Barack’s Big Lie Taints All Who Touch It

Barack Obama’s infamous 21 words about keeping our health insurance and doctors were more than just remarkable political lies that ended his public credibility. They’ve become insidious corrupters of the entire political and journalistic infrastructure that echoed the lies and that’s left struggling to prop up the president and itself.

Consider the assorted contortions and embarrassment of, respectively, a Colorado U.S. Senator, a Michigan U.S. Representative, a Colorado regulator, and journalists ranging from a Denver web pundit to the New York Times.

Sen. Mark Udall, facing reelection this year, was nailed on tape echoing the Big Lie. He’s not very comfortable about it, particularly because some 330,000 Coloradans received the cancelation notices he promised they wouldn’t. Udall’s response was to lean on state insurance regulators to change their numbers by changing their vocabulary. He argued plans shouldn’t be counted as canceled if a person was eligible to buy a pricier ACA compliant plan.

The insurance regulator resisted Udall’s creative writing. Then things got interesting.

Todd Shepherd, of the local news site CompleteColorado.com, obtained and reported on internal state emails of Jo Donlin, the responsible insurance official, stating Udall’s office wanted to “trash” the state’s numbers, contacted her repeatedly, and when she refused to bend, she received a “very hostile” call from Udall’s chief of staff. One can only infer Donlin’s reasons for documenting the pressure she felt.

Udall’s interference prompted demands for more information and for an investigation into his conduct. Almost instantly, Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Affairs, which oversees the Division of Insurance, issued a statement claiming a "neutral and objective panel" investigated the matter and determined Udall’s office did nothing improper and there was no intimidation.

The quick, unconditional exoneration prompted more questions, seeking the panel members’ identities, a list of persons interviewed, and the questions and answers. Department Director Barbara Kelley stonewalled for about a day. She initially asserted the records were confidential “personnel files” she would withhold to protect conscientious public employees from political harassment.

The embarrassment of calling materials from an investigation “personnel records” melted Ms. Kelley’s cheeks quickly, and she reported later the same day the panel consisted of herself-- a Democratic political appointee--her deputy director--also a Democratic political appointee--and her department lobbyist--similarly a Democratic appointee, the former chief of staff for Senate Democrats. She claimed there were no written records of the panel’s activities.

You might think the revelation that the “objective panel”--that acted in a single day or two at most, with zero paper trail—turned out to be three partisans would spur the media to press harder. But six days out, that was the last news the Denver Post reported on the matter. The Post also ran an editorial essentially concluding the Department had complied with its public duty, while noting the objectivity of the panel members might be subject to question. Indeed.

Udall’s venture into linguistic revision is going mainstream, however, and becoming liberal conventional wisdom. Local web columnist Mike Littwin echoed Udall in the Colorado Independent, arguing if a cancelation notice includes an offer for a more expensive ACA policy, then your insurance isn’t technically cancelled. Only those who are terminated and left with no option should count as cancelled policies.

That shameless argument has spread from liberal precincts of the internet to the commanding heights of the New York Times Editorial Page. Michigan Rep. Gary Peters, a Democrat is running for an open senate seat. He echoed Obama’s promises the ACA bars canceling policies. But a hard-hitting independent ad smacks him with the fact 225,000 Michiganders in fact had their policies cancelled. In the Time’s book, these truths are so inconvenient they’re intolerable. The Times fumed: “The 225,000 Michigan residents who the ad said received ‘cancellation notices’ were actually told that they could change to a better policy; they were not told they could no longer have insurance, as the ad implies.” (My emphasis).

This is nonsense on stilts. The ad implied no such thing. Besides the fact these people can’t speak English, they don’t know recent history. Linguistically, the argument is precisely backwards: your policy technically is cancelled; you’re offered a more expensive policy. The liberal version amounts to arguing your Ford pickup wasn’t repossessed if the wrecking crew offers you a proposal for a more expensive, politically approved Chevy Volt, with higher deductibles and a mandatory maintenance package.

More importantly, the cancellation is exactly what Obama promised against. The Left is trying to redefine “keep your plan” and “keep your doctor” to mean instead “move up to Obama plans and doctors.” They’re trying to bleach his lie into truth.

They insidiously hide the purpose of Obama’s potent, oft-repeated promise.He certainly wasn’t trying to reassure Americans he wouldn’t strip our coverage and leave us bare in the desert. Rather, he was promising Obamacare was no big deal. It wouldn’t hassle most people. If we liked our plans and doctors, then he wouldn’t mess with us. He wouldn't force us to switch from our plans to his program. But he did. Big time.

His law cancels our plans, forcing us into his program's plans or into the Exchanges. Now, Orwell's Crew in the persons of politicians like Udall and Peters, pundits like Mike Littwin, and national voices like the Times, are trying to redefine words and rewrite history. They want to erase the fact that millions of Americans lost their plans because of Obamacare.

If their revisionism is right, the president didn't lie at all. He was truthy. His opponents are the ones who should quit lying about it. War is peace. Freedom is Slavery. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama advanced his signature healthcare plan---ultimately enacted, by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote, into the "Affordable Care Act"

QUOTING 2008 OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.” Repeated over and over ---- with the promise that every American family would be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.

Significantly, Obamba NEVER corrected lock-stepping Democrats, all reading from the same Democrat talking points, all of them repeating the same Democrat promises---over and over again.

