Whether you're among the 36 percent of Americans who have a favorable view of Obamacare or among the 53 percent who do not, it's important to underscore the lessons of her tenure. Her widely acknowledged incompetence in overseeing the implementation of a major new program is one of the reasons why record numbers of Americans think the government has too much power and have low and declining levels of trust in government to do the right thing. Whether you're liberal, conservative, or libertarian, that's not a good thing….
Sebelius's abrupt resignation, then, is the fitting capstone of a cabinet tenure that did nothing to inspire feelings of competency and trust in government in a century that is so far replete with revelations of bipartisan secret surveillance, financial mismanagement of the nation, and failed foreign policy.
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"Kathleen Sebelius is resigning because Obamacare has won," crows Ezra Klein at Vox, the new "deep journalism" website that is supposed to be beyond ideology.
Did he actually say that? I only ask because, in his Time article, Nick apparently linked to his Web Outlook inbox or something. (I've long suspected that Gillespie was part of Journolist.)
He said it. Remember Klein is trying to start is own "interpretive news site". You would think he would be trying to be less of a paid hack now that he doesn't get a paycheck from the post. The market for Dem propaganda is pretty tight right now. Instead, he tweets that.
I am really convinced he is Andy Kaufman doing the greatest long con in history. It amazes me anyone could be that stupid and that tone deaf.
Nah. He wanted $10M/year from Bezos. He can get that by being the official news outlet of the Democratic party. HuffPo at least pretends to some integrity.
How many official news outlets do they need or can afford? MSNBC has been that for a long time. That seems to be going pretty poorly lately. And don't forget Salon.
Maybe I am wrong, but I just don't see how the business model of "we are the news source for the people who think HuffPo and the Daily Show just are not progressive enough" is going to make that much money.
Don't Pacifica and Democracy Now already fill that niche?
Its a combination of basic writing advice a la strunk & white, and bullshit proggy/socialist theories about how 'stories' should provide 'opportunities for action'. i.e. Propaganda to motivate the proles to churn out more hours in the factory for the Great Cause. etc.
Propaganda to motivate the proles to churn out more hours in the factory for the Great Cause. etc.
I wish Ezra luck with that. What amazes me is that he is so stupid I honestly think he believes he is the first guy to come up with the idea. He apparently is unaware that leftists have been doing exactly that and starting various "new news organizations" since the 30s and probably before. It never made them any money or motivated anyone to go out and dig the community ditch then and is unlikely to do so now. Propaganda is just boring. If it wasn't, governments wouldn't have to pay to have it made and force their populations to watch it.
one of the reasons why record numbers of Americans think the government has too much power and have low and declining levels of trust in government to do the right thing. Whether you're liberal, conservative, or libertarian, that's not a good thing....
More people having an accurate view of the untrustworthiness of the parasitic class is a GOOD thing.
The events that lead up to the epiphany ... not so much so.
I think people not trusting government is going to be the death of the Progs. I can't see how it hurts Libertarians or small government conservatives. If people don't trust government, they will stop looking to it to solve all of their problems.
Our founders didn't trust government. The whole Constitution was drafted on the assumption that government can't be trusted. I am really not seeing how any Libertarian could view people finally waking up and becoming skeptical of government as being a bad thing.
Who are they going to blame when signing up more than 7.5 million doesn't avert disaster?
When ObamaCare sucks--and it's fully implemented--who are they going to blame then?
Kathleen Sebelius?
George W. Bush?
The Koch Brothers?
The rollout was a sideshow.
The main event is upon us. They got their 7.5 million. They say everything is going according to plan! Now we get to see how this socialized mess really works...
Let's keep an eye on the costs. Let's keep an eye on the rationing. This would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic. There's gonna be a lot of suffering because of this.
But more people than ever have access to healthcare low-cost health insurance subsidized health insurance mandatory health insurance. How can there be suffering anymore?
Obama won the Presidency because of the 08 financial collapse. Before the collapse he was behind in the polls. McCain didn't fall behind until he suspended his campaign and ran off to Washington to vote for Tarp. Had the collapse happened four months later, Obama probably doesn't win. Had McCain stood up and said "no Tarp", the disgruntled GOP base probably shows up to the polls and Obama loses.
We wouldn't have Obama care. We would probably have Dodd Frank. McCain was always half way decent on spending. So I bet the porkulus would have been smaller and there is no way they would have been able to increase baseline spending by 50% like they did.
McCain loves restricting speech. The SCOTUS killed that though. And McCain loves open borders. Can't see how Libertarians wouldn't have liked that.
