RUSH: Fifty-four percent of Americans oppose Obamacare, according to a CNN poll released yesterday. Only 43% support it. These numbers, 54, 55, sometimes up to 58, they’ve been this way for four years on this. Obamacare has never had the support of a majority of the American people. Never. And even CNN says so. It’s a Politico story, but majorities have consistently opposed the law. Thirty-five percent of the country opposes the law because it’s too liberal. Sixteen percent argue it isn’t liberal enough. But it doesn’t matter, 54% still remain against Obamacare.
Sally Pipes, a contributor at Forbes, has an interesting story. “The Obamacare Insurance Exchange Train Is Already Coming Off The Rails.” It is a train wreck. Obamacare is going to implode. It’s simply too big. It’s too intricate. Not only is it much too large for one person to be able to grasp it, understand it, and even delegate the implementation, a whole bunch of committees will never understand this. This bill, this piece of legislation is literally going to be a train wreck. And I think the cynic in me says that that is part of the design, to have it be so chaotic and such a mess, so inefficient that the solution to it all will be single payer. That will be the simplification.
And this is classic. The government devices a program to fix something that is broken because government broke it in the place. The health care system in this country is broken because the government got involved in it way back in the sixties, and it’s gotten worse and worse and worse. So what’s next? Government’s gotta do something to fix it. So, yep, government broke it, people say government has to fix it. Government goes in and fixes it, makes it worse, people say, “You know what, government’s gotta fix this.” Never ending cycle. The government’s the only institution that profits from its mistakes. The government’s the only institution that grows because of its mistakes to the point that the mistakes may be purposeful, in many instances. You go anywhere in the private sector, and this is not permitted.
The latest train wreck of many here is these exchanges. The magic date for the exchanges is October 1st. All of the exchanges in the states where people will go to get their mandated insurance will not be open and up for operation, up and running — and those that are, are gonna be a disaster. Nobody running them is going to fully understand what they are, what their purpose is, and how to make them work.
Now, Sally Pipes’ point here is that “an Obamacare train wreck isn’t a distant possibility. It’s actively happening. Delays, wasteful spending, and cost overruns have already popped up. And it’s becoming increasingly likely that the exchanges won’t be ready by October 1, when they’re supposed to open for enrollment. Mass confusion and excessive costs will result.” Here’s a pull quote: Health and Human Services “can’t even account for all the grant money it’s throwing at the states, since the money comes with little or no restrictions, guidelines, or accountability.”
They’re just throwing money at the states — here, do an exchange! — that have agreed to do it. But there’s no owners manual. There’s no construction manual. It’s just…
“Here! Here’s the money. Set up the exchange.”
“Oh, okay. What do we do?”
“Well, set up the exchange.”
“Well, what the hell is one?”
“Well, it’s — it’s an office! People are gonna come get their health insurance.”
“Oh, so we just open an office?”
“Yep, here’s the money.”
“Well, what do we do after we open the office?”
“Well, people are gonna come in and get insurance.”
“Oh. Well, who’s providing it?”
“Well, that will be taken care of. You just make sure you get the office opened up.”
That’s about what’s happening, and the low-information crowd’s gonna be lining up. They’ll be there. They’ll be there as though it’s a new iPhone being released. They’ll be standing in line! They’ll be lined up around the corner to get, ’cause they think it’s free. (laughing) I’m telling you, folks (laughing), you can laugh but it’s exactly what’s gonna happen. “Even the states the administration has paraded around as ‘pioneers’ [in the exchange business] are having trouble creating government-run insurance marketplaces out of whole cloth.
“Connecticut, the first state approved to set up an exchange, is now struggling to get it up and running. Colorado is ‘stripping its opening-day goals to a minimum.'” By the way, these are two states that have banned guns. Is it a coincidence that they have no clue what they’re doing? “Federal officials have struggled to come up with a comprehensible application form. Their first effort reached 15 pages.” This is the form that we are gonna have to fill out at the exchange. The first was 15 pages, and people looked at it and said, “What the hell is this? This is worse than a tax form!”
Forbes: “After a round of criticism, they came back with a form that’s three pages for individuals — and seven pages for families,” and I’m just here to tell you that the low-information voter crowd at what they think is free health care are gonna see the three- or seven-page application form, and there could be riots. Now, the cynic in me says some of this is by design. ‘Cause single payer is what Obama’s always wanted. Government-run health care is what he’s always wanted.
