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Well, reality has certainly reared its wonderfully ugly head. Obama’s signature bill isn’t doing too hot, but I’m sure you already knew that.
Today, The Heritage Foundation‘s Ericka Andersen hosted a Google+ Hangout (pretty cool, right?) with Congressman Roger Williams, Heartland Senior Fellow Ben Domenech, Bryan Broadcasting Vice President Ben Downs, Heritage Research Associate Alyene Senger, and Elizabeth Harrington, staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon. The topic? You guessed it, Obamacare.
Since the bill was passed, 19 of its provisions have been amended, repealed or delayed and lawmakers are scrambling to slow its destruction. Congressman Williams even said it’s “the worst bill that we’ve seen in our lifetime.” So, why is it so terrible?
For starters, Downs describes his perspective as a small business owner. “We don’t know what’s going on over here,” he explained. “We can’t plan for the future when we don’t know what’s going to happen,” or how much their premiums will increase, which he estimates to be around 25%. Senger reminds us it’s important to realize that people in the individual market aren’t the only ones losing their health plans.
Okay, so maybe Republicans don’t like Obamacare, but they never liked it in the first place. The rest of America probably likes it… Nope.
Domenech discusses some recent polls that indicate a spike in the number of people who mistrust government’s role in health care, a spike in the number of people who favor a delay in Obamacare and a spike in the number of democrats and independents who favor a delay. It’s not just Republicans; Americans are figuring out that Obamacare is bad for America. A recent Fox News poll revealed that 53% of Americans favor a full repeal of the bill and 54% wish it never passed. This is not good news for Obama’s pet legislation.
Despite the bill’s disaster, the launch of the marketplace website- as we all know- was a disaster as well. Harrington explained that there were no security measures built into to the website, and even with the continuous “fixes”, still has no security. Cyber security expert David Kennedy advised Americans to not even go on the website because of the weak security, and after the November 30 “fixes”, stated that the security problems were even worse. Oh boy.
It seems as though the Heritage panel is infuriated by all of this mess, and with good reason. We should all be upset too. Promises were made and not kept, our government misled us.
Watch the rest of the video above to hear more about the “Un-Affordable” Care Act and what may be a beacon of hope for the future.
