If you actually liked your Obamacare plan, you can't keep that either

Latest Obamacare ‘Tweak’ a Doozy

Americans are inveterate tinkerers — a trait commented on by observers from de Tocqueville to Winston Churchill.

That’s why it’s not surprising that the bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would want to keep tweaking Obamacare. Mind you, it’s not so much because they think they can perfect the law. Rather, they keep tweaking the law in order to keep the American people from brandishing pitchforks and coming to Washington to tar and feather them and ride them out of town on a rail.

Self-preservation can be a marvelous motivating factor.

The geniuses who brought us the dysfunctional website healthcare.gov are in a panic because just about every Obamacare policy is going up in price. So rather than having American citizens deal with such unpleasantness, our intrepid bureaucrats have hit upon a brilliant scheme: why not change the auto-renewal rules of Obamacare premiums by automatically shifting a consumer from a policy that went up in price over to a cheaper policy? Of course, the cheaper policy will have fewer benefits and a larger deductible. And some people may actually like the policy they have now.

But what does that matter to the jamokes at HHS? They know what’s best for you. Just ask them.

Not to mention that your doctor may not be covered under the new plan.

The inevitable result, of course, is that after a couple years of years of this all Obamacare recipients will have spiraled down to one cheap plan. Meet your new Obamacare doctor:

Don't worry, he'll look scary but will be very popular.

 

Meanwhile back at the White Hut, there will be a lot of laughs among the privileged elite..

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber explains how little regard the liberal elite have for the American people

Gruber Strikes Again

Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who was a key architect of Obamacare, may also be a central figure in the court battle over whether Obamacare subsidies are allowed for participants in the federal health insurance exchange. That’s because, as noted here, Gruber has provided the rationale for the statutory language that bars such subsidies. He thus undermines Team Obama’s argument that the statutory language can’t possibly mean what it says.

Now, we learn that Gruber, whose mouth apparently is as big as all outdoors, also served up words that pertain to the merits of the big 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the individual mandate as a “tax.” During a panel discussion captured on video, Gruber explained that the individual mandate is not a tax, and was presented as one in order “to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes.” Team Obama deemed the deception critical because “if CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.”

Gruber expanded on the theme of deception:

In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.

Actually, the American voter wasn’t stupid about Obamacare. They never supported it, as public opinion polls showed. And twice, they put a licking on Democrats who voted Obamacare into law. 

It's amazing how clever these progressives think they are.

"They turned your healthcare into a freakshow"

"Tell the clowns in Washington to stop taking you for a ride."

Obamacare Victory Lap? You have to be kidding!

Burt Prelutsky, The Magical, Mythical, Seven Million:

We have heard Obama blathering for so long about seven million sign-ups to the Affordable Care Act being a sure sign of success that, like the audience at a magic show, we have fallen for the misdirection that is the secret of every magician’s sleight-of-hand.

To begin with, we are being asked to ignore the fact that millions who have signed up used to pay for their own health insurance before ObamaCare forced their policies to be ruled null and void. Next, we are asked to ignore the fact that a large percentage of those people being counted haven’t even made their first payment and, therefore, aren’t actually enrolled. And, finally, we are asked to overlook the fact that, initially, we were told that 40% of the new sign-ups had to be young and healthy — the so-called invincibles — the latest estimate is that the number is closer to 25%.

Still, even if we go along with their numbers, we are still left with a question that nobody connected to the current regime has answered. Namely: what’s the big frigging deal — to channel my inner Joe Biden — about seven million? When Obama, Pelosi and Reid, were shoving this humongous suppository up our collective tuchis, they insisted it was to insure the 40 million people who had no health insurance. So even if they have seven million signed up, and even if we don’t drive the point home that this law forced six million policies to be cancelled by the end of 2013, seven million only represents a mere 18% of those 40 million.

For such dismal results, it would take a moron like Obama to invalidate the patient-doctor relationship, cripple the nation’s economy, hurt small businesses and up-end a health care program that worked just fine for the overwhelming majority of Americans.

After they get through patting themselves on the back for taking away health insurance from six million people and making them sign up for this fustercluck, the Obama regime and their press sycophants can get back to not counting people who have given up searching for work as unemployed.

