The Man to Thank for the Obamacare Mess (vanity)

11/3/2013 | Self

[BobL]

Hi people. Its been a while since I posted, but I feel the man who REALLY deserves the credit for making Obama and the other Democrats look like fools is not getting the credit he deserves - and that is Joe Lieberman.

As some of you may remember, Senator Lieberman would not support the "Public Option", which was a fairly-cleverly designed plan to have a government-run policy show up when you went to the Obamacare website. The public option, of course, would be priced at the level the government chooses, and would not have to be accountable to anyone as far as making money is concerned. So, when the millions of people with cancellation notices went to the Obamacare website, they might get 6 quotes, priced at $750 to $850 per month, and one quote for the public plan, priced at $500 per month - and so they buy the public plan and the price is in the range they expected - and everyone is happy (on their side)...as private health care disappears in the United States.

But Lieberman would not have anything to do with it, and made it clear that he would not supply the needed 60th vote to get it over the top. So it was either no public option, or no Obamacare. I remember this well, because the Dems went nuts when Lieberman broke on that part and were ready to take his head off...but, but, at the same time, they were telling the country that the public option wasn't a big deal, it was NOT a secret plan for the government to take over the industry...no, it was just intended to give consumers one extra choice, when they went to this exchanges. So, when I see a dichotomy between private and public statements, my political antennas go up and I start to pay attention (with private being defined here as statements between Democrats).

So here's what I think happened: The Dems (and Republicans, of course) knew full-well that Obamacare would be a disaster for people in the private market. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that premiums would skyrocket if you did the following (all in Obamacare): (1) Eliminate pre-existing conditions as a way to deny coverage; (2) Raise the age for children to 26 years old to be required on the parent's policy; (3) Require soft medicine, like mental health and similar stuff (i.e., special interest groups in the medical field); (4) Eliminate annual and lifetime caps on coverage; and (5) Limit out of pocket expenses on an annual basis.

So we end up with all of the above requirements, and for people of average income and above, about all they get to see now (or will get to see) is a website that consolidates a bunch of very, very, expensive policies. The people that don't make as much do get "subsidies", but even then, you have to be quite poor before you really benefit.

...and none of this Obama-nightmare would have happened, except for the Joe Lieberman telling the Dems to shove it.

[ By the way, for those that may not remember, Lieberman had been a Dem all his life, but did stray politically from the plantation, which is a capital offense to that bunch (by supporting Bush on the Gulf War, and supporting kids over teachers unions when it came to vouchers). In fact, in 2006, the Dems had him defeated in his Senate re-election primary, and he only managed to stay in the Senate by running Third Party. So, by the time Obamacare came around a few years later, he was no longer a Democrat, although he still caucused with them and usually voted with them - but not on the Public Option. Maybe the nightmare we have now is Lieberman's way of thanking the Dems for the way he was treated? - it would not surprise me, as it was obvious to all how this was going to turn out without the public option]

[BobL]

A few links on articles from back then:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-5484246.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29698.html

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/64981-senator-lieberman-not-backing-public-option

[Slyfox]

[Slump Tester]

Great memory! I hope someone sends this to Rush.

[Logical me]

My number one rat was Justice Roberts.

[reagandemocrat]

The Sore/Loserman bumper sticker woke him up.

[BobL]

“Great memory! I hope someone sends this to Rush.”

Thanks. The article below is actually the most telling, as it ends with this sentence as the liberal is just figuring out what was in store: “Please, God, let me be wrong.”

Now there are only TWO REASONS a liberal uses the term “God” - the first one is when something really, really, important to them is on the line (such as their life...or Obamacare here), or when they are running for political office - which was not the case here. In other words, he gave it away.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2009/10/did_lieberman_just_kill_the_public_option.html

[La Lydia]

The public option as proposed was direct socialized medicine. Lieberman took what I consider to be a principled stand on direct socialized medicine, saying he opposed the public option “because it still creates a whole new federal government entitlement program, for which taxpayers will eventually be on the line.” In that he was correct. The public option was, in essence, single-payer socialized medicine -- the Left's preferred option and goal all along.

What we got instead is indirect socialized medicine. Six of one, half-dozen of the other. Those responsible for this are BO and both houses of a Democrat-controlled Congress.

[PGalt]

My number one rat was Justice Roberts.

The are many Totalitariancare scumbags to target, but USSCCJ Roberts was pivotal.

FUJR FUUSSC FUCONgress FUBO FUHC FUMR

[Bogie]

I was thinking poison pill too. Cheers!

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

My number one rat was Justice Roberts.