The more chaos there is, the more confusion there is, the more people that don’t get insurance, the more people that don’t have insurance and then can’t get treatment? (cynical chuckle) You’ve got a recipe for all kinds of unrest out there. You know how important health care is to people, and if they can’t get it or if it’s reminiscent of any trip to any government window, after a while somebody’s gonna pop up.
“You know what? We ought to just get rid of these exchanges. Just have the government do it. Everybody should get their insurance through government and the government will pay for everything.” “Okay, cool.” Just like amnesty. It’ll be thirteen years before they can vote but after six months, Schumer says, “You know what? This is just unconstitutional. This is unfair. We tell ’em they can be a citizen here, we’re letting ’em in, we got a pathway to citizenship, but we tell ’em they have to wait 13 years to vote? No way! They can vote tomorrow.”
It’s the way it’s gonna happen.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hi. From the New York Times: “High-End Health Plans Scale Back to Avoid ‘Cadillac Tax.'” Oh, yeah, you’ve heard about the Cadillac health care plans? (interruption) Well, the unions have them, but the 1% has them, too. They’re being scaled back to avoid the high tax on ’em. “Say goodbye to that $500 deductible insurance plan and the $20 co-payment for a doctor’s office visit. They are likely to become luxuries of the past. Get ready to enroll in a program to manage your diabetes.
“Or prepare for a health screening to determine your odds of developing a costly health condition. Expect to have your blood pressure checked or a prescription filled at a clinic at your office, rather than by your private doctor. Then blame — or credit — the so-called Cadillac tax, which penalizes companies that offer high-end health care plans to their employees. While most of the attention on the Obama administration’s health care law has been on providing coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans by 2014, workers with employer-paid health insurance are also beginning to feel the effects.
“Companies hoping to avoid the tax are beginning to scale back…” Stop and think about that. (sigh) Why would companies offer a really cool, high-end health care plan? (interruption) That’s right: To get the best employees. Get ’em and keep ’em. There’s a competition for the best employees. Companies come up with creative ways of compensating them. So the regime comes along and says, “Well, if you’re gonna do that, we’re gonna tax the heck out of you, ’cause it isn’t fair that some should have better treatment than others.
“It isn’t fair that others should have better coverage. It just isn’t fair.” It says right here in the New York Times: “In a way, the changes are right in line with the [regime]’s plan: To encourage employers to move away from plans that insulate workers from the cost of care and often lead to excessive procedures and tests…” They don’t want really high-quality health care available. They’re liberals. They think it’s unfair, number one. It’s the way they do things. You know, here you’ve got health care.
They don’t want to make the best available to the most.
It’s the other way around.
Make the mediocre available to everybody.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day, Rush Limbaugh, as usual, half my brain tied behind my back just to be fair, because fairness is everything. That’s why socialism, by the way, works in people’s minds. They think it’s fair. I actually think… I’ve been working on this. The object is to change people’s minds starting as young as feasible. The reason socialism is attractive to people is because they think it’s fair. Like this last health care story we had.
We’re gonna get rid of Cadillac health care plans because it’s not fair that some employees ought to have better insurance than anybody else has, and better coverage. It just isn’t fair. So we’re gonna tax those things out of existence. That’s what we’re gonna do, and that’s considered fair. Now, it’s anti-free market, it’s anti-freedom, and it destroys choice and all these things. It also eliminates something that people could aspire to and work toward. But people fall for it and say, “Okay, because that’s fair.”
Socialism is fair, and fairness…
I’ve often thought that the concept, the word that gives us as conservatives the biggest obstacle to overcome, is that whole concept of “fairness” and that word “fair,” as it’s utilized politically. Nobody’s opposed to fairness, but what is it? Is fairness everybody being equal? By “equal,” I mean, having the same outcome, equality of outcome? What’s fair? Who gets to define that? When political ideologues get involved, the whole concept of fair gets turned upside down, and it ends up meaning something that’s actually destructive.
They not gonna drop Obama’s plan. That’s the whole point. The elites are not gonna have to get rid of theirs. Think Obama’s gonna get rid of his Cadillac health insurance plan or the two Obama daughters? That isn’t gonna happen. You know that. I mean, the liberals are always gonna insulate themselves from the “fairness” they impose on everybody else.
Related Links