It is the shopping day known as Black Friday – as one might expect, in an economy with a reduced workforce, retailers have suffered and millions are heading to stores earlier (With Massachusetts one of the few exceptions to the Thursday sale start due to blue laws.) The days have become darker, less optimist for a political party whose leadership has followed a familiar path, one that was doomed to fail before they set foot on their ideological path. The primary cause of the disaster – arrogance and an unwillingness to bend on the side of the Democrats, have caused the health care reform act, known first as Obama Care and now as the Affordable Health Care Act, to bring the party to its knees, reminiscent of the Iraq War under George W. Bush.
The Washington Post speaks to the the President as turning introspective as he campaigns across the country –presumably for the Democrats who are up for reelection in 2014 – all Congressional Representatives as well as a rather serious chunk of the Senate. His focus – blame the Republicans.
The constantly used tactic by the President to play partisan and blame the “other guy” so to speak (not that the other guy is blameless in some cases), when the Health Care Reform Act (Obama Care – Affordable Health Care), is, in a word, causing a disaster in the economy, and in the homes where millions of people are being adversely affected. One recent situation was reported out of Texas, where a family with two children with a rare form of cancer, happy with previous insurance, were told they were out of luck – one child is in serious need of immediate care –
Krista says an insurance agent told her that Hunter's information got lost when they made changes under the new Affordable Care Act. Now, Krista is on a mission to re-gain that insurance, but they're running out of time before his next chemo treatment, and the agent says they can't expedite. "The lady's like, the only way we can expedite is if your son was pregnant and in labor, or if he was an illegal," Krista said.(KXII – Gainesville, TX)
This is not an isolated case, as millions have lost their coverage, and think tanks suggest up to 90 million insured will be forced into these exchanges, which are, at best inept. – The administration was well aware this would happen, so were the Congressmen and Senators on both sides of the aisle who read the bill.
As much as one might not care for Senator Ted Cruz or Mike Lee, (especially the Republican side of the aisle) as they desperately tried to stop Obama care from being funded and shutting down the government to do so ), they deserve credit for trying to save millions of Americans heartache and frustration.
As a strategy for the Republican’s however, allowing Obama Care to go on as usual was, in a word, Machiavellian. They knew what was in the law, so did the Administration, and they knew loss of coverage was going to mean huge drops in poll numbers for the President and by extension the Presidents party. – Formerly known as the Democrats.
It’s to the point, where there is so much fallout from this legislation that Democrats running for reelection are trying to distance themselves from the President (Denver Post) – Shades of George W. Bush – and if one recalls, that mid-term saw the return of the Democrats – Nancy Pelosi took the reigns as Speaker of the House and Harry Reid, become the Senate Majority Leader. – It was a political route, and one can anticipate another.
If the President could see the forest through his ideological trees, and wish to help out those in his party, and the rest of the nation (if this were remotely possible), the following would have to happen – it would upend the Republicans to boot.
The President would call an emergency session of both congresses – He would use the national bully pulpit and make an immediate announcement that there would need to be changes made immediately to insure the nation was back on track both economically and medically. Obama Care was going to be more than fixed; it would be new – before the next Congress convened.
He would look at the auto insurance industry in Massachusetts, and equate that with the Romney Care fiasco – and use the Auto Insurance option as a model for the Health Care Mandate. In brief.
Open all borders to all insurers, all types of coverage, make mandatory coverage for all carriers basic – preventative services, excluding $3.00 monthly birth control – plans could be al-la-carte, allowing individuals and families to purchase those “riders “allowing them to choose coverage that might be applicable or give peace of mind. – It would be personable responsibility. Those who could not afford insurance at all would be offered either Medicaid or the same coverage that Federal Employees have, again with multiple options.
That website would be turned into an information center, listing what was available to whom. The employer mandates would be gone, and so would the wind from the sails of the opposition.
His bounce among independents and grateful American of all parties would be significant and those Democrats would be begging him to help them campaign.
Totally unlikely but, if one considers the course of Carter’s presidency, and one is a student of history and has access to the information, one would understand that there is still time to turn it around.
One last thing – the President would have to suggest that perhaps the Republican’s were right on the health care option, and reach out publicly to that Party as well as in person, to seal the deal. Blaming the other guy is akin to crying wolf – after a while, the Wolf looks mighty attractive.
