It’s Raining Violets

In June, 2009 — and frequently since — President Barack Obama said, "No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."

The unequivocal words "period" and "no matter what" were meant to convince listeners that Obama’s words weren’t just "rhetoric," a more polite word for "bull****."

Enough Americans believed Obama to reelect him.
But, now, because of Obamacare, trusted physician/patient relationships are being severed, and millions of Americans have received or are about to receive health insurance cancellation letters — things the administration has known for three or more years.

Millions more having small business group insurance and in large employers’ group markets will lose plans next year.

Although they have come to expect and can tolerate a certain amount of political "rhetoric," Americans despise dishonesty.

That’s why the administration, friendly media and congressional Democrats who voted for Obamacare are furiously backtracking and spinning the president’s broken promises.

They must. Obamacare’s their baby.

Spurning Republican input, Democrats drafted Obamacare in secret and, using bribery and procedural gimmicks, rammed it – unread – through Congress during a brief window when they controlled the House and sixty Senate votes.
Excluded and irrelevant to the outcome, every congressional Republican voted against Obamacare.

Because uncompromising Democrats were unobstructed, there’s no rational case that Obamacare’s problems stem from GOP opposition. In fact, an internal administration memo revealed that it had bungled Obamacare months before Republicans regained the House.

Can more "rhetoric" obscure Obama’s falsehoods? You decide:
The New York Times’ David Firestone called Obama’s promises an "unfortunate blanket statement."

(Other examples of "unfortunate blanket statements" include: "I am not a crook," and "Read my lips, no new taxes.")

Firestone wrote: "The so-called cancellation letters…were simply notices that policies would have to be upgraded or changed."

Former Clintonista James Carville added, "[T]he more accurate statement would have been that you will keep your coverage unless you are an individual market and have a so-called insurance policy that doesn’t meet the basic requirements. You know, just calling something health insurance doesn’t make it health insurance."

In other words, if Obamacare cancelled your preferred, affordable insurance, Obama didn’t lie: His promise didn’t apply to you because your plan wasn’t a plan.

Luckily, the affected policies Americans liked and the cancellations they received were only "so-called."

BusinessInsider.com’s Josh Barro admitted Obama’s promise "isn’t proving true" but declared: "There are…health plans that Americans shouldn’t be able to keep."
Reliable Obama sycophants on the New York Times editorial board agreed in an editorial headlined: "Insurance Policies Not Worth Keeping."

Why? Because Times editors are much smarter than American consumers.
Time Magazine’s Kate Pickert piled on: "Despite what President Obama said, thousands of people are being forced to change plans. But their new ones may offer better coverage."

Or not.

Otherwise denying or ignoring Obamacare’s problems, Obama weighed in, asserting that policy cancellations are for the benefit of "the underinsured."

In an even more insulting take, HBO’s Bill Maher explained that he didn’t "think Obama should’ve lied to people" but that the president lied to help us, because Americans are getting "stupider."

Those harmonies were orchestrated to soften or distract from Obama’s mendacity: "It isn’t raining rain, you know, it’s raining violets."*

Violets fertilized by Obama’s "rhetoric."

It rained violets on Capitol Hill, too.

Politicoreported: "Congressional offices…[were] forced into a frenzied…scramble to decide which…staffers [would] be pushed onto…health insurance exchanges and which [would] keep their current health insurance plans."

This Oct. 31 was the deadline for members to decide whether to force staffers onto Obamacare exchanges as the law directs or to approve taxpayer-funded subsidies to provide benefits unavailable to other Americans.

Most, unbelievably including Democrats who voted for Obamacare, chose the unique latter privilege.Clearly, "settled law" is only for the little people.

Because they own the unfolding calamity, Democrats are increasingly anxious about its impact on the 2014 election.

Obamacare will cost them.

Furthermore, as comedian Bill Maher noted, President Obama has rebranded himself as a liar, a label he’ll never outlive – America’s reward for twice electing a president with charisma but no discernible skills.

And that’s no "rhetoric."

(*Lyric from "April Showers," a song popularized by Al Jolson during the Great Depression, an era we may yet call "the good old days.")

http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/11/yet_more_to_worry_about_with_obamacare_jerry_shenk.html#incart_river