CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Obama co-opts Mother's Day in yet another campaign to sell ObamaCare

In the face of criticism from Democrats about his incompetent implementation of ObamaCare, President Obama co-opted Mother's Day in his latest campaign to sell ObamaCare.

Obama used a Mother’s Day-themed event to kick off another campaign-style effort to get people to sign up for the so-called Affordable Care Act. In a statement dripping with condescension Obama tried to blame misinformation for his health care troubles:

So precisely because there’re been so much misinformation, sometimes people may not have a sense of what the law actually does.  And that misinformation will continue -– at least through the next Election Day. 

[. . .]

And we’re going to need everybody out there to make sure --get the right information.  Don’t just read a blog -- (laughter) -- or some commentary from some pundit that has a political agenda.  Make sure you know what the actual facts are . . . .  Don’t let people confuse you.  Don’t let them run the okiedoke on you.  (Laughter.)  Don’t be bamboozled.  (Laughter.)

Obama seems to have forgotten that a lot of misinformation about ObamaCare results from his statements. For example, it was Obama who repeatedly assured Americans they would be able to keep their health insurance plan:

1. Obama promised, "If you like your doctor, you're going to be able to keep your doctor. If you like your plan, keep your plan."
2. Obama said, "Second, Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care plan they have…"
3. Obama wrote, "The plans you are discussing embody my core belief that Americans should have better choices for health insurance, building on the principle that if they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it, …"
4. Obama said, "There's no doubt that we have to preserve what's best in the health care system, and that means allowing Americans who like their doctor and like their health care plan to keep their plan. And that's going to be a priority for us."
5. Obama said, "I know a lot of Americans who are satisfied with their health care right now are wondering what reform would mean for them, so let me be clear: If you like your doctor or health care provider, you can keep them. If you like your health care plan, you can keep that too."
6. Obama said, "Those who oppose reform will also tell you that under our plan, you won't get to choose your doctor, that some bureaucrat will choose for you. That's also not true. Michelle and I don't want anyone telling us who our family's doctor should be, and no one should decide that for you either. Under our proposals, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor. If you like your current insurance, you keep that insurance. Period. End of story."
7. Obama said, "If you like your current plan, you will be able to keep it. Let me repeat that: If you like your plan, you'll be able to keep it.”

Less than a year after the ever unpopular ObamaCare became law, there was warning after warning that Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster admitted to the House Budget Committee that it was not true that under the ObamaCare law, it was "not true in all cases" that people would get to keep their coverage if they liked it.

Shortly after Foster's admission, Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned a House subcommittee that about a million fewer people would not obtain health coverage through their employer during the period 2019 through 2021 than would have been the case if ObamaCare was not enacted.

In June 2011, Grace Marie-Turner warned a McKinsey study suggested that as many as 78 million Americans could lose their health coverage due to a dramatic decline of employer-provided health insurance under ObamaCare.

In October 2011, the nation's largest private employer, Wal-Mart, announced that new part-time employees who work less than an average of 24 hours a week would no longer get health insurance from the company.

In November 2011, Gallup reported that governments and businesses have and will continue to cut back and/or reform their health coverage offerings due in part to the requirements ObamaCare:

"Employer-based health insurance has declined since 2008, falling from 49.8% in the first quarter of that year to 44.5% in the third quarter of 2011. If Wal-Mart's decision is a precursor of how employers intend to manage their healthcare costs, the downward trend in employer-based healthcare will likely continue.

At the same time, the percentage of Americans who are uninsured is on the rise again after remaining fairly steady throughout 2010."

Last year the nonpartisan CBO, found that ObamaCare could cause as many as 20 million Americans to lose their employer-provided healthcare.

As noted by the Associated Press article, the administration's hope that the Mother's Day co-option event would draw widespread attention was crushed by the double-barreled revelations about the Benghazi cover up and the political abuse of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of Conservative groups. This all but garauntee that the upcoming midterm elections will be as passionate as the 2010 elections.

 

Red state Dems’ deafening ObamaCare silence

Leading Democrats have criticized the president's implementation of ObamaCare:

• The Democrats' majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, said last week that he agreed with Democrat Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, a Democrat architect of the law, who said about the ObamaCare implementation, "I just see a huge train wreck coming down."
• Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden expressed concern about what's going to happen with young people if their insurance premiums shoot up.
• Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin told White House officials that he was concerned about big rate increases being sought by the largest health insurer in his state.
• New Hampshire Sen Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire complained, "We are hearing from a lot of small businesses in New Hampshire that do not know how to comply with the law."

The criticism must have hit home because President Obama felt compelled to respond. In his most recent press conference he dismissed the criticism implying the Democrats' are complaining about nothing more than "glitches and bumps."

As Obama co-opted Mother's Day in his latest campaign to sell ObamaCare, CBS political correspondent John Dickerson reported it will be a tough sell. Dickerson described ObamaCare as “particularly ugly," "complicated," and "bumpy" in its implementation:

NORAH O’DONNELL: Why does the administration feel they need to do this?

JOHN DICKERSON: This is the President’s signature achievement of his presidency regardless of what happens to come. Unlike what we normally see which is the President campaigning for a law to get it passed, now it’s passed and he has to go out there and sell it for both policy and political reasons. On the policy front, he needs more people to sign up because that will keep costs lower, particularly younger Americans. If those younger Americans don’t join these new exchanges, the premiums will go up because the people who do join the exchanges will be the chronically ill. So he’s got to sell it to make it work better, so that’s the policy piece, and politically Republicans are gunning for this for the 2014 elections. They’re hoping the run against all democrats on this, so the President has to go out there and provide cover, explain why there are good parts of it and get out there and sort of rebut these attacks as best he can.