McCain would have been better. To think otherwise you have to believe that he would have nuked China or something, which I think is a bit speculative. It is not like Obama has been the peace President.
And there would have been one other upside to a McCain presidency; we would have had a media that actually held the executive accountable. That is kind of a big deal.
If it is the case that the media is just going to go into that tank and refuse to hold a Democratic Administration accountable for any corruption or misconduct, how can you elect another Democrat unless you just think like they do and that any corruption is okay as long as a Dem is doing it?
We would also have troops in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria, and maybe Crimea.
Obama is a gift - because America is waking up to how rotten government is, and because the 'first black Prez' card has been played. Look at cities - the first black mayor receives no criticism. After that, they get treated more even-handedly.
We would also have troops in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria, and maybe Crimea.
I don't think so. McCain would have wanted to do that but Congress would have stopped him. Remember, the Democrats only got their war on because they were in power and Obama was doing it. Change the party in the White House and the Democrats go back to being the peace party and the major media along with them. The Democrats would have crucified McCain if he had gone into Egypt and such. I think McCain's ability to get into conflicts overseas would have been pretty damned small. No Republican can get away with going to war without Congress' approval the way Obama and Clinton did. And no Democratic Congress would have given McCain approval to do anything.
Obama is only a gift if it leads to fixing things. I hope that is what happens. My fear is that he will be a gift in so far that he gets a lot of shithead Democrats kicked out of office but that will not result in anything he did being repealed. We will be left with Republicans muddling through living with the mess that asshole made.
W. Got full Congressional authorization for both Afghanistan and Iraq Deatfbirdecia. He could never done either without.
Amazing how the Democrats are able to put things down the memory hole. That was only 11 years ago and people who should know better now think we went to Iraq without Congressional approval.
We didn't and that fact should never be forgotten.
Exactly. Obama never ran on Obamacare. The country rightly had no idea he or the Dems were going to do it. The bluest of states Massachusetts elected Scott Walker to try and stop it. And they handed the Democrats their worst mid year election since the civil war in its aftermath.
The only thing this country did to "deserve Obamacare" was re-elect Obama. Given the revelations of fraud and abuse of public power going into that election, I am not even sure you can call that election legitimate.
Moreover, take away the misconduct in the Ted Stevens case and the Dems never get 60 votes and Obamacre never becomes law. Also, Cantwell in Washington and Franken in Minnesota mostly likely stole their elections through fraud. Take either of those away and no Obamacare.
I never voted for Obama once, and I don't deserve any of it.
That's the problem with elections. They say it means representation, but it actually means they get the legitimacy to treat you like shit under the delusion that having the right to vote is the same thing as consenting to whatever the jackass that wins the popularity contest wants to do with you.
Fuck that noise!
I represent myself, and I didn't consent to anything.
It's your mission BigT should you decide to accept it. As always, should you or any of your Team be caught or killed, the Reason Commentariat will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
That's democracy. Until the rest of us work as effectively for liberty and fiscal responsibility as Democrats work for big government and handouts, this is what we'll get.
The Podestas had become the most important non-elected family in the Democratic Party.
In 2009, with the inauguration of Obama and the dawn of unified Democratic control of Washington, business boomed. Revenues at Tony's firm close to doubled, and revenues at Heather's firm increased by 50 percent. The money has continued to roll in. The Podesta Group had some $13M in lobbying income in 2013, sporting clients such as Lockheed Martin, Wells Fargo, US Airways, Walmart, and the Natl Biodiesel Board. Heather Podesta Partners made some $4M, lobbying on behalf of health companies, the American Beverage Association, Brookfield Power, DeVry University, and others. A portion of that money was recycled, contributing to Democratic campaigns, opening up avenues of influence: Tony gave some $45k in 2013, all to Democrats; Heather some $95k to Democrats, Democratic committees, and liberal groups.
...
Those winsome days have passed, however. The couple separated a month before Obama's reelection. Their marriage's denouement, as related in their divorce filings, is like a retelling of The War of the Roses.
The crime is how they were able to milk their clients for so much money because they had influence with the pigs who filled the govt trough, and then fed the cash back to their govt friends. It is pure influence peddling. This is yet another reason we need to reduce govt.
That is their crime for sure. I just find it interesting that behind the curtain of money and respectability, they both are right out of a trailer park. So many of these people turn out to be just trash with no class or morals or any sense of decorum.
The country did something stupid, so "we" deserve something?
#1
The country didn't vote for this jackass--some 40% of the voters voted against him. And what about the people who did their patriotic duty and voted "none of the above" by not voting at all? What about the people who voted Libertarian?
