Posted on 11/13/2013 12:50:11 PM PST by Sub-Driver
November 13, 2013, 02:39 pm House Dems about to 'go crazy'
By Mike Lillis and Justin Sink
House Democrats on Wednesday expressed increasing frustration at the Obama administration’s inability to improve the rollout of ObamaCare.
Democrats said they’re worried about "being dragged into this non-stop cycle" of bad news about the ObamaCare rollout, rather than celebrating the successes of the law they helped to pass, a Democratic aide said.
"They're voicing those frustrations with the administration," the aide said following a Democratic Caucus meeting where administration officials got an earful from exasperated lawmakers. ADVERTISEMENT With the House vote just two days away, many Democrats are urging the White House to come up with an administrative alternative to legislation sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would allow insurance companies to offer their old insurance plans.
The GOP bill is a response to the nearly 5 million people who have seen their health plans canceled under ObamaCare.
Two centrist Democrats — Reps. John Barrow (Ga.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) — already have endorsed the Upton measure, but that number could rise if the bill comes up for a vote without a Democratic alternative providing some political cover.
A second Democratic aide warned that if the administration doesn't provide such a substitute by Friday, many members will "go crazy.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said President Obama would announce “sooner rather than later” his proposed fix for those who have lost their health insurance because of ObamaCare.
“You can expect a decision from him and announcement from him sooner rather than later on options that we can take to address the problem that we've been discussing here with regards to those individuals who have had their individual insurance plans canceled because of the transition to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” Carney said.
Separately, the White House spokesman said Obama had personally been consulting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about tweaks to his signature healthcare bill.
“The president does want to and is discussing with lawmakers the way we can make improvements to the program,” Carney said.
But Carney said that the White House was still wary of Upton’s bill.
House Democrats were briefed at their Wednesday caucus meeting by David Simas, the White House deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy, and Mike Hash, director of the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said the officials provided no hints as to what tweaks the administration is considering, or when they might surface. But the disgruntled message from Democrats, he added, was perfectly clear.
“They heard our caucus,” Pascrell said. “I wouldn't say [it was] heated, but very specific. In this business, you keep your word or get out.”
Meeting the press after Wednesday's meeting, Democratic leaders downplayed the friction between House Democrats and the administration on the ObamaCare rollout. But they also acknowledged the unrest among many in the caucus.
“We're Democrats and we're very passionate, especially when it comes to the issue of the Affordable Care Act,” Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) said. “There have been some frustrations about the rollout, but the reality is this is an enormous, an enormous, undertaking.”
Pascrell said the burden falls squarely on the shoulders of Democrats to fix the law they championed.
“We've worked too hard to get this passed, and in good conscience, we have to deliver to the American people,” he said. “I don't want to hear about the Republicans exploiting this. They're going to exploit every chance that they have. They didn't cause this particular problem. And so what I'm saying is that we'd better come up with an option or an alternative to Mr. Upton.” The Upton bill remained a topic of discussion after the meeting. Riding in a crowded elevator up to the House floor, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) asked Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a fiscally conservative Blue Dog, whether he would be voting for the bill. "I don't think so," Cooper replied. Moran then said, "I'm really torn up over this." He later told reporters that he would not be voting for the bill but wouldn't whip his colleagues against it.
Upton's legislation would allow the health insurance industry to continue offering bare-bones plans that existed before the beginning of this calendar year, even if they do not satisfy the minimum coverage requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
Supporters of ObamaCare have expressed concern that the plan would undermine healthcare reform because the younger, healthier consumers who are needed to keep premiums down would opt for cheaper plans rather than the fuller coverage offered on the ObamaCare exchanges. In turn, premiums would shoot up for sicker and older enrollees.
“We don't believe that proposed legislation that actually causes more problems than it fixes are the right way to go,” Carney said.
A similar bill championed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) in the Senate has garnered support from other influential Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said she would sign on to Landrieu's effort.
The House would be open to considering a Democratic-sponsored bill to fix ObamaCare, if the Senate can pass it, a key GOP lawmaker said on Wednesday.
