Last Thursday, we learned from a New York Times article entitled "Another Rule in Health Law Is Scaled Back" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/us/politics/white-house-exempts-some-from-health-law-penalties.html?hp&_r=0) by Robert Pear that implementation of the Affordable Care Act would continue to be delayed by Obama:
"Millions of people facing the cancellation of health insurance policies will be allowed to buy catastrophic coverage and will be exempt from penalties if they go without insurance next year, the White House said Thursday night.
. . . .
It was another effort by President Obama to cushion the impact of the health care law and minimize political damage to himself and Democrats in Congress who adopted the law in 2010 over solid Republican opposition.
. . . .
The move Thursday followed delays in many other parts of the health care law.
On July 2, the White House abruptly announced a one-year delay, until 2015, in a provision that requires larger employers to offer coverage to their workers or pay penalties.
On Nov. 27, it deferred a major element of the law that would allow small businesses to buy insurance online for their employees through the federal exchange.
Earlier, in April, the administration said that the federal exchange would not offer employees of a small business the opportunity to choose from multiple health plans in 2014.
And in October 2011, the administration scrapped a long-term care insurance program created by the new law, saying it was too costly and would not work."
Now, as also reported in a New York Times article entitled "Sign-Up Period Extended Again for Health Plan" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/us/politics/white-house-again-stretches-health-care-sign-up-deadline.html?hp) by Robert Pear, Obama is further delaying implementation of his disastrous Affordable Care Act:
"The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would provide more time for people to complete their applications for health insurance if they could show that they missed the deadline because of problems with the federal health care website.
. . . .
The original deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1 was Dec. 15. On Nov. 22, the deadline was extended to Dec. 23. On Monday, the White House provided a 24-hour grace period, to 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.
Then on Tuesday, in a bid to ensure coverage for all who want it, the administration provided details of the 'special enrollment period' for some people — but not all — who miss the deadline."
From whom did Obama learn these delaying tactics? The answer is simple: Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei. Most recently, as reported by EUbusiness (http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/iran-nuclear-talks.smh):
"Iran's foreign minister and the EU's top diplomat agreed during telephone call Sunday to postpone until after Christmas talks on implementing a landmark nuclear agreement, the country's chief negotiator said.
'During this telephone conversation, it was agreed to continue the negotiations, but with the Christmas holidays in sight it was decided to interrupt and resume (the talks) a week after the holidays,' said Abbas Araqchi.
The Iranian nuclear negotiator said the agreement was reached during a call that lasted '45 minutes' between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.'"
Iran, which persecutes Christians (see: http://www.worldmag.com/2013/10/iran_s_crackdown_on_christians_not_letting_up), truly cares about Christmas? Get real!
In short, Obama is doing to America what Khamenei is doing to him, i.e. stalling for time, and as Obamacare continues to misfire, Khamenei draws closer to an A-bomb.
J Rubin at WaPo wrote quite a damning column on 12/23 on this very subject, more or less concluding that one way or another, and if not sooner, then later -- and then no later than 2016 - Obamacare is dead. It was more of a "for all practical considerations" type of conclusion, but nevertheless her point was well taken.
ReplyDeleteAnd that was basically that the momentum (of Obamacare's delays and equally importantly, Democrat's abandonment) was such that it was more a matter of "when" not "if."
Speaking of Rubin -- have you ever read the comments after *any* of her columns? She has a *particularly* viscous, nasty, and clearly frothing at the bit anti-Semitic fan-club. I've frankly never seen anything like it.
Sure, I've been horribly dismayed at the increasing percentage of out and out anti-Semitic comments in the NYT and WaPo (and all the MSM) -- that's been a long and growing trend now for at least 10 years. But I've never found a sort of "hate-club" like the one she's got(!?) It must be some combination of her being a woman and her being a Jewess and her being a Conservative. It's really quite depressing. She's a tough gal to never respond to that nonsense.
The speed and almost reckless haste of negotiations is more an indication of the precarious nature of the President of the United States and his party in terms of their negative slide in opinion polls with the failure and criticism over its policies such as the Affordable Care Act. Presidents in trouble have often sought a quick home run politically with a perceived foreign policy victory. We don’t have to look much further than the previous President’s use of the “surge” in Afghanistan in an attempt to divert the public’s attention from the collapse of the financial markets at home.
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