Obama blames Republicans for Obamacare problems

Oh no you don’t Mr. President. Republicans had absolutely nothing to do with the ‘problems’ you’re having with the rollout of this monstrosity. He certainly has the habit of placing blame elsewhere does he not?

President Obama was asked the following question at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Meeting yesterday afternoon.

You indicated there and you’ve indicated publicly quite clearly that the rollout has been difficult. What do you think you’ve learned from this experience about the government’s ability to do this sort of thing, about the law itself or about your own administration?

Here is a portion of his answer in context, with my emphasis in bold. Do go read the full answer if you’d like.

And the last point I’ll make is that — you know, in terms of expectation-setting, there’s no doubt that in an environment in which we had to fight tooth and nail to get this passed, it ended up being passed on a — on a partisan basis — not for lack of trying, because I met with an awful lot of Republicans trying to get them to go along, but because there was just ideological resistance to the idea of dealing with the uninsured and people with pre-existing systems — yeah, there was — there was a price to that. And it was that what was already going to be hard was operating within a very difficult political environment and we should have anticipated that that would create a rockier rollout than if Democrats and Republicans were both invested in success.

One of the problems we’ve had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure and — and that makes, I think, the — the kind of iterative process of fixing glitches as they come up and finetuning the law more challenging.

But I’m optimistic that we can get it fixed.

I’m sorry, I completely missed the legislation proposed by the White House or Democrats to “fix glitches” prior to the full implementation on Oct. 1. Sure there were proposals to throw out the medical device tax, but nothing else. When it came to the employer mandate, Obama did not feel the need to consult with Congress at all. He just delayed it. When it came to hundreds upon hundreds of waivers the president – again – used his magic wand with zero consultation from the Legislative Branch to grant them. Just the other day, he waved his magic wand again saying he “was not going” to enforce the individual mandate’s coverage requirements, and put pressure on health insurance companies to clean up his own mess. This is what happens when the people’s representatives give up more and more power to the Executive Branch to “fix America’s problems.”

pelosi-gavel-marchThis legislation is totally owned by Democrats. To get it passed the House, they used unique procedures to avoid a final vote. Not one Republican in the House or Senate voted for Obamacare. As a reminder, here’s Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and a few other Democrat congress- critters putting the hammer down.

They had more than 60 months to build this federal bureaucracy and have failed miserably. We told you it would be a disaster.

Again, Obama is lying. He had the ball and an open field in front of him. He had more than $500,000 to build a website and the database-driven connections to systems that were decades old. Sweetness & Light asks

Can Mr. Obama name one specific as to how Republicans were able to affect Obama-Care’s rollout, one way or the other?

He can’t, but Republicans are bad people invested in failure so it’s their fault.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

29 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on November 20, 2013 at 10:03 am

    “Both invested in success”.? Translation: “both blameable for the ?bamacare fraud debacle”.? They dearly wish they could call this farce “bipartisan”, but they can’t.
    ?
    The only party “invested in failure” is the Democrat party, who had (count ’em) three years and billions of dollars to make this program a relative success, but the only thing they could do was continue to deliberately lie about the program and its effects on the American people and hope that the gross flaws would be hidden in a mandatory signup period.
    ?
    Lies, damn lies, and ?bamalies.



    • sammy22 on November 20, 2013 at 11:34 am

      Yes, the Democrats own the ACA and its failures. The Republicans own all the attempts at repealing it/defunding it.



    • bien-pensant on November 20, 2013 at 2:26 pm

      Just how is that not a good and responsible political course???The majority of Americans oppose both the ACA and Obama. As of today, 37% approval rating (and falling) is a 63% DISAPPROVAL of Obama. Please explain how that is good.
      If the situation was reversed, the democrats would bury the Republicans with the help of the Left Stream Media.
      ?



    • Dimsdale on November 20, 2013 at 3:35 pm

      All *unsuccessful* attempts, which, unlike horseshoes and handgrenades, don’t count if they are close.
      ?
      How do unsuccessful attempts at repealing it do any harm?



    • sammy22 on November 21, 2013 at 12:10 pm

      Dims, all the attempts at repeal/defunding show a refusal to do anything productive. They are a waste of time and effort knowing full well that no action would be taken by the Senate. And let’s not forget how the shutdown helped the cause.



