dad is abusive and addicted to gambling. No matter how broke he makes us or how bad he treats us, Mom keeps taking him back, thinking he'll get better, but he just keeps getting worse, telling her the same lies over and over and she keeps falling for it.

I'm too dependent and love my home too much to run away, even though I know I'd be better off safely away from him.

Mom, please, I beg you to stop this. Stop believing him. Make him stop. He's destroying us. Even if he can't help it, you have to protect us. The rest of us can't do it alone.

Mom, please!

Unknown said...

"It begins with the bungled rollout. If Washington can’t even do the Web site — the literal portal to this brave new world — how does it propose to regulate the vast ecosystem of American medicine?

Beyond the competence issue is the arrogance. Five million freely chosen, freely purchased, freely renewed health-care plans are summarily canceled. Why? Because they don’t meet some arbitrary standard set by the experts in Washington.

For all his news conference gyrations about not deliberately deceiving people with his “if you like it” promise, the law Obama so triumphantly gave us allows you to keep your plan only if he likes it. This is life imitating comedy — that old line about a liberal being someone who doesn’t care what you do as long as it’s mandatory.

Lastly, deception. The essence of the entitlement state is government giving away free stuff. Hence Obamacare would provide insurance for 30 million uninsured, while giving everybody tons of free medical services — without adding “one dime to our deficits,” promised Obama.

This being inherently impossible, there had to be a catch. Now we know it: hidden subsidies. Toss millions of the insured off their plans and onto the Obamacare “exchanges,” where they would be forced into more expensive insurance packed with coverage they don’t want and don’t need — so that the overcharge can be used to subsidize others."

-Krauthammer

bagoh20 said...

"Why? Because they don’t meet some arbitrary standard set by the experts in Washington. "

This house-of-cards law was mostly written by 20 somethings who have never had to purchase or negotiate for insurance in their lives. I bet most had never had a serious illness in their lives or used their insurance.

For the vast majority of use who have done those things, the old system was amazing for what it did with a difficult problem: saving your life affordably, and still treating people with needs and no money.

bagoh20 said...

Yesterday the President said he's gonna wake up everyday and work as hard as he can to fix this.

Fore!

bagoh20 said...

Actually he said he's gonna "continue to work very hard."

So we got that going for us.

Leland said...

Prosecutorial discretion is one thing. But mandating that tens of millions have adequate insurance while allowing millions to not have it and not pay the appropriate tax; that's not prosecutorial discretion. I'm not sure if "equal protection" would be a good argument, although according to Dems, opposition to inadequate healthcare amounts to a war on women; so allowing inadequate healthcare means unequal protection of women. Regardless of what argument is used, this stupidity will be tried in court if Obama attempts to continue with it. Keep in mind, legal arguments against the extention of the employer mandate are already developed and ready to be tried once Obama breaks that part of the written law.

bagoh20 said...

The worst part about how this President has operated is the precedent it sets. A couple more Presidents using this as the new baseline, and we have lost the American form of divided government and slide into some kind of procedural dictatorship with the checks and balances becoming just words thrown around. In the end, the people have to stand up and demand their government back. The best way to do that would be with a huge congressional turnover that keeps repeating.

chickelit said...

The best way to do that would be with a huge congressional turnover that keeps repeating.

We should demand and receive more exciting live coverage of House deliberations. Have you ever watched or even heard a good House of Commons debate? Sure, it's smaller and more intimate, but the drama can be fascinating. It would mean that elected officials ought to have more locutionary skills than average, but that could be a good thing.

I too am for weakening the Executive Autocracy -- for both Parties.

chickelit said...

Krauthammer:

This being inherently impossible, there had to be a catch. Now we know it: hidden subsidies. Toss millions of the insured off their plans and onto the Obamacare “exchanges,” where they would be forced into more expensive insurance packed with coverage they don’t want and don’t need — so that the overcharge can be used to subsidize others.

He forgot to add at the end that the subsidized "others" will assuredly vote democratic and thereby keep the new Ponzi scheme going.

Methadras said...

Urkel thinks he can issue edicts from his lectern to the press and viola! it's law. This is beyond clusterfuck, this is utter and total chaos.

Calypso Facto said...

“What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.”
President Barack Obama

Yesterday.

We're screwed.

Chelsea said...

Whats it gonna take for them to "fix" the mandate so that we don't get b*tch slapped by the IRS if we don't want to pay the companies who wrote this law for their own profit? Go watch the ObamaCare BitchSlap song on youtube. It's funny, but it's true. http://goo.gl/6eKXCg

Unknown said...

fOre! indeed.

(with the "O" as creepy Obama symbol)