Upton on Wednesday suggested the House could vote on Landrieu's bill, which would require insurance companies to offer the old plans.
"We wanted to pass a bill with bipartisan support — that's what the goal is, if [the Senate] can pass something, more power to them — let's fix the problem," Upton told a gaggle of reporters.
Yet some conservatives have expressed opposition to the Landrieu bill, which would impose requirements on private companies.
"Government can't be mandating that businesses must sell a certain product," Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said. "This is not the Soviet Union."
—Russell Berman and Molly K. Hooper contributed to this story.
This story was updated at 3:02 p.m.
The problem is that the "fix" just involves more coercive intrusion on the rights of individuals, on intrusion into and distortion of the insurance marketplace, on the future quality and proliferation of health care providers, and the damaging impact that their own regressive and arrogant assumptions is having on real individual American citizens and their families.
Just who do the Clintons, the Obamas, the Landrieus, the Feinsteins and all "progressives"--no matter how good they believe their intentions are--believe they are? That great intellectual freedom fighter, Author of the Declaration of Independence, and former President may have, inadvertently, identified them in the following quotation:
"The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately." —Thomas Jefferson
One other thought: lest the Democrats who laid this oppressive legislation on the nation by their votes now claim that they did it to "help" us and it is just "not working" as they intended, let them consider the words of C. S. Lewis about "moral busybodies" who use the coercive power of government to "do" their good:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C. S. Lewis
Yeah, passionate about a law you never read & voted for any way. GFY!
Celebration of what? Million reduced to part-time work? Millions more thrown out of a job? Millions paying skyrocketing health care costs, if they can get it?
Boy, these Marxists never change. I'm certain Pol Pot supporters were looking at the bright side too!
First of all, this is just another example of magical thinking by the Dems. They want to make all of this just “unhappen” because they’re so stupid they honestly think that they can just wave their magic wand and things will go back to being as they were.
Don’t they realize that the insurance companies have entered into new agreements with providers, that an entirely new structure has been set up, and that they can’t just magically back-track? But since most Dem legislators (or legislators in general) have absolutely no business or professional experience, they think all that is necessary is for the government to give a few more orders and it will all be restored.
Successes? Hey, your kids can stay infantile and glued to Mommy & Daddy until age 26! Isn’t that a success?
It appears it’s not just until age 26.
Those ads are targeted at all young hedonists -
“act as irresponsibly as you want, there will be no consequences, because ‘you got insurance’”.
All you nervous Dem politicians, you’re Marxists now. Enjoy the consequences of your liberty-damning votes.
If the poor Democrats are screwed by this law, they screwed themselves.
F ‘em all. the long the short and the tall, male and female alike.
I agree with you on all that - then why are there idiot Republicans introducing bills to allow insurance companies to roll it back?! The insurance companies won't of course, and then the GOP is a new part owner of the mess.
The GOP has to go Pontius Pilate on all of this.
Hey dems, you lived with the Turd-in-Chief...now you smell like the Turd-in-Chief.
You’ve known all along that he was 1) totally unqualified to even flip burgers, 2) doesn’t have the brainpower of the first Apple computer, and 3) has the morality of a Clinton.
Face it, dorks, your guy is a cretin. And you’re gonna pay for it.
Eat s**t and die.
Lol, best laugh of the day.
Democrats being driven crazy by Obamacare failures?
Gives social justice a new meaning. Hoo. Ray.
From a New Jersey Democratic Politician no less!
I guess the Dems are pretty pissed that their bonus checks are delayed until they get the minimum number of fleecees enrolled into the system...
Upton is a sucker.
Then they shouldn’t have voted for this job-killing freedom-robbing abortion! And they can all go to hell AFAIC.
Are not these the same people who blindly passed the Affordable Care Act, without reading the thousands of pages, without vetting the law, without hearing from the affected population?
Democrats are a part of the roll-out. They just want to somehow placate the people and keep them from complaining until after the next election cycle. They are screaming for that kind of action rather than actually looking into and repealing this unfair and unworkable law, and replacing it with something that makes sense.
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