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How Red States Are Holding Back Obamacare
The New Republic ^ | January 19, 2014 | Jonathan Cohn

Posted on 01/19/2014 7:11:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Everybody knows that red state officials aren’t enthusiastic about Obamacare. Some of them are even trying to undermine it. But are they succeeding? Are they actually holding back the law? Here are two reasons to think the answer is yes—one somewhat ambiguous, one very clear.

The first—the ambiguous one—is some information that became a little more than a week ago, when the federal government released new information about the people enrolling in private Obamacare insurance plans. The data doesn’t reveal a lot of things. It doesn’t say how many people have actually paid premiums, for example. And it doesn’t say how many people had insurance before. But it does break down the numbers by state. For each one, plus the District of Columbia, you can see exactly how many people have signed up for a private insurance plan through one of the new marketplaces.

Analysts at the Kaiser Family Foundation have since taken those numbers, state by state, and compared them to the number of people eligible to get private insurance through the marketplaces. The result, in each case, is a percentage—the proportion of eligible residents who have signed up for private Obamacare plans. The analysts at Kaiser, a carefully non-partisan foundation, didn't take into account state political environments. The graph below, which I constructed, does.

Of the ten states that have the higher percentages, eight are solidly “blue,” in the sense that they voted for the Democratic president in the last three presidential elections....

(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; deathpanels; demagogicparty; democrats; gop; jonathancohn; memebuilding; newrepublic; obama; obamacare; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; zerocare
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1 posted on 01/19/2014 7:11:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What, no mention of Bush being at fault?


2 posted on 01/19/2014 7:14:21 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well, when you consider that AMERICANS never wanted any part of ObamaCare, this should have been expected. The only people who wanted ObamaCare were the ‘RAT politicians and their freeloading voter base.


3 posted on 01/19/2014 7:14:28 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (It appears as though our "living and breathing" Constitution has died.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Red" States?

This whole labeling thing needs to be reversed to label the commie/fascist/socialist states as "Red".

4 posted on 01/19/2014 7:19:48 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
MA has the smallest enrollment?

Hmmmm...I wonder if it's because their site's not working.

5 posted on 01/19/2014 7:20:16 PM PST by what's up
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

All that chart tells me is that we are hopelessly outnumbered and the Republic is doomed.

It isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

If the Rats get the House back in November, well...


6 posted on 01/19/2014 7:21:31 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Nobody owes you a living, so shut up and get back to work...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The problem that liberals are having to come to grips with is that not everyone is a liar who views things through a political lens.

When conservatives said ‘We don’t want the Affordable Care Act’, what liberals heard was ‘We are opposed to anything you propose’. What conservatives meant was ‘We don’t want the Affordable Care Act’.

What liberals expected was that once the law was passed, those conservatives really would want the act, because it was a good idea. (Of course they thought it was a good idea, that’s why they championed it.) What they didn’t expect was that conservatives, even after having lost the political fight, were being 100% honest in not wanting the law. So they aren’t signing up for it.

The idea of principles and beliefs beyond politics is something liberals don’t understand at all.


7 posted on 01/19/2014 7:24:54 PM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: what's up

No, it’s because almost everyone there is already signed up for Romneycare.


8 posted on 01/19/2014 7:26:26 PM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I'm sorry, but I don't agree with the premise.

When the law allows for opting in or opting out, and states can choose between the two, and they choose to opt out of creating exchanges, how is that "holding back?" They are exercising their legal rights that were legislated by their representatives in Congress.

The same can be said for Article V conventions. If the states have two paths to control the federal government, sending politicians to Congress who can vote for amendments or convening a convention of the states to propose their own amendments, and the states choose to convene to propose their own, is that "holding back" (or the real word they wanted to use "undermining") the federal government?

Do people really expect us to follow some unwritten rule that certain "negotiated" or "compromise" amendments are added to bill, but we're not supposed to actually use them later on? They are only there for show, for the political expediency of getting the bill passed, but that nobody really expected anyone to actually want to DO it? And that we will delegitimize anyone who tries to?

-PJ

9 posted on 01/19/2014 7:26:46 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Paladin2
This whole labeling thing needs to be reversed to label the commie/fascist/socialist states as "Red".

It used to be not so long ago...

RED STATE, BLUE STATE

When Republicans Were Blue and Democrats Were Red

10 posted on 01/19/2014 7:29:55 PM PST by kanawa
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

I AM opposed to everything they propose!


11 posted on 01/19/2014 7:35:20 PM PST by JSDude1 (Defeat Hagan, elect a Constutional Conservative: Dr. Greg Brannon!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Rat blue states make up numbers to help puff up the flailing Community College law instructor Prez..


12 posted on 01/19/2014 7:50:59 PM PST by 4Liberty (Mr President 'If you Like your college transcripts...can we see them?')
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Red states are resisting the tyranny of obamacare.


13 posted on 01/19/2014 7:51:07 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

No we are opposed to anything the progressives propose because we know they do not have the best interest of the people at heart


14 posted on 01/19/2014 7:51:45 PM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Paladin2

This whole labeling thing needs to be reversed to label the commie/fascist/socialist states as “Red”.

You know that in most if not all other western countries blue is the conservative color and red is for the liberal lefty’s communist, so it is no wonder that many foreigners are somewhat confused, and perhaps many Americans are confused about what is right or wrong


15 posted on 01/19/2014 7:53:46 PM PST by munin (MSNBC?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What’s with Romney’s state?


16 posted on 01/19/2014 7:56:17 PM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: sickoflibs

Which one? I think he has homes in may states.


17 posted on 01/19/2014 7:57:18 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Jealousy is when you count someone else's blessings instead of your own.)
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To: Kickass Conservative
If the Rats get the House back in November, well...

Unfortunately, I think they will, and then, Bill Clinton will get his third term. The media will see to it, that Benghazi becomes a feather in Hillary's cap.

18 posted on 01/19/2014 8:00:09 PM PST by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Veteran, 70-71)
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To: munin

And I like Red as a color. A whole driveway full of red vehicles, redcoats ;-), microwave, etc.


19 posted on 01/19/2014 8:01:19 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

LOL, MA was at the top of that figure list.


20 posted on 01/19/2014 8:02:00 PM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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