Posted on 11/09/2013 5:18:13 PM PST by Libloather
House Republicans are pouncing on President Obama’s apology for cancelled insurance plans to push him into backing legislation that would change ObamaCare.
The president on Thursday said he was “sorry” that Americans were losing their healthcare plans despite his frequent assurances that individuals with insurance could keep them.
Obama said he was seeking an administrative fix, but Republicans say they have a ready-made solution in the Keep Your Plan bill that they plan to bring up for a vote next week.
A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the president can’t address the problems plaguing the healthcare law through executive action alone. He said Obama should back the House bill, which would grandfather in all health insurance plans that existed as of Jan. 1, 2013.
"We are highly skeptical that there is anything the president can do administratively to keep his pledge that would be both legal and effective," said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck.
"That’s why he should work with Congress and support bipartisan legislation that fulfills his promise and allows insurance companies to continue offering the plans that so many Americans like and can afford.”
The bill puts Obama in a tough spot.
Democrats have stood firm against major changes to the healthcare law since it was passed, fearing it would open the door to a slew of attacks Republicans designed to cripple it.
But Democratic unity is cracking amid the troubled rollout of the healthcare law.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has introduced a similar "Keep Your Plan" bill in the Senate with the support of fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.).
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who is facing a tough reelection race in 2014, endorsed the “Keep Your Plan” late Thursday along with Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who is also up next year. Other vulnerable Democrats could follow suit.
Obama, for his part, didn’t rule out supporting the House bill when he was asked about it on Thursday.
"We're looking at a range of options," Obama said.
The White House might have to reject the House bill because of the impact it could have on ObamaCare.
The legislation could reduce the number of healthy young Americans purchasing comprehensive plans, potentially driving up costs for sicker individuals seeking insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges.
But Republicans sense they have an advantage now that Obama has conceded the healthcare law is in need of repair.
“If the president is sincerely sorry that he misled the American people, the very least he can do is support this bipartisan effort,” Boehner said in a statement Thursday night. “Otherwise, this apology doesn’t amount to anything.”
The White House has been thrown on the defensive by the fallout from the “keep your plan” promise, and has been struggling to respond as millions of Americans have received letters informing them that their plans have been dropped.
The issue dogged the president even as he traveled to New Orleans Friday for an event on infrastructure and the economy. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) told reporters on a White House conference call Thursday that he supported the Keep Your Plan bill.
Obama is clearly looking to repair the damage, and on Thursday said he’s “assigned my team to see what we can do to close some of the holes and gaps in the law.”
But it's unclear where the administration will go from here.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday said the administration hopes to assist people whose health insurance is canceled, but has “no specific option right now,” according to Reuters.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest similarly refused on Friday to detail what type of administrative solutions were in the works.
Let’s not snatch defeat from the jaws of defeat.
> The president on Thursday said he was “sorry” that Americans were losing their healthcare plans despite his frequent assurances that individuals with insurance could keep them.
I’m sorry, but it’s settled law and I won the election, so, get over it. Ask any Demwit, that’s the standard answer. Thanks Libloather.
Accused Rapist Writes Letters Saying ‘I’m Sorry’
WINK | Nov 07, 2013
Posted on 11/07/2013 1:12:19 PM PST by nickcarraway
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3088724/posts
Actually, Obama is not relevant in this fray. He is powerless and can only whine and watch.
The man in front of the onrushing D 9 intent on sweeping Obamacare away is Dingy Harry.
The fork gambit is to skewer Dingy Harry and all the rats in the Senate regardless of what they do. For them, it is a lose lose glimpse of coming death
The only thing ‘bleeding heart’ about modern liberals is what happens to anyone who dares to stand up to them...
They’re afraid of citizens seeing what thugs they’ve become...
-— I find it hard to believe none of them bothered to read it and understand it for themselves, so what’s their game?-—
It’s an impossible task. Maybe some lawyers could understand it, if they spent their entire lives studying it.
So they followed the path of least resistance, like most people, and played for the short term.
The next short-term play is to claim to have supported keep-your-old-insurance legislation. They don’t care if it passes. They just want to cover their butts.
-— We’d not have the privilege of watching the Democrat show go to pieces had Roberts done the “right” thing. -—
It’s possible that this is the good that God will bring from this evil.
BUT, we may not do evil so that good may come, which is what Robert’s may have done. If that was indeed his motivation, he will have caused the premature deaths of many innocent people who were dropped from their plans.
-— Pull out any single card and down it comes crashing. -—
I hear this every day, but what does this mean?
The legislation remains in effect until it is repealed.
Who will repeal it?
It seems far more likely that funding will be transferred from another area of the government to subsidize Obamacare, or more debt will be issued.
Sure, only congress can authorize more funding, but “are they going to hold America’s healthcare hostage?”
Between The Commie and Boehner, we know who will win the staredown.
These fixes only give life support to obamacare. Republicans should not support them and let obamacare die by exposing as many people to it as possible. What an ugly legacy.
Great cartoon!
Well, as I’ve also pointed out more than once, sometimes the USSC is very pedantic. If nobody in the case brought arguments that this would be an unconstitutional tax, those considerations weren’t factored in even if the justices knew themselves that it is so. That arguably is another evil, but it’s practically expected in American court protocol. It probably helps the court distance itself from the idea of absolute justice... oh, we’re only a law machine answering the exact question and arguments put before us. There’s more than one level of evils here.
Where are liberals with their penumbras of penumbras on cruel and unusual punishments? This certainly looks like one.
Roberts would have destroyed the Democrats by giving them their way.
Well it could not happen to a nicer party. Bent on degrading humanity since antebellum times, it finally picked a degradation platform that it couldn’t handle. Now it won’t be able to escape the blame.
That's what I've been trying to tell what's up this whole thread and it's like talking to a wrought iron gate.
Recasting the whole shebang is the only thing that could really work here. And maybe the chaos will prove the chance to do it.
And it might involve bringing in totally new players. The old insurance co’s who sucked up to this... they’ll get burned. What went around came around.
You made your bed, Obama. Now sleep in it.
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