Not So Fast, Your Majesty?

The Chicago Tribune editorial board wrote the following in yesterday's paper: 

But in this country we don't change bad laws by presidential fiat. We change them by having Congress rewrite them or by starting from scratch. Obama doesn't want to reopen this law for fear that Republicans and some Democrats will substantially rewrite it. But that's what has to happen.

Nice to hear some objectivity from a mainstream paper. True, the Tribune's editorial philosophy leans conservative, but they did endorse Obama for president in 2008 and again 2012. So kudos to them for somehow managing to remain detached ideologically in both their endorsements and their analysis of policies.

Wish my paper (Los Angeles Times) would take a page from their playbook; its board members continue to insist, for example, that the Affordable Care Act is fine, just give it a few months, a year, max. Indeed, their guy can do no wrong. Here's what they wrote on the same day regarding Obama's "decree" that consumers should be allowed to keep their current insurance policies for another year: 

The move is a desperate attempt to fulfill a promise President Obama never should have made, and the legal authority for it is sketchy. What's more, it may not be possible at this point for insurers to revive policies they've already canceled. Worst of all, Obama merely punted to next year the fight over the law's insurance reforms, which he has done a remarkably poor job of explaining and selling. The only good thing about the delay is that it might stop Congress from making a more damaging change to the law.

A gentle rebuke, yes. But scrap (rewrite or repeal) the law? Nothing doing. The real bad guys in that scenario would be in Congress. Nope. Good, bad, or ugly, keep your cotton-picking hands off the ACA, thus saith the LAT.

Stop Digging. Start Over (Chicago Tribune editorial, November 15, 2013. 

His Highness Has Spoken!

So first, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" was passed illegally. At least that's my understanding. Aren't bills supposed to originate in the House and then move to the Senate, not the other way around? 

And it was passed without a single Republican vote, with virtually no input from Republicans (not for want of trying--they were muscled out of the entire process).

Then Obama decided unilaterally to exempt certain special interest groups (labor unions among them) from the penalties of ObamaCare. 

Now Mr. Obama is acting unilaterally again, this time offering to extend for a year those insurance policies that had been cancelled because they didn't comply with the Affordable Care Act. A whole year? Golly gee! Thanks, Mr. Obama!



What's next, your majesty?

Obamacare: Own it, Democrats

Here's a news item: 

"Earlier this week, Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius admitted that she didn't realize how complicated getting ObamaCare off the ground would be. Sebelius complained that 'no one fully anticipated' the difficulties involved in implementing ObamaCare, or how confusing it would be with the public" (article on Investors.com).

No one fully anticipated the difficulties? Really? How can she even say that with a straight face? Republicans were united in their opposition to the bill. What are they, chopped liver?

Not surprisingly, the misnamed affordable health care act is not affordable, after all. Neither is it all that Obama promised. In fact, most of the promises and assurances he made during the rush to pass this bill have now been found to be what most of us knew they were at the time: lies. 

Even that horrid woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, admitted that the bill was so ponderous, Congress would have have to vote it into law before they could read it. Of course, she thought she was being clever at the time. What a charmer. 

Of all the farces, that's the most ludicrous.

So now, here we are three years after the law passed, Democrats are finally realizing the enormity of their mistake, the media are finally beginning to write about it (where were they three years ago, John Nolte at Breitbart.com wonders?), Barack Obama and his Democratic party are asking for still more money from the American people to fund his out-of-control spending habit, the deficit continues to balloon, and Kathleen Sebelius wants to blame those obstructionist Republicans? 

Stop. Stop it. This is your party's mess, Ms. Sebelius: own it. Then, kindly step aside and let sensible Republicans can clean up your mess. 

"ObamaCare Turns Three: 10 Disturbing Facts Americans Have Learned" (Investors Business Daily)