Posted on 10/13/2013 5:25:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Numbers are slowly emerging, and they aren’t good for the president’s “signature piece of legislation.” The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has been an unmitigated disaster. After three years and $634 million, healthcare.gov has proven itself unable to handle even the traffic a local supermarket website would get. In other words, it’s not a problem of too much traffic crashing servers, the problems lie in the code itself.
Just like the problems with the website, the flaws in the program itself are structural. And this fact, provided they don’t screw it up, will be the greatest asset of Republicans going forward.
The president and Democrats have been playing chess while Republicans have been playing checkers. Progressives have shown a disinterest delaying Obamacare for a year and a willingness to harm anyone, from kids with cancer to veterans of all ages, to protect this government power grab. Let ‘em have it.
I realize that’s a controversial statement to make and opens me up to calls of “SQUISH,” but hear me out.
Obamacare enrollment has, by all accounts, been anemic. For the plan to stand a chance of surviving it needs at least 7 million enrollees, but is on pace for about a quarter of that, if the numbers leaked so far hold up. With so few enrollees, the plan is unworkable. Older and less healthy Americans are most likely to sign up, and no insurance market can survive if only those who will have more in claims than they pay in premiums sign up.
Just as no car insurance company could survive if only drivers sign up who wrap a car around a telephone pole every week per week, no health insurance plan can survive if only those likely to need health care sign up.
The structural flaws of Obamacare are in its conception. The progressive architects of the ACA worked under the delusion that everyone without health insurance wants health insurance. That’s simply not true.
A quarter of Americans without health insurance before Obamacare made more than $50,000 per year. Were they bothered by their lack of insurance, they could have remedied it. They didn’t.
They’re young, and young people labor under the delusion they are “10 feet tall and bullet proof.” They’re willing to risk going without because they’d rather have the money in their pockets. And, to be honest, the statistics are on their side.
Now they’re required to buy insurance. Well, not required exactly. They can refuse to and, rather than spending hundreds of dollars per month for a plan they’ll likely not use, they can simply pay a small fine. Thousands of dollars next year vs. $95 and the ability to buy insurance for the same price ex post facto were something catastrophic to happen. The young and healthy uninsured would be foolish to buy health insurance under that scenario.
If the young and healthy take the logical path and decline to enroll, premiums will skyrocket in 2015 even more than they already have. Companies will stop selling plans in the exchanges because they’ll have no choice. And, unfortunately for Obamacare proponents, the logical path is also the easy path.
For Obamacare to implode, the young and healthy need only do nothing, and young people excel at doing nothing.
Democrats’ refusal to delay the individual mandate for a year was an inadvertent gift to Republicans. The system as it is can’t survive. They refused to change it. Now they have to be made to live with it.
The New York Times once wrote, “Rarely has a government program that promised so much to so many fallen apart so fast.” This wasn’t about Obamacare, this was about the only entitlement ever to be repealed – Medicare Catastrophic Coverage in 1989. What happened then is the most likely outcome for Obamacare.
Medicare Catastrophic offered all seniors new health benefits for a small fee. Only most seniors already had what the government was offering from private companies or didn’t want them. Much like Obamacare, it was a solution for everyone to a problem faced by few. And just like Obamacare, everyone was forced to comply with it to spread the cost around.
Back in 1989, the cost to seniors was a mere $12 per month. That may not seem like much, and it wasn’t, but seniors didn’t want it and they revolted. What passed with much fanfare just a year earlier was quickly repealed. Not replaced, repealed.
When people get a taste of what Obamacare is serving them next year (not in the abstract as it is now, but in reality), not just higher premiums, loss of their current plan and doctor but incredibly high deductibles, they will want scalps. And there will only be one party to blame – the Democrats.
Checkmate, provided Republicans learn to play chess.
Democrats may not act the way they did in 1989, but unlike 1989, 2014 is an election year. If they refuse to act, voters can. That is, unless Republicans let them “fix” the problems as they inevitably develop.
Obamacare is the plan Democrats wanted, it’s what they wrote and voted for. The only option Republicans should offer to “fix” the problem should be full repeal and replacing it with a free-market option. Democrats will refuse, and when they do they should get nothing in return.
Unfortunately, unlike Democrats, Republicans are not a collective mind. There is actually diversity of thought on the political right. Some will be tempted to “work with” Democrats to fix problems as they arise. But those problems are fundamental, not tangential. They can’t be fixed, they can only be postponed. And Washington is excellent at postponing problems, not so good at dealing with them.