    • bien-pensant on November 21, 2013 at 3:11 pm

      You can’t be serious. You are trying to defend the indefensible. The ACA is a wealth transfer via an age tax.
      Next, you are going to suggest to us the cancellations that millions of Americans have received, or are yet to receive, are really invitations for a better policy at a higher price.



    • Steve McGough on November 21, 2013 at 3:42 pm

      Analogy. Let’s say I handed you $1 million dollars to create and serve a turkey dinner to 20 of your friends. You have 30 days to make the meal. I walk out and go to the TV news and the food blogs and tell everyone your meal is going to be terrible. I tell everyone I’m seriously considering taking my money back, but I don’t. I do this for every day of the 30 days.

      On day 31 you serve the worst turkey dinner imaginable. Everything sucks.

      You’re going to go out and complain about me telling everyone – in advance – your meal is going to suck? That’s your rebuttal? You’re going to complain about me threatening to pull your funding when I never did?

      Are you saying the programmers and managers for Obamacare were so distracted by the GOP and the TEA Party their performance and implementation failed because of it?

      Huh. Maybe Sebelius and crew will claim they were suffering from PTSD. (You might think I’m kidding on that last one…)



    • sammy22 on November 21, 2013 at 10:38 pm

      What are you guys talking about. You talking to me? I already said that the Democrats own the ACA and its failures. Didn’t you read that already?



    • bien-pensant on November 22, 2013 at 9:03 am

      It is the backhanded insinuation that Republicans should not oppose democrat initiatives because they are some how viewed by you as not being “productive.” That is a DNC talking point. It is the duty of the Republicans to represent those who sent them to the Congress.
      As for the Republicans being responsible for the government shutdown, you should check your facts. Obama and HarryReid refused to “negotiate” with the Republicans. Obama wanted the shutdown, as he wanted and engineered the sequester, in order to make the Republicans be the villains. You have to understand that the Senate is controlled by the democrats: 51+2 independents to 47. But, you knew that.
      You really have to stop believing everything the Left Stream Media says and get out more.



    • sammy22 on November 22, 2013 at 12:12 pm

      bien-pensant, no insinuations needed. Fact: the House Repubs voted 40+ times to repeal the ACA, knowing full well that the Senate would not act on that. I call that a waste of time and effort. As for the shutdown I call what the House Repubs were asking for was extortion not negotiation. I think you also would benefit for reading stuff with more care.



    • Dimsdale on November 22, 2013 at 2:10 pm

      Sammy: I think it cemented the fact that the Republicans have no responsibility for this giant fraud.? In that, it succeeded, as well as keeping it in the news.?? As for “productive”, I find little in the “Patient protection and affordable care act” that protects the patient, is affordable, or offers any better care.? If it were simply about patients with preexisting conditions, that could have been dealt with by itself, as could any of the other alleged issues with what used to be the best healthcare in the world.? People getting reduced hours, coupled with high deductibles are not getting anything that is an improvement on the former condition.?
      ?
      I say the Republicans should keep passing those bills as the people incresingly reject ?bama”care”.



    • Lynn on November 24, 2013 at 10:07 am

      This is the best statement of Conservative position on True Affordable Healthcare, it is mostly based on Paul Ryan, but it is from Heritage.?http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/10/after-repeal-of-obamacare-moving-to-patient-centered-market-based-health-care



    • bien-pensant on November 24, 2013 at 4:02 pm

      Lynn, that is good. Thanks!



    • Eric on November 20, 2013 at 8:05 pm

      Obama is as dumb as a rock. ?He whines that he wanted republicans to give him their input. but he dismissed anything they had to say because it wasn’t what he wanted. ?Now he continues to whine that this abortion of a law didn’t have the support he wanted from, who? ?The republicans! ?This guy is a first class horses ass! ?He doesn’t have any room at all in his tiny little narcissistic head for the slightest bit of responsibility. ?Who would want to have anything to do with this idiot? ?I’m surprised he was able to get all the democrat support he did… and now, of course, many of these same democrats are running for the hills now after realizing that this monstrosity of a piece of legislation is unworkable, unpopular and unable to deliver on all the promises that Obama sold it on.
      ??



    • Dimsdale on November 21, 2013 at 10:01 am

      You are doing a major disservice to both rocks and horse’s asses!? Neither group would have him for a member!? 😉
      ?
      ?bama and the Dems are hoisting themselves by their own petards.? And deservedly so.