#2
I don't deserve anything because some jackass won a popularity contest.
This is why "democracy" is such a farce--democracy is insufficiently democratic. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb arguing about what's for dinner. It's the subjugation of the minority by the majority...
In markets, I get to represent myself. In markets, I can choose not to participate at all--but not in a democracy. I get drafted into being to blame--because I'm part of the "country", whatever the fuck you mean by that?
I don't think so.
We'll never get other people to respect our individual rights if we can't even see ourselves that we don't deserve anything as a "country".
In free markets, I get to make decisions for myself--like whether to buy health insurance and whether the quality of the policies I purchase are sufficient for me.
That has nothing to do with being in a democratic republic. The Chinese may be more free than we are in that regard.
Elections are primarily a means for politicians to legitimize the horrible decisions they make on our behalf.
If I want to make choices for myself (and that's about the best definition for a libertarian I can think of) then the only upside of democracy is that it lets us throw the bums out periodically.
The fact is that democracy legitimizes nothing. Democracy certainly isn't a justification for violating someone's individual rights or someone's freedom to choose for himself.
Ken, I agree that the government is doing all sorts of stuff I don't like, and that violate our basic rights. But do you have a suggestion for a better form of government? All of the other forms are worse. If we were following the Constitution we would be much better off, but we aren't following it.
"But do you have a suggestion for a better form of government?"
Yes, I prefer a government that is restricted to foreign policy, adjudicating contractual disputes, and generally protecting our rights with police and criminal courts.
I like federalism, more like what we used to have before the 17th Amendment--and like we drew up in Germany's constitution.
Have you noticed that Vladamir Putin finds elections extremely helpful? Hey, they're in a democracy now!
So what?
Getting to vote for your own master doesn't mean you aren't a slave. It certainly doesn't mean that the politicians we vote for are going to reflect any of our values or take our views into consideration when making public policy. You only get that by participating in a market.
I am just under no illusions about how it's okay for the government to start making choices on our behalf--just because the majority wants that. That may be some kind of democracy, but it's also the biggest form of horseshit legitimacy I know of.
Government by the people is when people are free to make choices for themselves without interference from powerful politicians, and the fact that we get to vote for our politicians--who make our choices for us--does not make it government by the people.
Obama just stated in presser that "most" of "the 7 1/2 million who signed up "got health insurance for the first time." So he must have some info that hasn't been released yet?
It's not like he's somehow above making demonstrably and knowingly false statements to support his arguments. That's how he's run his entire Presidency.
the Rand study shows "there are actually more people who had insurance through work last year and now have no insurance at all (2.1 million) than there are people who had no insurance last year and now have it through the exchanges (1.4 million)."
Yeah, it's Sebelius's fault that Obamacare sucks major ballsack. Now we can all get to loving it.
We deserve better than a picture without alt-text.
Did he actually say that? I only ask because, in his Time article, Nick apparently linked to his Web Outlook inbox or something. (I've long suspected that Gillespie was part of Journolist.)
Her tenure was so successful, it's time she moved on so she doesn't outshine the rest of the HHS.
Funny he should mention it, I think Ezra has a similar story about his time at the Washington Post.
He said it. Remember Klein is trying to start is own "interpretive news site". You would think he would be trying to be less of a paid hack now that he doesn't get a paycheck from the post. The market for Dem propaganda is pretty tight right now. Instead, he tweets that.
I am really convinced he is Andy Kaufman doing the greatest long con in history. It amazes me anyone could be that stupid and that tone deaf.
Nah. He wanted $10M/year from Bezos. He can get that by being the official news outlet of the Democratic party. HuffPo at least pretends to some integrity.
How many official news outlets do they need or can afford? MSNBC has been that for a long time. That seems to be going pretty poorly lately. And don't forget Salon.
Maybe I am wrong, but I just don't see how the business model of "we are the news source for the people who think HuffPo and the Daily Show just are not progressive enough" is going to make that much money.
Don't Pacifica and Democracy Now already fill that niche?
" "interpretive news site". "
Please, John: the new accepted proggie-nomenclature is, "Explanatory Journalism"
because the other, older 'journalism'? No one seems to know what they fuck it was doing before he came along. Now they know: they 'explains'.
The whole 'Victory of Obamacare' does need some 'splaining.
Below is an explication of the explanatory hoo-ha
http://alturl.com/xcexi
Its a combination of basic writing advice a la strunk & white, and bullshit proggy/socialist theories about how 'stories' should provide 'opportunities for action'. i.e. Propaganda to motivate the proles to churn out more hours in the factory for the Great Cause. etc.
