Steven Hayward, political science professor at the University of Colorado, has written a piece for Forbes in which he predicts that Obamacare will be repealed well in advance of the 2014 elections. Hayward says the talk about the website failure is a distraction from the real issue of people and businesses losing their health plans or having to pay a lot more for them. Who he is predicting to lead the charge on repeal is surprising.
Senate Democrats endangered for re-election will lead the charge for repeal perhaps as soon as January, after they get an earful over the Christmas break. They’ll call it “reform,” and clothe it in calls for delaying the individual mandate and allowing people and businesses to keep their existing health insurance policies. But it is probably too late to go back in many cases. With the political damage guaranteed to continue, the momentum toward repeal will be unstoppable. Democrats will not want to face the voters next November with the albatross of Obamacare.
Hayward does correctly point out that Obama will never face the voters again and could simply veto any repeal vote that passes. I see no reason why Obama would allow his signature piece of legislation to be repealed, no matter how much it is destroying the country. Most Americans and perhaps even the majority in Congress may recognize this train wreck for the destructive effect it is having on our economy and the insurance and health care industries, but to Obama and the hardcore leftists like him, Obamacare is a huge success. I would go so far as to say the debacle that is the Obamacare website is exactly what they had in mind. Millions of people are having their health plans cancelled, but as of right now there is nowhere for them to go to purchase a replacement plan. Tick tock, tick tock. At the end of next month all these people will have no health coverage, thanks to Obama and the Democrats.
This was the plan all along. First, get millions of people to lose their health plans. The administration knew three years ago that almost one hundred million were projected to lose their coverage. This was before three years of claiming, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” But, we all know Obama, Carney, et al, are consummate liars. Second, destroy the health insurance industry. Third, the only option left will be single payer. Thus, socialized medicine will be completely achieved.
Repeal Obamacare? When it is going exactly as planned? Absurd. Hayward also makes the mistake of thinking Senate Democrats will fear their reelection chances will be diminished unless Obamacare is repealed. Some of the Senate Democrats up for reelection are in strong blue states and have nothing to worry about. But those who are in red states or weak blue states are likely not concerned either. The electorate in this country has a short memory and it is a full year before the elections. They will also have their friends in the media on whom they can rely to deflect blame for the Obamacare train wreck. It’s already starting. Newsbusters has a post about a genius on MSNBC this weekend who says it’s the GOP who should be apologizing to Obama.
According to MSNBC’s Michael Smerconish, it’s Barack Obama who is owed the “real apology” for the disastrous rollout of the health care law. Filling in for Chris Matthews, the Hardball guest host huffed, “The facts are that many of the same people that feel betrayed now will be thanking the President later.”
Lecturing the 52 million Americans who have lost their insurance, Smerconish added, “These are people in so-called junk plans that could bankrupt them and their families if they ever got sick.” Displaying MSNBC logic, the host identified who should actually be asking for forgiveness on ObamaCare: “As Republicans revel in the President’s comments, we should ask who should offer the real apology here?”
The Philadelphia radio host managed to admit that the implementation of Obamacare has been a “mess.” But he blamed the GOP for most of it: “Now, let’s not forget this is the party that has peddled some of the most wild and ludicrous lies to its constituents about the President’s health care law.”
Steven Hayward’s prediction of repeal is shortsighted. He fails to see the bigger, long-range plan of Obama and the socialists who support him. So far, their plan is working brilliantly. So much so that people like Hayward don’t even realize what’s happening. Notably absent from Hayward’s article is an explanation of what happens to all the damage that has already been done. How many millions have already lost their health coverage? How many billions have already been sent or promised to states for Medicaid expansion? If Obamacare is repealed how will all the damage be undone? It can’t. We are stuck with it. Hayward and others may think that the voters will make the Democrats suffer at the polls next year. I’m not so optimistic. From my way of thinking, the voters had their chance to stop Obamacare already and they decided to reelect a socialist as President. At this point I cannot agree with him that the Democrats will fear for their reelection if they don’t repeal Obamacare. And even if they were to pass a repeal, Obama would veto it faster than his golf swing. We’re stuck with it.
I have to agree with you, Charles. I’m not at all convinced Obamacare is on a viable path to repeal. This is especially true with the Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate.
Hayward completely misses the point of what the authors and architects of Obamacare have been trying to do. It is working as it was designed. In other words, it is destroying the private insurance industry and taking the health insurance plans so many people liked with it.
Unfortunately, I think most of the country, including a lot of elected officials, also completely missed the purpose of Obamacare. It is probably the wrong attitude, but one thing coming from all this that puts a smile on my face is when I hear about Obama supporters who are having their health plans cancelled and they aren’t happy about it. I wish someone could say to them, we told you so.