2014
It is really hard to believe‼️ The Obama Administration has once again ignored the law and modified the Affordable Care Act through policy.
Americans who had trouble enrolling through a state exchange will now get a federal tax credit for the time they had private insurance purchased on their own outside an exchange. This is in direct conflict to what the Law says under which subsidies are only available if enrolled in an exchange plan.
This and several other modifications of the law because of implementation screw ups should make every American concerned. I recall when Bush was labeled a gunslinger. Well, playing fast and lose with the provisions of a law is the same thing.
You can rationalize the actions all you want, the bottom is the Administration is fixing its political problems by ignoring the law it passed.
All this should tell you something about the mindset of the people running our Country. There is a lack of ethics, and moral character and a sense of we know what’s best for everyone else coupled with a political agenda that surpasses everything else. Oh, I know, none of this is unique to Democrats, but that does not justify the actions by those currently in power.
Remember what has been done when you read criticism of Republicans and their actions. Under a nation of laws, the end does not justify the means, especially when the end is victory in the next election.
Surely the excuse for this action is that changes to the law would never pass the Republican controlled House; that’s probably true, but it’s not an excuse to ignore provisions of a law already enacted.
Is this what it means to be progressive❓
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Furthermore from Daily Kos:
House Republican ineptitude at governing has been no more apparent than in the Obamacare repeal and replace debacle they’ve imposed on the nation for the past three years. The repeal part, they got that down after 40-some votes. The replace part, however, that takes actual hard thinking and policy making, something the Republican party lost interest in years ago. So it’s looking increasingly like they’re just going to give up on it.
House Speaker John Boehner, the top U.S. Republican, told reporters on Thursday that it was important for Republicans to come up with “better solutions” on healthcare.
But Boehner would not commit to putting a Republican alternative to a vote this year. Pressed on his plans to move legislation, he said the party would continue discussions on replacing Obamacare and seek member input. “We’re going to go through a lot of ideas,” Boehner said.
Part of the problem is what we’ve seen for the whole of Boehner’s speakership: he’s incapable of leading the tea party contingent he let take control of the conference. They fundamentally don’t care about anything other than repeal and they don’t want any replacement that has anything at all to do with Obamacare as it exists now. But Republicans can’t actually say out loud that they think insurance companies should be able to refuse to sell you insurance because you have a pre-existing condition, or that insurance companies should be able to just dump you for any reason. So now that all those things are actually law, they have to say they want to keep them, but are utterly incapable of coming up with a real plan that would work in the real world.
So, after weeks of promises of a Republican plan emerging from the House, leadership is being forced to walk that promise back. The best part of this is Boehner’s lame excuse: they just have too many ideas! “And so, we’re going to continue to go through a lot of ideas. You can see our members—they’ve introduced 126 different ideas about how to fix Obamacare, how to replace Obamacare.” Uh, huh.
The second best part is the “hope group.” That’s Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) who are meeting Friday to try to figure out where in the hell to go from here. They “hope” they can find some way out of the repeal corner they’ve painted themselves into and come up with a plan that House Republicans would actually vote for. I hope they’re not holding their collective breath.
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I don’t think you would argue that affordable healthcare is a good thing for Americans. I know that you understand that the Republican controlled House will oppose anything at all that POTUS tries to accomplish. I applaud POTUS for taking action to get things done in the face of this unprecedented obstructionism. When the President tries to work with the Republicans and compromise, they say he is a “weak leader”. When the President takes direct actions and proceeds with executive orders, they say he is a “dictator”. They will never agree with anything he ever does or says. Stop throwing little stones and support affordable healthcare for our citizens. That’s the big picture and you know that it is the right thing to do. You are taking a losing position on the wrong side of this issue and I don’t understand why?
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So you are saying the law doesn’t matter, never mind what it says? The bureaucrats can make whatever changes they like for their own political purposes? I hope that is not what you truly believe. I can only imagine the reaction if this was a Republican conservative administration doing all this. Democrats alone wrote this law. I would think the integrity of the law would be important to them.
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I am saying that the constitutionality of executive actions is quite clear and that rich idiot Darrel Issa is waiting for the slightest misstep in that regard. And that means that whatever Obama has done with regard to PPACA is completely within his constitutional rights. I am also stating that this president has issued far fewer executive orders than any other president in recent history. Furthermore, I am asking you to step back and look at the big picture – PPACA will be as good for America as is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Implementation of PPACA is paramount to right wing criticism and because of the overwhelming importance of the common good, the end DOES justify the means in this case. Presidential administrations have tried to implement universal healthcare for about 50 years and none succeeded until Obama did it. If you are asserting that Obama is acting unlawfully, you are wrong. If he ever does do any thing unlawful, the House will attempt to impeach him. Use your blog to help American citizens and stop the petty right-wing pebble tossing.
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And, lest we forget, Bush and Cheney started two wars based upon totally false pretenses which killed and maimed thousands of Americans and accomplished absolutely nothing!Those unaffordable wars destroyed our national economy and plunged our nation into a very deep recession from which we are still struggling to recover. President Obama has made progress in that regard (48 consecutive months of jobs growth and doubling of the DOW) despite right wing obstructionism, but we would be much further ahead on our road to recovery if any Republican politician had a patriotic bone is his/her body and supported his job creation bills. Tell me which party is the lawless party in light of the facts?
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So this means nothing, even from the NYT? What right do they have to provide “guidance” not even an executive order, that directly conflicts with the law, administrative problems or not? One law professor concluded that people affected could sue and win because of the admin problems, that’s fine, it’s within the law, the Administration’s actions are not. You know darn well if the shoe were on the other foot, you would be screaming. What if Obama had lost and Romney delayed the effective date of the law by executive order? Would that have been okay too?
NYT:
“The Obama administration’s decision came as a surprise because the Affordable Care Act is clear: Federal subsidies are available only to people who enroll in a “qualified health plan” through an exchange.
But some of the online state exchanges have not been working well enough to determine if people are eligible for coverage, one of the basic functions of an exchange. The exchanges are competitive marketplaces where consumers are supposed to be able to shop for insurance, enroll and get financial assistance to help pay premiums.
“We recognize that some states have experienced difficulties in processing automated eligibility determinations and enrollments,” said Aaron K. Albright, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “We released guidance providing options to marketplaces to ensure eligible consumers have access to financial assistance.”
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Maybe you didn’t hear me?
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