Every Democrat running in 2014 deserves their version of this ad

  If you like your Senator, you can keep her. If you don't, you know what to do.

Via WaPo: 'Every Democrat Should Be Scared' of this Obamacare Ad . Also hearty thanks to the folks at Ending Spending for blazing the trail.

Obama sends out fruitcake for Christmas

 

How do you plan to spend the cold days of December?

Intentional hilarity here and here and here among many others.

Say, how did that Thanksgiving Obamacare "talk" with the family work out?

Via RightScoop:



The laugh is on Barack Obama, this year's Thanksgiving turkey. Of course, while we can laugh now, it's going to be tougher after Obama's destruction of medical care in the USA is complete.

Obama's Thanksgiving Turkey Joke

More comedy gold from the Obama regime designed to enliven your Thanksgiving holiday. The Clown Prince has ordered his minions to talk up the train wreck at family gatherings on Thanksgiving:

Loathe peaceful holidays? Detest the spirit of agreeableness and good will that tends to pervade during this time of year? Well, if you're longing for it to be 'tis the season of debates, irritations, and shouting matches, you're in luck: The Obama administration thinks the holidays are the perfect time to gather round and discuss … Obamacare.

Wow, that'll be a crowd pleaser.

Wary about the effect bringing up the most polarizing political topic among your relatives and friends who likely span the blue-purple-red spectrum will have? Don't be, because President Barack Obama's Organizing for Action has launched a website with helpful tips about how to have "the talk."

The tips including asking your family and guests coming over for the holiday to bring the information they'd need to sign up for Obamacare, because it's absolutely not awkward at all to tell someone you'd like him to bring wine and oh, his social security number and annual salary, too.

These folks live in a different world, but unfortunately they visit ours. Even worse they dragged along the Moocher's publicity team: Michelle Obama's 14 Obamacare talking points for Thanksgiving dinner. My advice for anyone having dinner with Michelle Obama is to stay well back while she is feeding, but sticking to the talking points:

Find a Quiet Place to Shop: You can start your conversation anywhere, but to shop for health coverage, you will want a more quiet, private place to make a phone call or use the internet.

Start by asking: “Have you thought about signing up for health insurance on the new marketplace?”

Offer to walk them through it: “Would you like to take some time with me to sign up right now?”

I guess no one told the Royal Family, but the phone call won't do you much good:

According to the administration, the sign-up call centers are scheduled to be closed for Thanksgiving. Holiday shoppers will instead have to navigate the rocky website.

And as for the Obamacare website: Obama Admin: Please Don't Use Obamacare Website This Weekend.

Hmmm, some good may come of this. While the family idiot(s) corral some unfortunate family member in the den for hours trying to register for Obamacare, everyone else will be able to peacefully digest their dinners. But watch out, because if they get through, the Obamacare victim will likely be suffering from massive sticker shock afterward.

Today's Hoot: Obama in the White House Situation Room watching the Obamacare Rollout

Let's see if he takes credit for this one, too. Don't forget to roll your mouse over the photo.

Sham Wow Obama stages an Infomercial in the Rose Garden

 

Who would have thought we'd see the President of the United States, Leader of the Free World, standing in front of a bunch of shills trying to fleece a television audience by urging them to call a toll-free number to get a "great deal" because the Web site isn't working?

Update: About those shills with the Sham Wow guy:

Of the 13 people who flanked President Obama during his speech defending Obamacare in the Rose Garden Monday, just three had successfully registered for the new Obamacare exchanges.

...

The three people who were able to register included: Janice Baker, who introduced the president and as of last week was the only person to have successfully enrolled in health care coverage through Delaware’s state exchange; David Hall, an IT consultant who signed up for health care through the DC Health Link; and Zohre Abolfazli, who was able to register through healthcare.gov last night and still needs to shop for her “best plan.”

Besides basking in the aura of "The One", they got a free trip to Washington D.C. and a tour of the White House so we know their price, but the original Sham Wow guy could do better than that!

Have some meme fun with Obamacare Anna!

