The President Lied

Lets face it, friends.  There is a lot of fudging, shading of the truth, wiggling, and contextualizing that goes on in American politics.  Flat out, known in advance, unjustifiable and completely in the open lies?  Well, they are much, much rarer.  Yet we are being treated to the unraveling of just such a lie on a daily basis as the train wreck of Obamacare begins to become a reality.

I respect the President and the Presidency, and I understand that the title of this post is immoderate.  I use those words not only because it is the truth, but because it is appropriate.  

The fiasco of the website is just the tip of the iceberg.  There really isn't a lie there, just the hubris of centralized planning meeting the reality of government contracting and the influence of political timing.

No, the lie isn't about ADP problems.  It is about the consistently repeated fiction that Mr. Obama and his acolytes put forward in order to garner support for their signature legislative priority.  Here is a flavor of that lie:

 


There is no shading this one--in the history of modern American politics, it would be difficult to conjure up a larger, more consequential lie than this one.  In order to achieve two policy goals--one, expanding healthcare coverage to more Americans and two, ensuring coverage for those with pre-existing conditions--the Administration simply lied to the American public.  It lied by stating that we would be able to keep our doctors and plans, and it lied when it stated that the average family would see their premiums reduced by $2500. 

But you know what?  We wanted to be lied to. That's right--at least some of us.  We were so caught up in the unicorns and fairies approach to healthcare that we voted for him, supported his approach, gave him a Congress of his choosing and allowed them to produce a one-party approach to giant change.  That so many are now suffering buyer's remorse raises an almost indescribable schadenfreude.  But friends, the lie is just beginning.

Because all we're seeing now is the influence of Obamacare on the 15 million Americans who buy their own healthcare--50-70% of whom will lose the plan they had because it was either not compliant with the minimums of Obamacare or because the insurance companies made market based policy changes after the grandfathering date of the legislation.  We haven't begun to see the impact of Obamacare on employer subsidized coverage--which won't begin to really manifest itself until the months leading up to the 2014 mid-terms.

You see, many, many companies offer healthcare plans that vary in the generosity of coverage.  Some are very limited, but are popular with those who take greater risk,  and some are popular with young, healthy people who are acting responsibly.  Many of these policies ALSO will not stand up to Obamacare minimums...and so not only will THOSE policies have to be cancelled, premiums will rise for even the minimum coverage plans made available because these plans will provide coverage (forced by Obamacare) that the recipient previously did not desire.

This train wreck has not even started to happen.