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LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE Obama And The Dems marching in lockstep. The persistent Dumbocrat drumbeat ---- in obeisance to Obama ---- kept ringing reassuringly in our ears: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

SEN. HARRY REID (D-Nev.): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN: “We believe — and we stand by this — if you like your current health insurance plan, you will be able to keep it, plain and simple, straightforward.” (Sen. Durbin, Congressional Record, S.6401, 6/10/09)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “If you like your insurance, you keep it.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/29/09)

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.): “Again, if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it. Let me say this again: If you like what you have, when our legislation is passed and signed by the President, you will be able to keep it.” (Sen. Murray, Congressional Record, S.6400, 6/10/09)

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-Mont.): “That is why one of the central promises of health care reform has been and is: If you like what you have, you can keep it. That is critically important. If a person has a plan, and he or she likes it, he or she can keep it.” (Sen. Baucus, Congressional Record, S.7676, 9/29/10)

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-Iowa): “One of the things we put in the health care bill when we designed it was the protection for consumers to keep the plan they have if they like it; thus, the term ‘grandfathered plans.’ If you have a plan you like — existing policies — you can keep them. … we said, if you like a plan, you get to keep it, and you can grandfather it in.” (Sen. Harkin, Congressional Record, S.7675-6, 9/29/10)

THEN-REP. TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.): “Under the bill, if you like the insurance you have now, you may keep it and it will improve.” (Rep. Baldwin, Press Release, 3/18/10)

SEN. MARK BEGICH (D-Alaska): “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want.” (Sen. Begich, Townhall Event, 7/27/09)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.): “We should begin with a basic principle: if you have coverage and you like it, you can keep it. If you have your doctor, and you like him or her, you should be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choice away from you.” (Sen. Bennet, Press Release, 6/11/09)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-Calif.): “So we Democrats want people to be able to keep the health care they have. And the answer to that is choice of plans. And in the exchange, we’re going to have lots of different plans, and people will be able to keep the health care coverage they need and they want.” (Sen. Boxer, Press Release, 2/8/11)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio): “Our Democrat bill says if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it…”(Sen. Brown, Congressional Record, S.12612, 12/7/09)

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-Md.): “For the people of Maryland, this bill will provide a rational way in which they can maintain their existing coverage…” (Sen. Cardin, Congressional Record, S.13798, 12/23/09)

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.): “I also believe this Democrat legislation and the bill we are going to send to President Obama this fall will also have secure choices. If you like what you have, you like the plan you have, you can keep it. It is not going to change.” (Sen. Casey, Congressional Record, S.8070, 7/24/09)

SEN. KAY HAGAN (D-N.C.): ‘People who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it’ “We need to support the private insurance industry so that people who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it while also providing a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage.” (“Republicans Vent As Other Compromise Plans Get Aired,” National Journal’s Congress Daily, 6/18/09)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-La.): “If you like the insurance that you have, you’ll be able to keep it.” (MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/16/09)

SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-Vt.): “[I]f you like the insurance you now have, keep the insurance you have.” (CNN’s “Newsroom,” 10/22/09)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.): “If you like what you have, you get to keep it” “Menendez is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to release a bill later this week. He stressed that consumers who are satisfied with their plans won’t have to change. ‘If you like what you have, you get to keep it,’ he said.” (“Health Care Plan Would Help N.J., Menendez Says,” The Record, 6/19/09)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Oreg.): “[E]nsuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it” “The HELP Committee bill sets forward a historic Democrat plan that will, for the first time in American history, give every American access to affordable health coverage, reduce costs, and increase choice, while ensuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it.” (Sen. Merkley, Press Release, 7/15/09)

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D-Md.): “It means that if you like the insurance you have now, you can keep it.” (Sen. Mikulski, Press Release, 12/24/09)

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-W.Va.): “I want people to know, the President’s promise that if you like the coverage you have today you can keep it is a pledge we intend to keep.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 9/23/09)

SEN. JACK REED (D-R.I.): “If you like the insurance you have, you can choose to keep it.” (Sen. Reed, Town Hall Event, 6/25/09)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.): “‘If you have coverage you like, you can keep it,’ says Sen. Sanders.” (“Sick And Wrong,” Rolling Stone, 4/5/10)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.): ‘if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it’ “My understanding … is that … if you have health coverage that you like you can keep it. As I said, you may have missed my remarks at the beginning of the call, but one of the things I that I said as a requirement that I have for supporting a Democrat bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that. …under every scenario that I’ve seen, if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it.” (Sen. Shaheen, “Health Care Questions From Across New Hampshire,” Accessed 11/13/13)

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D-Mich.): “As someone who has a large number of large employers in my state, one of the things I appreciate about the Democrat chairman’s remark is — is the grandfathering provisions, the fact that the people in my state, 60 percent of whom have insurance, are going to be able to keep it. And Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. That’s a strong commitment. It’s clear in the bill … I appreciate the strong commitment on your part and the president to make sure that if you have your insurance you can keep it. That’s the bottom line for me.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/24/09)

SEN. JON TESTER (D-Mont.): “‘If you like your coverage, you’ll be able to keep it,’ Tester said, adding that if Medicare changes, it will only become stronger”. (“Tester In Baker To Discuss Health Care,” The Fallon County Times, 11/20/09)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-N.Mex.): “Some worried reform would alter their current coverage. It won’t. If you like your current plan, you can keep it.” (“What I Learned: About Health Care Reform This Summer, By Your Lawmakers In Congress,” Albuquerque Journal, 9/8/09)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.): “..it honors President Obama’s programs and the promise of all of the Presidential candidates that if you like the plan you have, you get to keep it. You are not forced out of anything.” (Sen. Whitehouse, Congressional Record, S.8668, 8/3/09)

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) the 60th vote on Obamacare: "people who are happy with their current plan, wouldn't need to change it."
FRANKEN YOUTUBE SOUND BITE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCZmAYYNz8Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

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