Propaganda to motivate the proles to churn out more hours in the factory for the Great Cause. etc.
I wish Ezra luck with that. What amazes me is that he is so stupid I honestly think he believes he is the first guy to come up with the idea. He apparently is unaware that leftists have been doing exactly that and starting various "new news organizations" since the 30s and probably before. It never made them any money or motivated anyone to go out and dig the community ditch then and is unlikely to do so now. Propaganda is just boring. If it wasn't, governments wouldn't have to pay to have it made and force their populations to watch it.
Klein wanted his own website because the Post allowed comments on his articles and that disrupted the soothing sounds of the echo chamber.
one of the reasons why record numbers of Americans think the government has too much power and have low and declining levels of trust in government to do the right thing. Whether you're liberal, conservative, or libertarian, that's not a good thing....
More people having an accurate view of the untrustworthiness of the parasitic class is a GOOD thing.
The events that lead up to the epiphany ... not so much so.
Trust in government is one of the Cosmo's values.
I think people not trusting government is going to be the death of the Progs. I can't see how it hurts Libertarians or small government conservatives. If people don't trust government, they will stop looking to it to solve all of their problems.
Our founders didn't trust government. The whole Constitution was drafted on the assumption that government can't be trusted. I am really not seeing how any Libertarian could view people finally waking up and becoming skeptical of government as being a bad thing.
Indeed. I wonder why Nick would write something like that. Was it sarc?
Totally agree, prolefeed.
I'm baffled as to why Nick would say libertarians should bemoan the lack of trust in government.
If you see David Gergen in a black leather jacket, call 911.
"We Deserved Better than Kathleen Sebelius"
We deserved better than ObamaCare.
We deserved better than Barack Obama.
Who are they going to blame when signing up more than 7.5 million doesn't avert disaster?
When ObamaCare sucks--and it's fully implemented--who are they going to blame then?
Kathleen Sebelius?
George W. Bush?
The Koch Brothers?
The rollout was a sideshow.
The main event is upon us. They got their 7.5 million. They say everything is going according to plan! Now we get to see how this socialized mess really works...
Let's keep an eye on the costs. Let's keep an eye on the rationing. This would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic. There's gonna be a lot of suffering because of this.
But more people than ever have access to healthcare low-cost health insurance subsidized health insurance mandatory health insurance. How can there be suffering anymore?
The public never supported Obamacare and no large election was won on supporting it, though many were won by opposing it.
So this blame all of us is just so much bullshit spin.
Obama won the presidency because people were sick of Iraq.
He won reelection before ObamaCare was implemented. Team Obama certainly didn't put off implementation until after his reelection by coincidence.
And if he were running against Romney this November, who knows? He might have lost.
Obama won the Presidency because of the 08 financial collapse. Before the collapse he was behind in the polls. McCain didn't fall behind until he suspended his campaign and ran off to Washington to vote for Tarp. Had the collapse happened four months later, Obama probably doesn't win. Had McCain stood up and said "no Tarp", the disgruntled GOP base probably shows up to the polls and Obama loses.
McCain. Now THAT would have been a great President.
/s
We wouldn't have Obama care. We would probably have Dodd Frank. McCain was always half way decent on spending. So I bet the porkulus would have been smaller and there is no way they would have been able to increase baseline spending by 50% like they did.
McCain loves restricting speech. The SCOTUS killed that though. And McCain loves open borders. Can't see how Libertarians wouldn't have liked that.
McCain would have been better. To think otherwise you have to believe that he would have nuked China or something, which I think is a bit speculative. It is not like Obama has been the peace President.
Sure McCain would have been less terrible. Not good, just not quite as bad.
Which is exactly how he positioned himself in the campaign and why he lost.
Which is exactly how he positioned himself in the campaign and why he lost.
Five years on, less terrible sounds pretty good doesn't it? Avoiding Obamacare alone is worth a lot.
The shame of 08 is not that people didn't realize McCain was good. He wasn't. It is that they didn't realize how horrible Obama was and is.
And there would have been one other upside to a McCain presidency; we would have had a media that actually held the executive accountable. That is kind of a big deal.
If it is the case that the media is just going to go into that tank and refuse to hold a Democratic Administration accountable for any corruption or misconduct, how can you elect another Democrat unless you just think like they do and that any corruption is okay as long as a Dem is doing it?
We would also have troops in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria, and maybe Crimea.
Obama is a gift - because America is waking up to how rotten government is, and because the 'first black Prez' card has been played. Look at cities - the first black mayor receives no criticism. After that, they get treated more even-handedly.