Have some meme fun with Obamacare Anna, the perky face of the Obamacare train wreck:

What could go wrong when background checks are skipped for Obamacare navigators?

Obamacare ‘navigator’ in Kansas has outstanding arrest warrant:

Rosilyn Wells — the Director of Outreach and Enrollment for the Heartland Community Health-care Center (HCHC) – is “the only full-time Affordable Care Act navigator in Lawrence,” according to the Lawrence Journal-World.

Wells was certified as an Obamacare navigator despite her financial history, which includes a bankruptcy in 2003, a 2007 civil charge from a local check cashing business called Midwest Checkrite for writing a bad check, being more than $1700 behind on her state tax bill, and having an outstanding arrest warrant in nearby Shawnee County. Wells lives and works in Douglass County.

Just give Roz all your personal financial details - she'll handle it!

The Debt Ceiling is the Settled Law of the Land - So Democrats will refuse to change it?

The Debt Ceiling is the Law of the Land

Over the past few weeks, Democrats have indicated that they have no intention of negotiating over Obamacare, opting instead to shut down the government.  They are justifying their obstinacy by asserting that Obamacare is the law of the land.  Well, if that is the game they want to play, we should return the favor with the debt ceiling.  The debt ceiling, pursuant to the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, is the law of the land.  And it has been so for far longer than Obamacare.

And while we're at it:

The only way we default on the debt is if we fail to pay the interest on the public debt.  According to the updated budget projection from the CBO, interest on the debt will be roughly $237 billion for 2014.  Thanks to the short-term revenue benefits of the fiscal cliff and Obamacare tax hikes, the federal government is expected to rake in a record $3.042 trillion from the private economy this year.

Let’s engage in a simple math exercise.  $3.042 trillion – $237 billion = $2.805 trillion.  As long as the Treasury pays the first $237 billion in revenue to the shareholders of our debt, there will be no default, and we will have $2.805 trillion left to spend.  Again, default is taken off the table.  Discussion over.

Hit the link for how to spend the remaining loot, but this is a perfect opportunity to starve some of the more outrageous government boondoggles that infest the Federal Government.

First Obama Pillaged WWII Vets' Medicare, Now He Tries To Steal Their Monument

First Obama pillaged Medicare to fund his Obamacare train wreck, now he is trying to prevent aged WWII Vets from visiting the open air World War II Memorial in Washington so he can maximize the pain of the government shutdown he ordered.

I guess the Thug-in-Chief really didn't notice that it is an open air monument paid for with private funds:

The National World War II Memorial was funded almost entirely by private contributions, as specified in Public Law 103-32. The campaign received more than $197 million in cash and pledges. Support came from hundreds of thousands of individual Americans, hundreds of corporations and foundations, veterans groups, dozens of civic, fraternal and professional organizations, states and one territory, and students in 1,200 schools across the country.

Donated and pledged funds were used to cover the total project costs of approximately $182 million. These costs include site selection and design, construction and sculpture, a National Park Service maintenance fee required by the Commemorative Works Act, groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies, fund raising, and the 11-year administrative costs of the project from its inception in 1993 through completion in 2004.

Remaining funds are held on deposit with the U.S. Treasury in a National WWII Memorial Trust Fund. The funds will be used by the American Battle Monuments Commission solely to benefit the World War II Memorial.

Or maybe Obama spent all the money on one of his wife's vacations. In any case, Obama goons are now threatening Vets with arrest when they take their long anticipated Honor Flight trip to see it.

... when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest. "I said, are you kidding me? You're going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn't for them it wouldn't be there. She said, 'That's correct sir.'"

Smooth move, Pondscum.

Crybaby Obama Tries to Explain Why He Shut Down the Government while Vets Take the WWII Monument

Crybaby Obama took to the airwaves this afternoon to try to explain why he shut down the government. Here's a hint, he says it wasn't his fault after arriving more than an hour late for the press conference. Hmm, always the same old story.

Meanwhile, Obama has his minions out trying to maximize shutdown pain and one of their gambits was to shut down the various Washington DC monuments including the World War II Memorial. That didn't sit too well with some WWII vets who took it over with the help of some Republican Congressmen.

Next they should head for the Senate.

