Chris Adamo
Republicans should seize Obamacare's "teachable moment"
By Chris Adamo
Cindy Vinson of San Jose California should be the new poster child for Republican outreach to young voters. Though at age 60 she is hardly a "youngster," her plight is characteristic of what awaits many of America's college aged liberal idealists. A supporter of Barack Obama's takeover of the American medical industry, Vinson eventually learned the painful but historically predictable lesson of those who buy into the lies of socialism, naively expecting a beneficent government to supply all of their needs. To her dismay, the rosy promises of Obamacare are deteriorating into a dismal and extremely costly experience. The price tag of her individual policy will increase by $1800 per year over what she is currently paying. In typical fashion for a liberal, she piously explained "Of course I want people to have healthcare, I just didn't realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.
Welcome to the realities of socialism. The moment its devotees get beyond patting themselves on the back for being so virtuous and compassionate with other people's money, the picture quickly changes. One has to wonder from where Vinson and others who share her views expected the funds for all of the promised freebies to flow forth, Obama's "stash" perhaps? At this juncture, those who stridently warned against the nightmare of Obama's takeover of the medical industry may be tempted to gloat. After all, it was with the help of people such as Vinson that Barack Obama could claim public support for his insidious transformation of America. Nevertheless, the hardship she currently faces will not merely befall those who were duped into giving Obamacare their support, it will degrade the lives of all Americans, whether they were guilty of complicity in its creation or not.
According to those members of the administration who attempted to make Obamacare seem feasible by thoroughly juggling the numbers, a minimum of seven million young people must sign up for it if it is to remain solvent even in the short term. Their usefulness to the program is based on the premise that, as a group, they will pay far more into the system than they will be taking out. In short, all of Obama's flowery campaign speeches to those gullible college kids, who responded to his platitudes by cheering wildly, only masked his callous intention to exploit them as a cash cow.
Nor will their prospects look any brighter with the passage of time. As long as they continue accepting leftist lies, things are not likely to improve for them. It needs to be added here that since all government programs have historically cost many times the initially projected outlays, the estimate of seven million young participants is itself extremely low. If Obamacare and the societal trend it represents are not completely reversed, many more of the younger generation, whether willing or unwilling, will eventually end up carrying this ever-expanding load.
Most current news stories focus on the horrendous trainwreck that is the government's website where "We the subjects" are supposed to sign up for Obamacare. And though it is admittedly a chaotic mess, it is also fairly typical of any statist effort to reinvent society. Nevertheless, the calamity of the website and its catastrophic failure is minuscule in comparison to the calamity that will unfold if it ever works correctly, since that is when the real problems begin. For although the frustrations of would-be enrollees are enough to make anyone hesitant to get in line, their headaches so far only pertain to the sign-up process. It is appalling to imagine how such inefficiencies might adversely affect an individual who is actually facing an acute medical situation and in need of immediate help.
Of course the Democrats and their media propaganda machine can be expected to follow their standard damage control procedures. Eventually, the government website will be declared operational and the problems plaguing Obamacare "fixed," just as the economy has "recovered" from its 2009 recession on at least a dozen occasions since then. But like the nation's fiscal tribulations, the actual condition of Obamacare can not and will not evolve into something worthwhile that enhances life in America since it is the product of a cadre of dedicated leftists. Even the nation's miserable "jobless recovery" is merely a frightening reflection of the profound degradation of medical services that will unquestionably ensue.
Sadly, within the liberal political and media cabal, the primary focus has not been on burgeoning hardships facing common citizens, but on possible negative political ramifications for Barack Obama and the Democrats. According to National Journal director Ron Fournier, prospective Obamacare applicants are suffering severe "sticker shock." An e-mail sent to him by a "senior Democrat consultant with strong ties to the White House" used profanity to describe the severity of the backlash facing Democrats as millions of Americans received cancellation notices on their current medical plans, which are then to be replaced by exorbitantly expensive Obamacare substitutes.
With each passing day, the details of the Obamacare fiasco amass as proof that Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was absolutely justified laying his political career on the line in a desperate attempt to completely defund it. For his efforts, he was barraged by attacks, not only from the Democrats but also Republican party "moderates" who were all to willing to simply let it be implemented. As more stories of exploding costs and markedly reduced services continue to surface across the country, Cruz stands to not only be exonerated from past condemnations of his strategy, but to be enshrined as a courageous hero of Americans who seek to retain their livelihoods and their freedom.
Certainly Obama and his leftist toadies are not going to suddenly concede the abject failure of their malevolent agenda. Rather, in the most juvenile fashion they will continue to point fingers of blame in any direction that takes the spotlight off of themselves. And perhaps a sizeable number of Americans will accept their platitudes, in vain hopes that somehow the continuing disaster of this administration will suddenly resuscitate itself. But reality and experience suggest a far different outcome.
In light of the growing public outrage over Obamacare, members of the Republican "Establishment" need to ask themselves if all the forces of nature miraculously lined up for the Texas Senator, or if he instead has merely proven the worthiness of standing resolutely on principle. The American people are primed for a bold and unapologetic effort to reclaim the nation from the hands of those malicious and deceitful leftists who make promises of ushering in utopia, while only ever eroding and eventually destroying the former greatness of the nation. Now would be the right time for the GOP "Establishment," if it really seeks the unity in the party that it publicly professes, to carry forth the message trumpeted by Senator Cruz and the Tea Party. If the current crop of GOP "leaders" prove once again that they have no stomach for the confrontation needed to make this case, the American people can certainly find replacements who are up to the task.
