Lying and Cheating to Pass ObamaCare
Posted by Brian Darling (Profile)
Sunday, February 28th at 5:00AM EST
26 Comments
Now that the feel good politics of the Blair House bipartisan Summit is over, the left is gearing up to lie and cheat their way to victory. Now claim may be bold, yet it is objectively true. The left is lying about the American people’s opinions on ObamaCare and they are cheating to get the bill passed. The next few weeks will determine whether the American people get ObamaCare passed against their will with no opportunity for a minority number of Members of Congress to protect the will of a majority of Americans.
The big lie the left will try and peddle over the next few weeks is that the American people want ObamaCare. The fact of the mater is that the American people have soundly rejected government run ObamaCare and the left will attempt to manipulate polling data to argue that the American people like elements of the President’s approach. Peter Fenn writes for The Hill:
If you listen to some of the Republican rhetoric on the public’s view of health care, repeated over and over, you would come to the conclusion that the American people are not solidly behind change in the system. Clever manipulation. In fact, what the American people hate is the lack of progress, the incessant back-and-forth, the gridlock. What the American people hate is watching the sausage being made, the side deals and horse trading, the refusal of the two parties to get together and pass a bill, the simple lack of action. Right now, 59 percent of Americans believe that the delays in passing a bill are more due to both sides playing politics and only 25 percent think it is more about Republicans and Democrats having policy disagreements.
The left would love you to ignore the polling date and argue that because the American people don’t like obstruction and gridlock in D.C., they love ObamaCare. This ignores the Massachusetts special election for Senate this past January where a candidate, State Senator Scott Brown, won on a campaign to go to Washington to obstruct and filibuster ObamaCare. Furthermore, it ignores a fact I cited in a previous ObamaCare post that every single poll indicates that Americans oppose the President’s plan.
(from a prior post) Quick reality check from Real Clear Politics Polls on ObamaCare (From 1/20-2/22 the average ObamaCare poll is 38.4 support and 52.3 oppose it for an average ObamaCare deficit of 13.9%):
•Rasmussen Reports - 41% Support - 56% Oppose
•Newsweek - 40% - 49%
•Pew Research - 38% - 50%
•ABC News/Wash Post - 46% - 49%
•Quinnipiac - 35% - 54%
•Ipsos/McClatchy - 37% - 51%
•NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl - 31% - 46%
•CNN/Opinion Research - 38% - 58%
•NPR - POS/GQR - 39% - 55%
•USA Today/Gallup - 39% - 55%
Fenn also argues that elements of ObamaCare are popular, therefore the plan as a whole must be popular. He uses polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation to claim that people support elements of the plan.
76 percent support reforming the way health insurance works
72 percent support tax credits for small businesses
71 percent support creating a health insurance exchange/marketplace
70 percent support expanding high risk insurance pools
68 percent support providing financial help for low-/middle-income people
The problem is that according to this same poll, the same amount of people who support the bill oppose the bill. Furthermore, they attribute hatred of ObamaCare as one element of the Scott Brown victory, validating conservatives argument that the Brown victory was a defeat for ObamaCare. This poll looked at opponents of ObamaCare and found that the following three issues were a “major reason” for opposing the bill:
•We can’t afford to pay for health care reform right now (73%);
•The legislation gives government too big a role in the health care system (80%); and,
•Too much of the process took place behind closed doors and involved too much deal-making (73%).
Any way you slice it, ObamaCare is unpopular. People don’t like the core of this bill — a government run health care system that is too expensive and was crafted behind closed doors.
The liberals are cheating when they claim that Reconciliation is not the Nuclear Option. Reconciliation is being used by the left because they can’t pass ObamaCare through the regular order. They want to rid the Senate of the filibuster and the reconciliation procedure, the Health Care Nuclear Option, is a means to get what they could not get when they followed the rules. Lefties at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claim:
Because rising health care costs represent the single largest cause of the federal government’s long-term budget problems, fundamental health care reform must be part of any budget solution. The foregoing examples indicate that using the budget reconciliation process to enact health reform in 2010 would be consistent with the ways in which Congress has used reconciliation in the past. Many major policy changes, including welfare reform, large tax cuts, and new health programs, have been included in past reconciliation bills. Moreover, if health reform is pursued through the reconciliation process this year, the resulting legislation — unlike the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 — will need to be designed so it does not add to the deficit. Any legislation also is likely to include provisions, such as an independent Medicare Commission and demonstration projects to identify ways to deliver health care more efficiently, that could lead to further reforms that slow the growth of health-care costs and contribute to longer-term deficit reduction.
Reconciliation is unprecedented and unusual for a few reasons. First, the left is using reconciliation, the ObamaCare Nuclear Option, as a procedure of last resort to get ObamaCare passed. It would be interesting for the left to produce other bills that have failed during the use of the regular order for a bill, necessitating Congress to resort to reconciliation. ObamaCare passed the House in November and the Senate on Christmas Eve, yet they are resorting to reconciliation because they know they can’t get one Republican to support the President’s health care bill in the Senate.
Second, reconciliation has never been used to amend a bill that has yet to pass. The Health Care Nuclear Option will be used to pass a new bill that amends the Senate passed version of ObamaCare. Finally, reconciliation has not traditionally been used to steamroll the will of the American people. The bipartisan Blair House Summit was merely some feel good politics before the real effort by Democrats to jam an unpopular ObamaCare bill through Congress using a the procedural Nuclear Option. The American people should take note that Washington continues to view their opposition with contempt and politicians would like you to believe that they know what is best for America.
Your federally elected officials are telling you right now — You shall get ObamaCare, whether you like it or not.
