Sunday, March 23, 2014

It looks more and more like the Republicans will have to find something other than Obamacare to run on in 2014.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:  

It’s not looking good for the Republican naysayers who have insisted, no matter how many times their predictions of doom and gloom for Obamacare have proven to be wrong, the law is about to fail. They are still insisting that there is no chance that the enrollment goal of 6 million can be reached by the March 31 deadline. 

The latest forecast made by Charles Gaba on his blog, acasignups.net is that enrollment is on a pace to actually exceed that goal by approximately half a million. Opponents of the law have tied their last ditch hopes for the law’s failure to the assumption that the goal of 6 million could not be reached by the deadline and with that goal in sight have nothing left, they know that this was the last chance they had to get rid of the law. 

Gaba has been very accurate in his earlier projections as the right cheered every misstep and minor setback each time calling it the end for the law, or as they began calling it when the roll-out of the federal website proved to be less than a resounding success, the “death spiral” of the law. 

At that time, as Chris Hayes pointed out Tuesday on MSNBC’s All In, the accepted wisdom on the right was that with a website that was experiencing serious problems only the old and the sick would sign up for insurance making the whole plan an actuarial nightmare that would die of its own weight. 

They have not backed off from those predictions even as the data began to show that people were signing up and that a significant number of those who were signing up are healthy young people. 

Gaba’s graph includes enrollments through exchanges, Medicaid expansion and those under 26 who can now remain on their parents’ insurance. More importantly, it shows that as of Monday enrollment had passed the 5 million mark putting it in a very good position to reach the CBO goal by the end of the month. 

Much to the dismay of the Republicans who have been predicting the law’s demise, according to Forbes Magazine health benefits consultants say that the number who have enrolled are enough already to make the ACA work, even though the numbers are still short of what the President had hoped for.

Not often, but occasionally, I  turn on Fox News just to see if anything has changed. But it hasn't.

They still spend much of their air time slamming the Affordable Care Act and predicting doom and gloom for the Democrats in 2014.

However as time passes there is more evidence to suggest that Obamacare is a success, and that any plans to repeal or "fix it" coming from the Republicans is not well received by the American public.

Paul Ryan found that out the hard way at a recent town hall:  

But not all of Ryan’s constituents agree with his position. On Wednesday, the Republican congressman was confronted by one such voter at a town hall in southeast Wisconsin. 

“ACA subsidies are a good thing,” Michael Martincic, 64, of Oak Creek told Ryan, criticizing his Party’s repeated attempts to get rid of the health reform law. 

Martincic works as a roofer and is currently paying $700 for his health insurance through his union. However, upon browsing Healthcare.gov — “it was so easy to get on the site; the whole thing only took 15 minutes,” Martincic told ThinkProgress afterward — he found that he qualified for subsidies and could be paying as little as $200 for coverage.

As more and more of these stories come out, and Democrats should be actively soliciting them,  the harder it will be for Republicans to campaign on the "failure" of the law.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but we need to get our act together as a party, and we need to get it together NOW.

23 comments:

  1. Beldar J Conehead7:28 AM

    Gryphen, for once you're right.

    The GOPOOP (Grand Old Party Of Oligarchs and Plutocrats) will NOT be be able to base their 2014 campaign on repealing Obamacare.

    Their ONLY hope for increasing their stranglehold on the House and gaining ground in the Senate is if there is still a black man in the White House come election day.

    Of course, with Rush's recent pronouncement that Obama will NOT - repeat: NOT - be impeached before leaving office in 22 months no matter how unspeakably egregious and heinous his (imaginary) high crimes and misdemeanors because, apparently, White Amercia lacks the political will to prosecute Obama, it seems plausible that there will be a black man for the RWNJs to run against.

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  2. Anonymous7:37 AM

    Now Drudge is trying to obfuscate the situation by claiming that he JUST paid his fine for not having health insurance. Fines don't kick in until 2015. People are defending him, saying that he's paying his taxes for 2015 now because he's a self-employed business. But that's bs. Like I said, he's obfuscating. Also, I sincerely doubt that a millionaire, 48-year-old doesn't have health insurance.

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  3. Anonymous7:39 AM

    Four Years Into Obamacare, GOP Comes Up Short On Alternative



    Four years after Obamacare was enacted, and more than 50 House votes to undo it, Republicans remain dedicated to destroying the law. But they're still lost on what they'd put in its place if given the chance.