O’DONNELL: But, John, it sounds like the White House says this is going to sound like a pre-mother’s day speech. The President is ging to be speaking to mothers. We know the preventative services provided by Obamacare are some of the most popular parts of the plan but what about the story tlike Jan Crawford reported on earlier this week that small businesses still don’t know how they’re going to make this work.

DICKERSON: Well they don’t know how they’re going to make it work so the President has to explain it. He has get out there and talk about the way it will work, but this is not a pretty piece of legislation. Remember how it was put together. This is not a sleek operation with Swiss watch timing, and so it’s going to be bumpy and it’s going to be ugly as it gets implemented. The best thing the President can do is to try and accentuate the best parts and also educate people because there’s no better voice for educating it than the President.

CHARLIE ROSE: You anticipated my question, John. Is this simply badly constructed legislation?

DICKERSON: Well, all legislation is pretty ugly and this was particularly ugly because of the way it was put together and it had to be jammed through at the end. So this is — and it’s complicated. It’s dealing with bringing millions of new people into this insurance system. It’s forcing people to change the way they do things, and so it’s got lots and lots of different moving parts, and also, by the way, when Democrats talk about train wreck here, what they’re saying, some of them, is Republicans have not funded this as much as we, the Democrats would like, and also Republicans governors are dragging their feet so there’s opposition that’s constant here. [Transcript via Washington Free Beacon].

Which brings us to the silence of other Democrats like Mark Begich, Bruce Braley, Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, Gary Peters and Mark Pryor.

Leading Democrats now admit what many of us always knew -- ObamaCare is a train wreck. The ever unpopular ObamaCare remains so as people start to finally see what was actually in the bill, how incompetently it was drafted and implemented, and how expensive it is even with all the smoke and mirrors the Democrats to make it seem "affordable."

More and more Americans now unfortunately know all too well that Obama did not keep his oft-repeated promise that those that like their doctor and like their health care plan will be able to keep their doctor and health plan. Last year the nonpartisan CBO, found that ObamaCare could cause as many as 20 million Americans to lose their employer-provided healthcare.

So why do Democrats like Begich, Braley, Hagan, Landrieu, Peters and Pryor remain silent about The ObamaCare train wreck? Perhaps those Democrats in red states that voted for ObamaCare are silent because they fear ObamaCare will cost them the 2014 midterms as it did the 2010 midterms.

Gomez responds to Markey's despicable negative attack ad

Yesterday we took the very Liberal Democrat Congressman Ed "Mudslinging" Markey to task for his despicable ad that features Republican Gabriel Gomez's face directly next to Osama Bin Laden's.

Republican Gabriel Gomez, a former Naval Aviator and Navy SEAL, responded directly to Markey's negative attack ad this morning on Fox and Friends. Gomez called Markey's use of Osama Bin Laden a disgrace, not only to his service, but also to his former teammates and the intelligence of the Massachusetts voters:

ALISYN CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, one of the things that he's done in the campaign is to have a negative ad about you in which you are, I believe, pictured along side Osama bin Laden. Do you have any response to that?

GABRIEL GOMEZ: Yeah. I mean, a career politician like Ed Markey comes swinging out of the gate with his first ad, it's a negative, despicable ad which puts me next to Osama bin Laden which is an absolute disgrace, not only to my service but also to my former teammates and more importantly to the intelligence of the Massachusetts voters. I think people are tired of these despicable, untruthful ads, and I can't think of anything more dishonorable than what he just did.

TUCKER CARLSON: Now you were at, as we said a minute ago in your intro, at the Boston Marathon shortly before those explosives devices went off. Did you hear it? Did you know what it was when you heard it? What was your initial reaction to it?

GOMEZ: I did. I was about a block and a half away. I'd just seen my wife and four young kids before I crossed the finish line. Shortly thereafter, I heard the first explosion and I saw the smoke coming up. I knew right away what happened, just with some experience before in the service. Obviously my first reaction was trying to figure out where my kids and wife were. It took about 25 minutes because of the cell coverage. But I knew right away, and I saw the first responders responding right away, I saw the police officers getting on the horn, getting the emergency vehicles there. I mean, from going from the worst in Boston, I literally saw the best in Boston immediately right after.

You can watch the video of Gomez's response here.

We are not the only ones objecting to Markey' mudslinging. Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Hudner calls Congressman Ed Markey’s Osama Bin Laden ad "dishonorable," and said it should be taken down "immediately":

"I was shocked to see that the first advertisement from Congressman Ed Markey’s campaign is a negative attack on Gabriel Gomez that places a picture of him next to the terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.” said Hudner. “This dishonorable political attack is beneath the dignity of the office for which Congressman Ed Markey is running for and he should immediately take down this outrageous ad.

Gabriel Gomez is a former Navy Pilot and Navy SEAL and fought like so many other brave men and women to defend this country against threats from abroad. As a Veteran, he deserves better than to be juxtaposed with a terrorist for Congressman Markey’s political gain."

Markey's Osama Bin Laden attack ad, entitled 'Meet Gabriel Gomez: Just Another Republican," can be seen here.

Like we said yesterday, there is no other reason why the Markey campaign would take such a negative tone right out the box unless they were fearful of losing.