In the full flush of victory, President Obama promised Americans (youtube.com/watch?v=wfl55GgHr5E) that:
-- "We will keep these promises to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period! If you like your heath-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan. Period!" -- June 15, 2009
-- "First of all, if you've got health insurance and like your doctor, like your plan, you can keep your doctor, keep your plan." July 16, 2009
-- "No matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor or your health-care plan you can keep it." -- Aug. 15, 2009
-- "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period!" -- Aug. 22, 2009
-- "If you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job ... nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have." Sept. 9, 2009
-- "Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan." Jan. 27, 2010
But lately, even the president's most loyal supporters are beginning to sound like Republican "obstructionists."
On April 18, 2013, Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the Senate Finance Committee and one of the principal authors of Obamacare, told the Senate, "I just see a huge train wreck coming down."
A few days before, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D.-W.V, also instrumental in drafting the law, said "it is just beyond comprehension... (it is) the most complex piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress."
And now, leaders of three great Democrat-leaning labor unions are joining the Cassandras. James P. Hoffa, Teamsters president, Joseph Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers president and D. Taylor, UNITE-HERE president, have written:
"Dear Leader (Harry) Reid and Leader (Nancy) Pelosi:
"When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act, you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat. Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class...
"We have been strong supporters of ... affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision.
"Since the ACA was enacted, we have been ... seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans ... Our arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. ...
"We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios: First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees' work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers' hours to avoid this obligation ... The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.

 Second, our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the administration, our employees will be treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded to other citizens...
"And finally, even though non-profit plans like ours won't receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they'll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable ...
"The Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and well-being of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans...
"Corrections can be made within the existing statute that will allow our members to continue to keep their current health plans and benefits just as the President pledged."
And now a fourth union, the National Treasury Employes Union, which represents the IRS employees who will enforce Obamacare, also wants out!
And, by the way, President Obama and his Office of Personnel Management now have decreed that those impoverished folks in Congress, and their staffers (who earn $75K to $175K per year) will have you and me pick up 75 percent of their Obamacare insurance costs.
Michael Cannon, a health-care expert at the libertarian Cato Institute explained why this is happening: "The whole problem with 'Obamacare' is this: the only people who can implement it properly are people who are competent enough to plan one-sixth of the economy, and no such people exist."
George Orwell was right, "Some animals are more equal than others!"
Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2013, 11:00 pm - Quad-Cities Online
by John Donald O'Shea
Copyright 2013
John Donald O'Shea
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