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is leading the effort to craft a GOP alternative, and promised his members a vote in 2014. He faces a sea of obstacles to writing a health care bill with sufficient support in the House, and potentially a world of hurt if he follows through with his commitment.

    "House Republicans will rally around and pass an alternative to Obamacare this year," Cantor told Republicans at their annual conference retreat in January.

    The aim is to stitch together a series of ideas with broad GOP support, such as letting people buy insurance across state lines, reforming medical malpractice laws and expanding high-risk pools and incentive-based health savings accounts, according to sources familiar with the effort.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-four-years-republican-alternative

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:44 AM

    How Is ObamaCare Helping Americans? Here Is Your Answer

    http://theobamadiary.com/2014/03/22/how-is-obamacare-helping-americans-here-is-your-answer/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:57 AM

    On Obamacare’s 4th Anniversary, Obama Denounces ‘Outdated Obsession’ with Repeal

    ...“It is these numbers, and the stories behind them, that will ultimately determine the fate of the law,” Obama wrote.

    “It is the measurable outcomes—in savings for families and businesses, healthier kids with better performance in schools, seniors with more money to spend because they’re paying less for their medicine, and young entrepreneurs who’ll have the freedom to try new jobs or chase that new idea—that will ultimately offer security and peace of mind to more Americans who work hard to get ahead.”

    “This is what’s at stake any time anyone, out of some outdated obsession, pledges to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act,” Obama wrote.

    The statement ends with a reminder that the deadline to enroll for coverage is March 31.

    Read the full statement below:

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/on-obamacares-4th-anniversary-obama-denounces-outdated-obsession-with-repeal/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:14 AM

    Nate Silver to ABC: GOP Has 60% Shot at Retaking Senate

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/nate-silver-to-abc-gop-has-60-shot-at-retaking-senate/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8:28 AM

    The Koch Brothers Are Accidentally Advertising the Benefits of Obamacare

    http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117101/koch-brothers-obamacare-ads-new-ones-suggest-law-working

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:57 AM

    Relax.

    The 2010 Tea Party insurgence was against all incumbents, Democrats and Republicans alike.

    This year is different. We have watched them sabotage the American economy for their own personal and political gain. They have done the impossible and seriously underestimated the intelligence of the American citizenry.

    Those shitasses have lost voters like me for life.

    Signed,
    Moderate Republican.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:58 AM

    It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people are. Of course President Obama has made gaffes, he's human, who hasn't? He also saved us from economic disaster and has paid down the debt that wasn't his doing in the first place. The fact that Boehner and the House refute him at every turn is the problem. They have no desire to turn our country around but only to make him a failure. Why people can't see this is beyond me, and every last one of them should be voted out. They have no solutions, are only out to destroy, and yet Nate Silver predicts the GOP has a slight lead in November races. Unbelievable.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:35 AM

      Democrats are famous for operating against their own best interests. Right now there are a bunch of far-left Dems who have their knickers in a twist because they feel that Obama and some of our Democratic Senate members, specifically the "Blue Dog" Dems, some of who are up for reelection in 2014, aren't "liberal" enough and not progressive enough. Because of this they will stay home in November or vote for some bizarre third-party candidate.

      This has happened before and is partly why we don't hold the House and why this year's Senate race is so critical and why we have such a slight margin in the Senate. This year voting is critical and also voting for a Democrat, even if you don't like ALL of his or her policy stances, they still are better than the alternatives. We can't keep giving elections to the GOP/TeaParty if we want to keep America a place that we still want to live.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:03 AM

      Republicans have a good chance of taking over the Senate because --
      A. Most of the Senate seats that the Dems are defending are in GOP-strong states, like Alaska and Arkansas, giving the GOP a leg up.
      B. Many of the Democrats holding their seats right now only won because of the tsunami of Democratic voters in 2008, because of Obama.
      C. Republicans have better natural turnout, especially in midterm elections s the Democrats have the best chance of taking over seats in presidential election years. No one's saying it YET but a lot of the dipshits who won in 2010 will be vulnerable in 2016 -- guaranteed! (My prediction is that if the GOP wins the Senate, they end up losing it again in two years.)
      D. Historically, the party of the sitting president loses seats in the midterm election of his second term. This is generally reliable. It happened to Regan, it happened to Bush -- Hi, remember 2006? The one time it didn't happen was during Clinton's second term when the Dems picked up MORE seats because voters were annoyed with Gingrich.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1998