  2. JollyRoger on November 20, 2013 at 1:27 pm

    I think the republicans also share guilt in the falsified employment numbers back last fall leading up to the reelection of our dear leader- surely the republicans lacked the wisdom to sit that election out after driving the car into the ditch! It was irresponsible to try to take back the keys when obama only had 4 short years to stop the seas from rising, allow the earth to cool…



  3. SeeingRed on November 21, 2013 at 9:04 am

    Another Admin canard to see how many of his sycophants in the MSM will run with it.? So far we have Bashir, Schultz & Bueller.



    • bien-pensant on November 21, 2013 at 11:54 am

      The regime desperately needs to redirect the narrative. These liberal clowns are not helping Obama one bit. I hope they and their friends keep it up.



  4. Murphy on November 21, 2013 at 12:16 pm

    OMG sorry but I have to repost, the guy who said this hit the nail on the head;
    “Blaming Repubs for Obamacare fiasco is like blaming Gordon Lightfoot for the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
    Standing ovation for the originator of this comment.



    • bien-pensant on November 21, 2013 at 12:35 pm

      Wordy but I like that!



  5. Lynn on November 21, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    It’s the only trick he knows, time to teach him to chase a stick.



  6. bien-pensant on November 22, 2013 at 1:41 pm

    The Republican House passed a continuing resolution that the democrat Senate refused to pass. Obama had already said he refused to sign it if it passed the democrat controlled Senate. That is history. Would you like to change history or just interpret it as you like?
    You can look it up. You do know how to Google?
    ?
    How’s that ACA working out for you?
    ?



    • bien-pensant on November 22, 2013 at 2:27 pm

      BTW, that was @sammy.
      ?



    • sammy22 on November 22, 2013 at 5:27 pm

      Right, that’s the history. Where was the negotiation? Oh, you mean the part that had the defunding of ACA (or other defunding versions)? What’s to negotiate about that?
      As for the ACA, it is working just fine for me, how about you?



    • JollyRoger on November 23, 2013 at 4:43 am

      So you’re making good use of your mandated gynecological care, getting your baby teeth capped, or getting a sex change? ?Seriously, you’ll never enjoy the same medical marijuana as Nazi Pelosi, so stop voting dumbocrat!



    • bien-pensant on November 23, 2013 at 8:15 am

      So your leader and his minion in the Senate didn’t like the Republican offer — that’s negotiating — and shut down the government for 16 days. It was their choice, it was their call. Just like the sequestration that theOne signed into law. Democrat all the way. Just like the ACA. Do understand, it is the duty of the opposition party to mount opposition. Likewise, it is the duty of an elected representative to bring the will of the people who elected him/her to the deliberative body, i.e. Congress. They aren’t sent there to sing Kumbaya.
      In a word, the ACA hurts. It looks like we will have to pay $250 more per month for an overall worse plan, a higher deductible and out-of pocket costs. My wife’s doctor isn’t in any of the networks. We will never use any of the mandated services put in for the LGBTs, drug addicts and under twelve children. Frankly, we resent being forced to pay extra for less. It has awakened my wife from her apolitical torpor. Actually, for us, the ACA stinks.
      ?



    • Dimsdale on November 25, 2013 at 9:29 am

      I see the same level of negotiation that the Dems offered the Republicans while the former were ramming that legislation through (under shell legislation as an “amendment”) with the Repubs being locked out of conference rooms etc.
      ?
      As to how well it is working for you, sammy, give us specifics.?? How is it working “fine for you”?? If you are one of the anecdotal cases where your costs went down or your deductible got smaller or stayed the same, I, for one, would love to hear it.? I am sure the Dems would too.? Did you get a special waiver, or are you simply benefiting from the mandate delays?? Enlighten? us, please.



  7. Dimsdale on November 25, 2013 at 10:40 am

    ?bamacare has gone from a “face palm” to a “face plant”.? It is a reflection of the utter, epic incompetence of ?bama and the liberal Democrat party.



  8. bien-pensant on November 26, 2013 at 8:37 am

    But, they are still handing out the money and wielding the power. with this roll-out of ObamaCare, they are a step closer to a single payer system. After all, many people have sticker shock from the new plans they have been “invited” to buy.
    I am surprised that they couldn’t bring themselves to blame Bush, 41 or 43!
    As Clinton said, Obama is an amateur.
    ?



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