Efforts must be started now to hold the caucus together when this day comes. All Republicans will never be on the same page, but if they start now they can at least ensure they’re working from the same book.
Every problem, every failure, every issue needs to be uniformly highlighted. They also need to collectively get behind a solution. The American Health Care Reform Act from the Republican Study Committee is a good place to start and should be used as a launching pad to finalize a plan they can all get behind.
As the old saying goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The last few weeks have proven this to be true. But the Democrats have a plan to fail, only not this quickly. If Republicans don’t highlight every Obamacare failure as a failure of Obamacare, of government control, and allow Democrats to execute their plan to blame their failure on the private sector, we will have lost.
It may seem like it now, but this whole battle is far from over. Conservative groups who’ve become adept at circular firing squads and playing checkers during a game of chess need to step up too. They need to dip into their deep pockets and make a concerted, long-term public education effort to do the job the media won’t do. They have to take to the airwaves and let disengaged and disinterested voters that the actions of the Democrats have cost them more money out of their pockets. That government control over the health care system has given them less options, lower quality care. And it’s only going to get worse.
There’s a perverted sense of satisfaction in sitting on the sidelines, arms folded, while what you said would happen happens. These Tea Party groups are quite good at it, and at making sure we lose less ground more slowly. This is their chance to show they can do more than that. This is their chance to show they, we, and Republicans, can actually think ahead, plan ahead and advance the ball.
It’s time to put the checkers away and start playing chess.
Pretty good analysis. But as to the it’s time to play chess recommendation I’m afraid we are more likely to see this scenario:
Boehner: Let’s play chess
Obama: I’d rather play Tic-Tac-Toe
Boehner: OK, you go first
Chess no, poker yes and it’s time to go all in, we have the cards to win.
I am almost convinced.
Funny, I never thought any of this was a game...
The analogy is lame...
The suggestions on how to win this argument are laudible, but I still do not have a lot of confidence in the ability of some of these moderate and elitist republicans to seal the deal...
Since there is really nothing any of us can do but add to the static these knuckleheads up there are receiving...
Part of me says to continue that effort, and the other says to save our energy and memory for what we can do to each and every one of these (proven) feckless wonders and primary them out...
Sounds drastic, unappreciative, anarchistic, but hey, while they are playing games, I believe the American people are not in the mood...
Just my opinion...
So what? Most of the people supported the crown during the 1st war of independence. It is time for the more intelligent to show the majority of morons the way of the constitution.
So many people do not have the courage to face the truth. The structual flaws of Obamacare are NOT bugs, they're features. Obamacare was designed to fail, as had been admitted to by Obama himself ahead of time and other Democrats since. Their plan to to impose Obamacare, destroy the private insurance industry and then tell us the evil insurance companies are at fault and the only solution is single-payer (ie total government takeover).
That's the plan, guys.
I see an image of skeet shooters all across America yelling “PULL!” and taking aim at tossed chess pieces and boards.
The Muslim Brotherhood has it all mapped out for the takeover of America.
best strategy is actually no strategy, give them nothing to work with.
NUTS
This author and all the other "moderate" Republicans, who tell us "do nothing" and Obamacare will collapse on its own are morons, who are incapable of playing checkers.
All Obama has to do it direct the Federal Reserve to print more money and he'll pay it out of the "free money". What government program has ever collapsed, genius'?
The chess versus checkers analogy is faulty as is the advice that goes with it. Fighting ObamaCare because of its implementation failures and logical flaws misses the point. It suggests an alternative, such as forcing young people to sign up as a remedy. In other words, it is the details of ObamaCare that are a problem the author faults and not the idea itself.
The plan suggested by the author, The American Health Care Reform Act is just another plan for federal intervention in an area where it has no Constitutional business. For example, why is tort reform a national issue when it rightly belongs in the states. Most of the bullet points concern the federal government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. It is just another GOPe plan to nationalize a problem and offer big government solution.
The author’s mild but gratuitous swipes at the Tea Party are also revealing of a GOPe mentality. One thing Boehner got right, this is no damn game, but the author thinks it is.
The New York Times once wrote, “Rarely has a government program that promised so much to so many fallen apart so fast.”
Another play on a great quote from across the pond...
“Never have so many owed so much, to so few...”
My addition:
“...who do not desserve it!”
At the end of the day, whatever happens to this gross violation of the public trust (notice I didn’t say Constitution) we deserve all the pain and suffering that will fall upon this country, because there was not enough of us able to make an impact on those we elected to stop nonsense like this...