Obama and the Democrats love train wrecks so much they'll shut down the government to get one

We all know that Obama and his pals just love nothing better than a creepy bureaucratic boondoggle like Obamacare that they themselves aren't saddled with, but this is hitting too close to home for most American citizens.

However, now that they can't get their way, Obama and the Democrats are getting all huffy and are going to shut down the government until the Republicans kowtow to Obamacare. Of course, the Federal government "shutdown" is more apparent than real and mostly means that the Washington elite won't be able to cook up more ways to afflict the little people. Sounds like good news to me.

The guy with a US funded RPG is from HappyAcres.

Today's Hoot: Ted Cruz squashes Democrat Dick Durbin like the roach he is

Ted Cruz was finishing his 21 hour filibuster and who scuttled out of the woodwork but Dick Durbin, the Illinois Cockroach:

In the last hour, even as he said he grew “weary” as his time arguing against ObamaCare was coming to a close, he found himself in a debate with the able and smart [sic] Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin on the Congress’s generous health-care plan.

Durbin complained that Cruz wanted to deny health care to the uninsured; did he not, Durbin asked, enjoy the benefits of the generous congressional health-care package himself?

Cruz said he wouldn’t answer Durbin until Durbin first replied to three questions Cruz had posed. Durbin, with an “a-ha” gesture, responded by saying it was clear Cruz was simply refusing to answer his embarrassing question.

He’d walked into Cruz’s trap. For then Cruz said, no, Senator, I’m eligible for the congressional plan — but I’m not enrolled in it.

Durbin thought he had Cruz cornered by bringing up his reliance on the absurdly generous health package for Congress. But since Cruz doesn’t rely on it, Durbin humiliated himself in what was supposed to be his gotcha moment.

Despite his marathon of speaking and standing and arguing, after nearly a day on his feet, Cruz — there is no other term for it — squashed Durbin like a bug.

Dicky sure must have been shocked that not everyone in Congress is as sleazy as he is.

Yet another reason to say "No" to Obamacare

There's lots to dislike about the Obamacare disaster, but one of the creepiest is the intrusion of the Federal government into your intimate medical details.

Snag some taxpayer loot by creating Obamacare video propaganda!

New Obamacare Enrollment Campaign Unveiled By Kathleen Sebelius

..the Department of Health and Human Services will debut a video contest -- complete with cash prizes -- designed to persuade younger consumers to get insurance.

The administration will partner with Young Invincibles, a non-profit youth issues organization, to run the contest, with the goal of reaching those younger Americans who are skeptical of the need for health coverage.

Participants will be encouraged to submit three different types of videos advertising the benefits of the exchanges: a song, an animated short, or a video designed to convince viewers that they aren't invincible. Using funds from the Affordable Care Act's education and outreach budget, HHS will award $3,000 each to the creators of the three most popular and persuasive videos, while second and third place winners will get $2,500 each.

I bet Lois Lerner didn't have any problem with Young Invincibles' tax exemption and the taxpayers have so much money that they don't know what to to do with it.

The agency's PR budget for the health care law is $75 million (though the $30,000 being spent by the video project comes from a different pool of funds).

Life in Washington DC would be incredibly dull for the bureaucrats without all those pools of funds.

Anyhow, on to the contest Website where you can get more details and check out the prizes. And by golly, some folks are already showing off their entries on YouTube.


 

Look like winners to me!  And look, the rules even state there will be public voting:

Videos can be submitted during the five-week period starting on Monday, August 19th. A public voting period will follow to help determine the Finalists in each category, and a final round of voting and judging will determine who takes home the Grand Prize.

UhOh! Notice all the weasel words there? I guess we don't have to worry about a honest vote count, but you never have to when Democrats are involved.

Are you ready for the Obama aspirin tax? How about the Obama tax on pacemakers and knee replacements?

Rodger, The Real King of France:

Effective Jan 1, 2013, aspirin will be heavily taxed under Obamacare. The only explanation given was that they are white and they work.

Details here. Of course, even more enjoyable is the Obamacare tax on medical devices like pacemakers and knee replacements. Looks like some Democrats finally read the bill they voted for and are having second thoughts on that one.