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What do Republicans say if Obamacare works?
What do Republicans say if Obamacare works?
By Greg Sargent
With some skittish Democrats suggesting Obamacare delays to deal with the website’s awful problems, I asked a senior administration official how worried the White House is about the possibility of serious Dem defections from the law.
“The key is to fix the website,” the official replied. “Everything flows from that.”
I hope that Democrats get this message, because it’s important. If the Web site gets fixed, and if enrollment numbers end up being tolerably decent – say, at a level both sides can spin as a victory for themselves — the current problems will be forgotten, and the law will probably be okay. If the Web site isn’t fixed by the time we enter the new year and the March 31st enrollment deadline looms, then a delay will actually be required. The law’s long term prospects may be seriously threatened; all political bets will be off; and any positioning Dems did right now just won’t matter.
<...>
There’s no minimizing the political problems the web site is currently creating for Dems, and it remains possible that the politics of Obamacare could get significantly worse. But one possibility that no one seems to be entertaining is that the current battle could end up seriously backfiring on Republicans. If the web site does get fixed — and if demand proves to be such that enough people enroll – what do Republicans say at that point?
Republicans will have spent weeks expressing outrage on behalf of Americans who have been unable to tap into the benefits of Obamacare because of administration incompetence, and on behalf of people who are “losing” coverage because of outrageous liberal Big Government overreach. At that point, though, the web site will be working, and untold numbers of people will be shopping for real, tangible plans. Many on the individual market will find plans that are better, and potentially even cheaper overall — whether because of subsidies, or because the plans don’t disguise their true long term cost, as the current, crappy ones do – than their previous ones. None of this is a given, obviously; again, it all turns on whether the law works.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/31/what-do-republicans-say-if-obamacare-works/
By Greg Sargent
With some skittish Democrats suggesting Obamacare delays to deal with the website’s awful problems, I asked a senior administration official how worried the White House is about the possibility of serious Dem defections from the law.
“The key is to fix the website,” the official replied. “Everything flows from that.”
I hope that Democrats get this message, because it’s important. If the Web site gets fixed, and if enrollment numbers end up being tolerably decent – say, at a level both sides can spin as a victory for themselves — the current problems will be forgotten, and the law will probably be okay. If the Web site isn’t fixed by the time we enter the new year and the March 31st enrollment deadline looms, then a delay will actually be required. The law’s long term prospects may be seriously threatened; all political bets will be off; and any positioning Dems did right now just won’t matter.
<...>
There’s no minimizing the political problems the web site is currently creating for Dems, and it remains possible that the politics of Obamacare could get significantly worse. But one possibility that no one seems to be entertaining is that the current battle could end up seriously backfiring on Republicans. If the web site does get fixed — and if demand proves to be such that enough people enroll – what do Republicans say at that point?
Republicans will have spent weeks expressing outrage on behalf of Americans who have been unable to tap into the benefits of Obamacare because of administration incompetence, and on behalf of people who are “losing” coverage because of outrageous liberal Big Government overreach. At that point, though, the web site will be working, and untold numbers of people will be shopping for real, tangible plans. Many on the individual market will find plans that are better, and potentially even cheaper overall — whether because of subsidies, or because the plans don’t disguise their true long term cost, as the current, crappy ones do – than their previous ones. None of this is a given, obviously; again, it all turns on whether the law works.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/31/what-do-republicans-say-if-obamacare-works/
Websites get fixed. Republicans are busy exploiting the time until then, but eventually, they're going to have to come to grips.
You're already seeing it with the Medicaid expansion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023955227
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hey, why not?
Lather, rinse, repeat.
They were only shocked because of the malfunctioning website since that would never have happened under their watch.
Because the website glitches amount to death panels.
Trying to kill the ACA 40+ times will by then be conveniently forgotten 