Every election since 2006 has been a failure for one reason or another, and been said that they are “critical” to staving off the democrat jugernaut...With the exception of 2010, we have managed to put a monkey in the wrench in the form of a few principled sentors and representatives who have been pummeled by both sides of the political spectrum for their insolence, “how dare YOU criticize OUR status in government!!!”...
I find the reactions by King, McCain, McConnell et. al. to be reticent of a mode of political thinking that needs to be purged from its ranks...For those people that still believe those types of elected officials are just their speed...Well, there are plenty more of us that believe those people are just as guilty of continuing this problem as the shmups who are doing their best to make this law (nope, I should not have said that) “TAX” work...
The economy is already strained beyond its capability to sustain, and there are people out there with their heads stuck somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine...
And all of those people need to be ashamed of what they are signing off on by their stubborness...
Again, just my opinion...
Chess?
My hairy Obamahole.
Play Chicago politics.
Make them worry.
About everything.
Anything less is fruitless.
This is war.
Lets go!
I disagree. I believe what we need in Washington, are damned good POKER PLAYERS. Every one knows that these liberals, socialists and communists in Washington, are holding on to a PAIR OF DUECES, while we are holding on to a STRAIT FLUSH, All we need are a few more good poker players on out side, and call these people’s bluff. Does anyone believe that these people would allow a government shut down? If the government shuts down, everything that they introduced in this country for the last 100 years, would be shut down. This they cannot have. Just think? No more EPA, Dept of Education, et all. If the government shuts down, all of these people would be out of a job. Better for all of us.
Poker is a much better analogy here. They are pushing chips into the pot with an extremely weak hand, and are hoping that we (follow this author’s advice and ...) fold. The pot has now grown into an all-in, and they know that if they get us to fold, they will take everything (virtually unlimited political leverage, through perpetuity).
But their hand is weak. This is the critical moment, right now. ObamaCare is not yet fully functioning. They have not yet created the dependency, nor have they fully dismantled the old system. It is vulnerable.
We are holding top-pair, good-kicker. Against a weak hand, it is more than good enough, but some are holding out hope that we can draw pocket aces the next hand, and win it all then. But our opportunity is now: people are seeing how bad ObamaCare will be, yet it is still defeatable. We won’t get another opportunity like this for generations.
Once again the $95 lie. The amount is 1% with a $95 minimum. If you have a minimum wage Obamajob (28 hours per week), your gross pay is $ 10,556. I don't know exactly which line on the 1040 is used for the 1%, but 1% of 10,556 is $105.56 or more than the mythical $95.
Unfortunately we aren’t the ones at the table. Instead we are acting as the backer for the infamous Ohio Foldy, one of the worst players around.
The game is a rigged roulette wheel. The Democrats and Republicans run the game. They may argue with each other, steal from one another, and maybe even shoot each other sometimes over the profits but they’ll work together and fight to the death to protect the crooked game from outsiders or their marks. And the guy in the back room that owns the hall and the table and cuts the R’s and D’s in on the action - those are the Globalist Banksters.
This guy writes like the Marxists are disappointed at nobamacare’s problems. Not so. They are thrilled and hope even more problems appear. It’s all part of their plan to crash healthcare and then offer single-payer as the ultimate solution.
I’d bet money that the single-payer legislation has already been written. The regime is just waiting to spring it on us.
Yup. Fold now, and they will use their sizable chip-stack advantage to bleed us dry. Its like folding a decent hand in a tournament with only 8BB left. Even though it isn’t ideal, you just don’t fold.
The “chess” players are leading us over a cliff, and unfortunately have a lot of support within the party.
I still have one question for the “let them own it” crowd: Why have the Democrats (the supposedly superior chess players) been so willing to take such extreme political hits? Why did 2010 not derail them? Why did the loss of the Kennedy seat cause them to double down? Why were they willing to lose the house? Why are they alienating just about everyone, at this very moment (military, small business owners, park aficionados) with their scorched earth policy?
Maybe, just maybe, it is because they have a very, very, very good reason to make sure that the framework of ObamaCare is fully implemented, as soon as possible. And my question is: why would we play into their hands, given that we control the institution responsible for appropriations (ie - contrary to the McCain “we lost” claim, we actually won the vote, at least when it comes to funding).
Thank God for bad code, lousy web designers, and liberal incompetence.
In the end liberal communist, fascist, marxist, destroyers of all that is good, are really quite weak, just recognize there disadvantage and take advantage of it.
Bring back American jobs.
Now.