Posted by Brian Darling (Profile)
Sunday, February 28th at 5:00AM EST
26 Comments
Now that the feel good politics of the Blair House bipartisan Summit is over, the left is gearing up to lie and cheat their way to victory. Now claim may be bold, yet it is objectively true. The left is lying about the American people’s opinions on ObamaCare and they are cheating to get the bill passed. The next few weeks will determine whether the American people get ObamaCare passed against their will with no opportunity for a minority number of Members of Congress to protect the will of a majority of Americans.
The big lie the left will try and peddle over the next few weeks is that the American people want ObamaCare. The fact of the mater is that the American people have soundly rejected government run ObamaCare and the left will attempt to manipulate polling data to argue that the American people like elements of the President’s approach. Peter Fenn writes for The Hill:
If you listen to some of the Republican rhetoric on the public’s view of health care, repeated over and over, you would come to the conclusion that the American people are not solidly behind change in the system. Clever manipulation. In fact, what the American people hate is the lack of progress, the incessant back-and-forth, the gridlock. What the American people hate is watching the sausage being made, the side deals and horse trading, the refusal of the two parties to get together and pass a bill, the simple lack of action. Right now, 59 percent of Americans believe that the delays in passing a bill are more due to both sides playing politics and only 25 percent think it is more about Republicans and Democrats having policy disagreements.
The left would love you to ignore the polling date and argue that because the American people don’t like obstruction and gridlock in D.C., they love ObamaCare. This ignores the Massachusetts special election for Senate this past January where a candidate, State Senator Scott Brown, won on a campaign to go to Washington to obstruct and filibuster ObamaCare. Furthermore, it ignores a fact I cited in a previous ObamaCare post that every single poll indicates that Americans oppose the President’s plan.
(from a prior post) Quick reality check from Real Clear Politics Polls on ObamaCare (From 1/20-2/22 the average ObamaCare poll is 38.4 support and 52.3 oppose it for an average ObamaCare deficit of 13.9%):
•Rasmussen Reports - 41% Support - 56% Oppose
•Newsweek - 40% - 49%
•Pew Research - 38% - 50%
•ABC News/Wash Post - 46% - 49%
•Quinnipiac - 35% - 54%
•Ipsos/McClatchy - 37% - 51%
•NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl - 31% - 46%
•CNN/Opinion Research - 38% - 58%
•NPR - POS/GQR - 39% - 55%
•USA Today/Gallup - 39% - 55%
Fenn also argues that elements of ObamaCare are popular, therefore the plan as a whole must be popular. He uses polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation to claim that people support elements of the plan.
76 percent support reforming the way health insurance works
72 percent support tax credits for small businesses
71 percent support creating a health insurance exchange/marketplace
70 percent support expanding high risk insurance pools
68 percent support providing financial help for low-/middle-income people
The problem is that according to this same poll, the same amount of people who support the bill oppose the bill. Furthermore, they attribute hatred of ObamaCare as one element of the Scott Brown victory, validating conservatives argument that the Brown victory was a defeat for ObamaCare. This poll looked at opponents of ObamaCare and found that the following three issues were a “major reason” for opposing the bill:
•We can’t afford to pay for health care reform right now (73%);
•The legislation gives government too big a role in the health care system (80%); and,
•Too much of the process took place behind closed doors and involved too much deal-making (73%).
Any way you slice it, ObamaCare is unpopular. People don’t like the core of this bill — a government run health care system that is too expensive and was crafted behind closed doors.
The liberals are cheating when they claim that Reconciliation is not the Nuclear Option. Reconciliation is being used by the left because they can’t pass ObamaCare through the regular order. They want to rid the Senate of the filibuster and the reconciliation procedure, the Health Care Nuclear Option, is a means to get what they could not get when they followed the rules. Lefties at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claim:
Because rising health care costs represent the single largest cause of the federal government’s long-term budget problems, fundamental health care reform must be part of any budget solution. The foregoing examples indicate that using the budget reconciliation process to enact health reform in 2010 would be consistent with the ways in which Congress has used reconciliation in the past. Many major policy changes, including welfare reform, large tax cuts, and new health programs, have been included in past reconciliation bills. Moreover, if health reform is pursued through the reconciliation process this year, the resulting legislation — unlike the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 — will need to be designed so it does not add to the deficit. Any legislation also is likely to include provisions, such as an independent Medicare Commission and demonstration projects to identify ways to deliver health care more efficiently, that could lead to further reforms that slow the growth of health-care costs and contribute to longer-term deficit reduction.
Reconciliation is unprecedented and unusual for a few reasons. First, the left is using reconciliation, the ObamaCare Nuclear Option, as a procedure of last resort to get ObamaCare passed. It would be interesting for the left to produce other bills that have failed during the use of the regular order for a bill, necessitating Congress to resort to reconciliation. ObamaCare passed the House in November and the Senate on Christmas Eve, yet they are resorting to reconciliation because they know they can’t get one Republican to support the President’s health care bill in the Senate.
Second, reconciliation has never been used to amend a bill that has yet to pass. The Health Care Nuclear Option will be used to pass a new bill that amends the Senate passed version of ObamaCare. Finally, reconciliation has not traditionally been used to steamroll the will of the American people. The bipartisan Blair House Summit was merely some feel good politics before the real effort by Democrats to jam an unpopular ObamaCare bill through Congress using a the procedural Nuclear Option. The American people should take note that Washington continues to view their opposition with contempt and politicians would like you to believe that they know what is best for America.
Your federally elected officials are telling you right now — You shall get ObamaCare, whether you like it or not.
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