      The fact that they're only being given a 60 percent chance is because there isn't a tsunami of support for them and indicates that people are sick of their tactics. But these historic voting tendencies are pretty predictable and pretty hard to upend and probably figured into Nate Silver's predictions.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous1:23 PM

      As I said at 9:35am, Dems need to vote if they want a country they feel is "livable". I have dual citizenship so can always leave if things become terrible but most would be stuck here living in the mess they've made.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous9:37 AM

    It's a little early to be gloating Gryphen. The total cost is no where close to being known yet. The administration is shining numbers up to try to make it look good and the Repubs are throwing mud to make it look bad and the truth is somewhere in the middle. But I'm leaning with the Repubs on this one based of what friends have told me their experiences are so far.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:07 AM

      You sound like a troll.

      My Republican "friends" are trying to say that Obamacare has been bad for them, too, but, see, I'm smart enough to know that they're full of shit and that the reason why it's bad is because they probably didn't bother going on the exchanges and most Republican voters are too fucking retarded to admit that something that they railed against was good anyway, so…I take them all with a grain of salt.

      My office policy -- which I'm not on -- has gone up in price, but there are only five or six people on it so I don't even know if the law affects it, a fact that my boss, a Republican, ignores when she trashes the law.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:23 PM

      Details, please 9:37. Exactly what are your friends experiences?

      The Republicans have been trying to find someone, anyone, who is having a worse time with the ACA than before and they keep getting debunked. Yet I keep reading on different websites about all the people who have been hurt by the ACA.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous1:20 PM

      9:37 is the resident troll. As much as we've seen her the writing should be recognizable to all who frequent this blog. She's the same one who supposedly got a Colorado bakery to make her a cake on an expedited schedule because she name dropped her daughter being friends with the Palins.

      Suffice it to say, she's full of shit and lends nothing to the discussion.

      In the meantime, regarding the ACA, the cost of subsidies is way less than the cost of the uninsured, 42 BILLION DOLLARS in 2012, who seek care at emergency rooms and walk-in clinics. In addition, a populace that is covered for preventive care will also require less drastic medical procedures as time marches on. There simply is no way to play this as a negative.

      Delete
    4. " But I'm leaning with the Repubs on this one based of what friends have told me their experiences are so far."
      --------------------------------
      Sure you are. Are your friends like the moron who simply refused the numbers in front of her proving she was better off with her new policy? Or the one that refused to visit the healthcare.gov site because ...Obama! And then whined about the crappy policy she had because she refused to look for a better one?

      You and your friends are morons if you prefer the system we had before or trust the republicans to look out for anything but their corporate donors' best interests.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous3:37 PM

      No discussing with you fools I see. You're as bad as the Sea of Pee fools.

      Your minds are made up and closed so you're not worth the bothering to try to have a discussion. Have fun and keep each other stirred up.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous4:50 PM

      Again, how about some specifics, 3:37?

      You can't just throw out that you have friends with bad experiences and not say what they are. I've seen epic takedowns in other blogs of people claiming Obamacare hurts them in some way. They are shown to be liars or grossly misinformed.

      It's also bad form to flounce out after you're criticized for presenting a competing view with no actual evidence.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous6:28 PM

      What exactly have you discussed? Nothing. Given all the lies surrounding opposition to the ACA (presented by those "Repubs" you're leaning with), can you blame us for being suspicious?

      So, what exactly were your friends' experiences that have you "leaning with the Repubs?"

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:43 AM

    I don't understand why DWS is still heading up the DNC.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous3:11 PM

    Chris Wallace, As Usual, Allows Obamacare Lies To Go Unchecked On Fox News Sunday

    http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/23/chris-wallace-usual-obamacare-lies-unchecked-fox-news-sunday.html

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  13. Anita Winecooler5:36 PM

    I loved the town hall meeting where that guy ironed Ryan's suit while he wore it. Duck and swerve doesn't behoove him well. I had visions of Republicans demanding a recount, pregnant chads etc. etc and if that doesn't work, a vote to repeal it again, because that's all they know.
    GOTV everyone 2014 is more important than 2018.

    ReplyDelete

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