© Chris Adamo
November 11, 2013
Cindy Vinson of San Jose California should be the new poster child for Republican outreach to young voters. Though at age 60 she is hardly a "youngster," her plight is characteristic of what awaits many of America's college aged liberal idealists. A supporter of Barack Obama's takeover of the American medical industry, Vinson eventually learned the painful but historically predictable lesson of those who buy into the lies of socialism, naively expecting a beneficent government to supply all of their needs. To her dismay, the rosy promises of Obamacare are deteriorating into a dismal and extremely costly experience. The price tag of her individual policy will increase by $1800 per year over what she is currently paying. In typical fashion for a liberal, she piously explained "Of course I want people to have healthcare, I just didn't realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.
Welcome to the realities of socialism. The moment its devotees get beyond patting themselves on the back for being so virtuous and compassionate with other people's money, the picture quickly changes. One has to wonder from where Vinson and others who share her views expected the funds for all of the promised freebies to flow forth, Obama's "stash" perhaps? At this juncture, those who stridently warned against the nightmare of Obama's takeover of the medical industry may be tempted to gloat. After all, it was with the help of people such as Vinson that Barack Obama could claim public support for his insidious transformation of America. Nevertheless, the hardship she currently faces will not merely befall those who were duped into giving Obamacare their support, it will degrade the lives of all Americans, whether they were guilty of complicity in its creation or not.
According to those members of the administration who attempted to make Obamacare seem feasible by thoroughly juggling the numbers, a minimum of seven million young people must sign up for it if it is to remain solvent even in the short term. Their usefulness to the program is based on the premise that, as a group, they will pay far more into the system than they will be taking out. In short, all of Obama's flowery campaign speeches to those gullible college kids, who responded to his platitudes by cheering wildly, only masked his callous intention to exploit them as a cash cow.
Nor will their prospects look any brighter with the passage of time. As long as they continue accepting leftist lies, things are not likely to improve for them. It needs to be added here that since all government programs have historically cost many times the initially projected outlays, the estimate of seven million young participants is itself extremely low. If Obamacare and the societal trend it represents are not completely reversed, many more of the younger generation, whether willing or unwilling, will eventually end up carrying this ever-expanding load.
Most current news stories focus on the horrendous trainwreck that is the government's website where "We the subjects" are supposed to sign up for Obamacare. And though it is admittedly a chaotic mess, it is also fairly typical of any statist effort to reinvent society. Nevertheless, the calamity of the website and its catastrophic failure is minuscule in comparison to the calamity that will unfold if it ever works correctly, since that is when the real problems begin. For although the frustrations of would-be enrollees are enough to make anyone hesitant to get in line, their headaches so far only pertain to the sign-up process. It is appalling to imagine how such inefficiencies might adversely affect an individual who is actually facing an acute medical situation and in need of immediate help.
Of course the Democrats and their media propaganda machine can be expected to follow their standard damage control procedures. Eventually, the government website will be declared operational and the problems plaguing Obamacare "fixed," just as the economy has "recovered" from its 2009 recession on at least a dozen occasions since then. But like the nation's fiscal tribulations, the actual condition of Obamacare can not and will not evolve into something worthwhile that enhances life in America since it is the product of a cadre of dedicated leftists. Even the nation's miserable "jobless recovery" is merely a frightening reflection of the profound degradation of medical services that will unquestionably ensue.
Sadly, within the liberal political and media cabal, the primary focus has not been on burgeoning hardships facing common citizens, but on possible negative political ramifications for Barack Obama and the Democrats. According to National Journal director Ron Fournier, prospective Obamacare applicants are suffering severe "sticker shock." An e-mail sent to him by a "senior Democrat consultant with strong ties to the White House" used profanity to describe the severity of the backlash facing Democrats as millions of Americans received cancellation notices on their current medical plans, which are then to be replaced by exorbitantly expensive Obamacare substitutes.
With each passing day, the details of the Obamacare fiasco amass as proof that Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was absolutely justified laying his political career on the line in a desperate attempt to completely defund it. For his efforts, he was barraged by attacks, not only from the Democrats but also Republican party "moderates" who were all to willing to simply let it be implemented. As more stories of exploding costs and markedly reduced services continue to surface across the country, Cruz stands to not only be exonerated from past condemnations of his strategy, but to be enshrined as a courageous hero of Americans who seek to retain their livelihoods and their freedom.
Certainly Obama and his leftist toadies are not going to suddenly concede the abject failure of their malevolent agenda. Rather, in the most juvenile fashion they will continue to point fingers of blame in any direction that takes the spotlight off of themselves. And perhaps a sizeable number of Americans will accept their platitudes, in vain hopes that somehow the continuing disaster of this administration will suddenly resuscitate itself. But reality and experience suggest a far different outcome.
In light of the growing public outrage over Obamacare, members of the Republican "Establishment" need to ask themselves if all the forces of nature miraculously lined up for the Texas Senator, or if he instead has merely proven the worthiness of standing resolutely on principle. The American people are primed for a bold and unapologetic effort to reclaim the nation from the hands of those malicious and deceitful leftists who make promises of ushering in utopia, while only ever eroding and eventually destroying the former greatness of the nation. Now would be the right time for the GOP "Establishment," if it really seeks the unity in the party that it publicly professes, to carry forth the message trumpeted by Senator Cruz and the Tea Party. If the current crop of GOP "leaders" prove once again that they have no stomach for the confrontation needed to make this case, the American people can certainly find replacements who are up to the task.
© Chris Adamo
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
