Posted on 11/14/2013 2:17:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Furious congressional Democrats on Wednesday expressed exasperation with the White House for its bumbling implementation of ObamaCare.
The recent deluge of bad news on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act has sparked widespread anxiety among Democrats, who are trying to win back the House and retain control of the Senate.
Democratic leaders are straining to keep their members from turning against elements of ObamaCare amid pressure from angry constituents. They have pressed the White House to propose solutions to help assuage the anxieties of lawmakers deluged by complaints over canceled insurance policies.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said President Obama should never have promised that people would be able to keep their health plans.
“I listened to the president and I believed he was correct. I didn’t realize there were all these codicils attached to it. I think he was done a disservice. Someone should have stopped him and said — on his staff — ‘There’s this condition and that condition,’ ” Feinstein said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has planned a special meeting of the Senate Democratic Conference with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior administration officials for Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Reid declined to answer questions about the healthcare law’s faulty rollout until he had a chance to meet with White House advisers.
Obama called Reid on Tuesday evening to plot a strategy for healthcare and other issues as polls showed Democratic approval ratings sinking.
“We’re in the wild, wild west right now where everybody is working on their own ideas,” a senior Democratic aide said. “It would be better if we’re pulling in the same direction.”
On Wednesday, House Democratic lawmakers vented their frustration over the administration’s slow progress in fixing the law’s problems during a meeting with David Simas, the White House deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy, and Mike Hash, director of the Office of Health Reform.
Democrats said they were concerned about “being dragged into this nonstop cycle” of bad news, according to another Democratic aide.
The senior officials left House lawmakers unsatisfied by providing few hints to what steps the administration may take to stem the public backlash.
Republicans could barely contain their glee watching Democrats scramble to escape fallout from a law that GOP leaders predicted would be a disaster.
“Obviously, the panic has set in on the other side,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said. “It’s pretty clear now there’s a stampede developing among House and Senate Democrats away from ObamaCare.”
Pressure on Democrats increased further Wednesday afternoon when the administration released numbers showing that only 106,185 people had signed up for health plans through ObamaCare during the first month of the enrollment period.
A mere 26,794 people enrolled through HealthCare.gov, the website that became a joke on “Saturday Night Live” because of its many technical glitches.
Already five Senate Democrats have jumped onto a proposal sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would force insurance companies to allow people to keep health plans they like, even if they fail to meet ObamaCare’s strict standard.
The co-sponsors include Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), and Jeff Merkley (Ore.). Pryor, Hagan and Landrieu face tough elections next year.
In the House, two conservative Democrats, Reps. John Barrow (Ga.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.), have endorsed a Republican proposal that would allow insurance companies to continue offering plans that fall below the standards of the Affordable Care Act.
Hagan has seen her 15-point lead over North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) vanish over the last two months. A new survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, showed her up by only 2 points.
“The rollout and early implementation is not going the way it should, and North Carolinians deserve better,” Hagan said in a statement.
Close to a million people could lose their health insurance policies in California, and their complaints spurred Feinstein to sign onto Landrieu’s plan.
“The key in the decision for me was California constituents,” she said.
Unlike Landrieu’s legislation, the bill sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) would not place a mandate on the insurance industry.
Democratic leadership aides have warned those proposals could cause insurance premiums to swell in 2014 by keeping younger, healthier people out of ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges.
The White House has criticized Upton’s legislation as a thinly veiled effort to gut ObamaCare, but it hasn’t threatened a veto. Democratic leaders in the House have not indicated whether they will whip votes against it.
Just a month ago, House Democratic leaders — pointing to the government shutdown — were publicly getting more bullish about taking back the lower chamber.
A Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday showed Democrats tied with Republicans in a generic congressional match-up, down from the 9-point lead Democrats held over the GOP on Oct. 1.
One House Democratic aide warned that if the administration doesn’t provide a legislative fix by Friday, many members will “go crazy.” And unless it does, there could be a lot of defections to the Upton bill.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has a companion measure in the Senate. Every Republican in the upper chamber has backed it except for Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah).
Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.), a Democrat up for reelection in 2014, on Wednesday unveiled the Continuous Coverage Act, which would allow consumers to keep their current health plans through the end of 2015.
Democratic leaders hope administration officials can help get their party back on the same page by laying out a blueprint to improve the law’s implementation.
Republicans will not back Landrieu’s plan because they say it places an unconstitutional mandate on the insurance industry.
A senior Senate Republican aide said it could force some insurance companies out of business by requiring them to maintain unprofitable insurance plans for small groups of policyholders.
***********************This Pelosi?**********************
Video of Grandma "Mimi" Pelosi describing her 5-year old grandson's worries about Syria and how she, Mimi, described the gassing of hundreds of children (used her grandson's supposed concern) as a vehicle to "splain" Obama's plans to bomb "prick" Syria to the people of America).
And the Dims all made fun of the folks who thought that they should actually read the Bill before voting for it. They all knew that there was some really bad stuff (not counting the horrible precept itself) and did not want it known before it became "The Law of the Land". I wish someone would point this out to all the Dims who now claim they were blindsided.
Let me point out three simple facts.
1. Suspending this event and allowing insurance companies to revert back to “ok” policies at 2013 type rates....with the time left in this year....is a virtual impossible task. Some companies may have a set plan (hidden) and be prepared to come out in a week and save their old customers. But the bulk of the companies probably won’t engage on this, and if they did...they would have to raise the rates by twenty percent as a minimum.
2. Is there any proof that the gimmick Affordable Healthcare Act can even be fixed in twelve months? Let’s be honest and humble there.....anyone truly think it’d be working right with fifty-two more weeks?
3. Who says that the Republicans in the House would readily stand up and pass some Senate bill? If I were Boehner....I’d say fine, but there’s six other things I want attached to it. I’d want Holder removed as AG, I’d want the President to agree no campaigning for three months, and I’d want a budget deal that is highly desirable for Republicans.
It’s amazing to view this mess now, and the difference in media attitude back in early October....it’s like night and day.
Might have something to do with government snooping on the reporters and their sources.
They’re panicking big time!
The ba$tards voted for odumbocare and are trying to hide to avoid the fallout of failure. They know the voters are going to make changes and all they are worried about is saving their own hides and cushy jobs. Time they all get run off the farm and away from the gubmint trough.
Statement on the Current Health Care Debate
As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!
The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.
Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.
We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late.
- Sarah Palin
It’s time to send the Dems home and the collectivist/Progressive Pubbies, too.
Keep in mind that the only people who benefit from collectivism are the rich and the poor. Everyone else has to bend over and...
So, you "listened" to Obama and "believed" him and didn't "realize" what was in the bill.
Great going you doltette!
And you, Feinstein, should be totally rejected by the voters for not reading the bill and understanding what was in it and as such being derelict in your duties. What a great public servant you are!
They crafted this behind closed doors. They passed it without a single vote from the other side and the American people never approved of it.
THEY OWN IT. F THEM.
Forgot to add.....they also exempted themselves. (would they have done this if they DIDN’T know how bad it would be?????)
I love the smell of Shadenfreude in the morning!
No, if you were Boehner you’d cave—as always.
Someone should have stopped the smartest man on the planet? Basically what she is saying is that Obama is nothing but an empty suit who has to be managed and directed.
Dianne Feinstein's a useful idiot of the Communist... Obama KNEW he was lying. If he hadn't lied the damn legislation would NOT have passed. Feinstein wasn't born yesterday - she has to work at buying Obama's bullsh*t... and she is working at it - and working to deceive the rest of us into believing the poor Obama didn't know... Bullsh*t.
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