Tax imports. We need to employ people right here in America.
Huh?
This is completely relevant.
America is about to potentially enter into a fight for rebirth. A significant portion of that, will be in the fight for making things in America once again.
To Tea Party. But make stuff HERE.
“Go Tea Party”
Sorry about the mis-spelling. :D
Putin said playing chess with Obama was like playing against a pigeon. He would strut all over the chess board, knock over all the pieces and $hit everywhere.
Take away quote fixed, “...and the young(just like our government) excel at doing nothing.”
Not necessarily disagreeing with the sentiment, but this thread is about the attempted nationalization of health care, and how to stop it. Taxing imports in order to convince manufactures to bring back jobs is a completely different issue, and has little to no bearing on whether or not to defund ObamaCare.
Putin is exactly right. He figured that arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania out for what he is. (As did we)
I agree.
Republicans MUST now (and I mean right now) pass a competing bill in the House.
RIGHT NOW.
The House is under Republican control right now. Yet even in the house there is no clear Republican alternative to Obamacare.
Meanwhile we are sending jobs to China.
We need insurance for people who do not have jobs, and we need to bring back employment for Americans.
Both of those things.
Now.
The article has good points, however, it ignores the obvious- that the horrible boondoggle of the affordable health care act IS ON PURPOSE.
You are exactly right, but some in here just have a one track mind
The author assumes that the government has an interest in actually seeing an insurance market survive. The goal of Obamacide has been, from the beginning, to develop a aingle-payer system of health care. And when Obamacide collapses of its own weight, as it inevitably will, the destruction of the insurance market leaves only one option -- Uncle Sam.
Hunter's premise only survives in an environment where a free market is allowed, which liberals have no interest in fostering.
Therefore, Obamacide is the biggest chess game of all, and by advocating allowing it any sort of hold on American life, Hunter is the one playing checkers.
Exactly. This isn’t a chess game. Chess is where everyone’s pieces are in view. This is poker.
When your opponent is teetering on the edge of the cliff the proper response is to PUSH!
Regardless of how ObamaCare turns out, if the Conservative position isn't being pushed hard, the history will be written that Obama won and it was the Republicans fault.
I was careful to separate Conservative and Republican in that last paragraph. If the Republican position of 'we can fix ObamaCare' is what is pushed over the Conservative position of 'kill it', then the left wins by proclaiming that the Republican fix caused all the problems and that Republicans (and Conservatives) should never be allowed in public life again. At that point, ObamaCare is fait accompli no matter how bad it is. And if it is bad enough, the left will get their NHS.
If we try to fix the unfixable, we get blamed for any failures.
There are not enough of “the more intelligent” to overcome the votes of the less intelligent who do have the votes to keep the more intelligent at bay. The way things look, the country is, basically, doomed to eventual collapse. Unless, of course, the majority of the people begin to realize that, their own futures are in very deep danger; however, the democrats have been quite adept at keeping people clueless and ignorant at learning the real truth and the dire consequences that will follow.
The analysis misses the point in my opinion. Obamacare was designed to implode. We’ll be left with direct government control of healthcare — which is what they wanted all along. Obamacare can’t be fixed. It needs to be repealed.
The analysis misses the point in my opinion. Obamacare was designed to implode
++++++++++++++
I don’t think so although I’m sure we both agree that Single Payer is the goal and Obamacare is central to achieving that goal.
You think a failed Obacare leads in that direction.
I think a successful Obamacare leads in that direction.
One of us is wrong. Time will tell which one of us it is.
The time for chess was 20 years ago. It’s more Call of Duty time now. (:
Horsesh*t. The Pubbies have been playing chess and boxing by Queensbury rules for decades, while our Leftist enemies have been waging political guerrilla warfare. Pubbies and conservatives have been so concerned about holding the moral high ground, while the Leftist have been undermining us.
It's not time for chess, it's time to take the gloves off and use our enemies' tactics against them. Otherwise we'll still be sending wusses like McConnell, Boner and Ryan out to battle, while the Leftists send the likes of Attila, Genghis Khan and Che Guevara out to finish our country once and for all. It's time to fight for our Republic, not play political games.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
You could both be right, depending on how it fails and how it succeeds. The bigger threat I see is that it is even on the table as a national issue, so much that even GOPe types present a national solution. Must every problem be nationalized to require the intervention of the federal government? Education, mortgages, banking, housing, food - everything? Regardless of whether failure or success leads to single payer, the statists have succeeded. No problem in America is beyond the reach of the federal government.
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