To this day, the press allows Democrats to use the term "penalty" and "fine" instead of "TAX". No one - not the mainstream media, or Republicans, or FOX News, or even John Roberts - is correcting their terminology. They won the Supreme Court fight because it was ruled a tax. MAKE THEM CALL IT THAT!

We also continue to let them call this a battle over revamping "health care" (sigh, they're so big hearted!), instead of revamping "health insurance"! Even our guys keep saying someone lost their "health care". NOT TRUE! They lost their health "insurance"! There's a big difference. No one has to go without "health care" in America!

[BobL]

“My number one rat was Justice Roberts.”

Good point, although with Roberts something really weird took place - in that he first voted to overturn it, but then switched his vote at the end.

In the end, this will be interesting to watch. Had Roberts killed Obamacare, the Dems would have run around screaming about how the extremist Supreme Court took away this country’s only chance to fix health care...now they cannot.

...but millions of people have to suffer because of it.

[BlueStateRightist]

Possible Joe Lieberman wasn’t placing the poison pill and, instead, was simply protecting the business interests of the insurance industry, many of whom reside in his state and bankroll his existence?

[BobL]

“Possible Joe Lieberman wasn’t placing the poison pill and, instead, was simply protecting the business interests of the insurance industry, many of whom reside in his state and bankroll his existence?”

Yea, I thought about that a bit too. Definitely a possibility, although the other Dem from there (Dodd) was literally OWNED by the insurance industry, but he had no problem with the public option. He was nicknamed “The Senator from Aetna”.

[cartoonistx]

Joe’s stand against the public option wasn’t nearly as principled as it was self serving. Check the HQ addresses of most major insurance companies in this country. They were his largest campaign contributors!

[HollyB]

I was just looking back over Rahm Emmanuel's book: The plan
and the thread from 2009 and saw your posted links. Interesting to see them again after all these years:

(The first two posts were from RC, from a 2007 and 2005 articles) Rahms book said they couldn't see having a single payer option immediately because it was such a large task. However, they did say it was important for employers to stop offering coverage and to instead implement it through the ‘health care system’.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601528.html

http://www.robert-h-frank.com/PDFs/Emanuel-Fuchs.NEJM.3-24-05.pdf

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2318366/posts?q=1&;page=1

[Chewbarkah]

I was dismayed that Roberts didn’t kill the beast. But those most to blame are the criminals who created this monster, bribed Senators to pass it, and lied shamelessly to tamp down opposition — not those who didn’t do enough to stop them.

Roberts’ ruling opens up the operative core of ObamaCare to challenge as a tax — which can occur only after the tax has been paid. The SC might twist reality to misrule on this too, but ObamaCare has fatal vulnerabilities as a tax. And no one has yet argued before the court how ObamaCare, which makes private health a public matter, can survive the Right to Privacy recognized in Roe v Wade. Chaos ahead.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BobL:

The public option, of course, would be priced at the level the government chooses, and would not have to be accountable to anyone as far as making money is concerned. So, when the millions of people with cancellation notices went to the Obamacare website, they might get 6 quotes, priced at $750 to $850 per month, and one quote for the public plan, priced at $500 per month -- and so they buy the public plan and the price is in the range they expected -- and everyone is happy (on their side)...as private health care disappears in the United States. But Lieberman would not have anything to do with it, and made it clear that he would not supply the needed 60th vote to get it over the top. So it was either no public option, or no Obamacare. I remember this well, because the Dems went nuts when Lieberman broke on that part and were ready to take his head off...but, but, at the same time, they were telling the country that the public option wasn't a big deal, it was NOT a secret plan for the government to take over the industry...no, it was just intended to give consumers one extra choice, when they went to this exchanges.

[444Flyer]

These people are deceitful and evil in the way they are trying to bring on single payer. Can you imagine if they are ever successful in bringing it about? We could say goodbye to our health. Forget quality!

“NOW WE KNOW… Obamacare Architect Ezekiel Emanuel: “The Individual Market Is Going Away” (Video)”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3087054/posts

[BobL]

““NOW WE KNOW… Obamacare Architect Ezekiel Emanuel: “The Individual Market Is Going Away” (Video)””

Thanks, I saw that on Drudge. It scares me because they normally won’t give away their end-game, until they’re sure of victory. In this case, at least to now, it was not clear to me who would win. They desperately need the Public Option...but they’ll need quite a few Republican votes to get it. The other direction is to simply kill most of Obamacare. There really isn’t much of a middle ground since, once they fix the website, even more people are going to freak out when they see the cost of the policies.

[GOPJ]

The man to ‘thank’ for ObamaCare is Obama.