We would also have troops in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria, and maybe Crimea.
I don't think so. McCain would have wanted to do that but Congress would have stopped him. Remember, the Democrats only got their war on because they were in power and Obama was doing it. Change the party in the White House and the Democrats go back to being the peace party and the major media along with them. The Democrats would have crucified McCain if he had gone into Egypt and such. I think McCain's ability to get into conflicts overseas would have been pretty damned small. No Republican can get away with going to war without Congress' approval the way Obama and Clinton did. And no Democratic Congress would have given McCain approval to do anything.
Obama is only a gift if it leads to fixing things. I hope that is what happens. My fear is that he will be a gift in so far that he gets a lot of shithead Democrats kicked out of office but that will not result in anything he did being repealed. We will be left with Republicans muddling through living with the mess that asshole made.
"No Republican can get away with going to war without Congress' approval the way Obama and Clinton did."
W.
W. Got full Congressional authorization for both Afghanistan and Iraq Deatfbirdecia. He could never done either without.
Amazing how the Democrats are able to put things down the memory hole. That was only 11 years ago and people who should know better now think we went to Iraq without Congressional approval.
We didn't and that fact should never be forgotten.
^^ this.
Team Obama certainly didn't put off implementation until after his reelection by coincidence.
And don't forget that most of the new "delays" etc., are timed to end after this year's mid-term election.
Exactly. Obama never ran on Obamacare. The country rightly had no idea he or the Dems were going to do it. The bluest of states Massachusetts elected Scott Walker to try and stop it. And they handed the Democrats their worst mid year election since the civil war in its aftermath.
The only thing this country did to "deserve Obamacare" was re-elect Obama. Given the revelations of fraud and abuse of public power going into that election, I am not even sure you can call that election legitimate.
Moreover, take away the misconduct in the Ted Stevens case and the Dems never get 60 votes and Obamacre never becomes law. Also, Cantwell in Washington and Franken in Minnesota mostly likely stole their elections through fraud. Take either of those away and no Obamacare.
BS on Cantwell. Her and Patty's seats are completely safe. Patty actually ran on Obamacare last time.
2012 Senate election results:
Maria Cantwell (Incumbent) 626,360 55.42%
Michael Baumgartner
344,729 30.50%
How much voter fraud do you think there was?
It wasn't Cantwell then. It was another. Good catch. Maybe I am thinking of the first time she won.
"The public never supported Obamacare and no large election was won on supporting it, though many were won by opposing it."
So what? The public twice elected the Obama of Obamacare. The public did support a palpable charlatan two times and now suffers for it.
The country voted for Obama and deserves what it's getting.
I never voted for Obama once, and I don't deserve any of it.
That's the problem with elections. They say it means representation, but it actually means they get the legitimacy to treat you like shit under the delusion that having the right to vote is the same thing as consenting to whatever the jackass that wins the popularity contest wants to do with you.
Fuck that noise!
I represent myself, and I didn't consent to anything.
Anyone want to volunteer to review the comments at Time?
Are you supplying a cyanide capsule?
Nope.
It's your mission BigT should you decide to accept it. As always, should you or any of your Team be caught or killed, the Reason Commentariat will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
I read the first 7. I hope the damage to my brain is not permanent.
"Anyone want to volunteer to review the comments at Time?"
7.5 million Americans now have healthcare!
We need socialized medicine, like every other country!
That's the gist of it.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it."
+1 Will Munny
Sebelius: "I was building a house!"
ROMNEYCARE WOULD'VE DUN IT TOO!11!!1!!
/someone, inevitably
The country voted twice for Obama and therefore deserves Sebelius and everything else we're getting. The whole shitteree.
Vote stupid and you're governed stupidly.
Unfortunately, the rest of us get screwed too. As Gillespie put in a column last year:
"The Social Contract was not submitted for my signature."
That's democracy. Until the rest of us work as effectively for liberty and fiscal responsibility as Democrats work for big government and handouts, this is what we'll get.
The problem with democracy is that all of us get what only some of us deserve.
I like it. Consider it stolen. (though if posted here, you'll get full credit)
Great comment. I'm stealing it too!
Why the long face Kathleen?
+1 Celine Dion.
Here is some news to brighten your day.
It is amazing how many of these people turn out to be just awful in their personal lives.
He was on 2nd marriage, her the 3rd. So what.
The crime is how they were able to milk their clients for so much money because they had influence with the pigs who filled the govt trough, and then fed the cash back to their govt friends. It is pure influence peddling. This is yet another reason we need to reduce govt.
That is their crime for sure. I just find it interesting that behind the curtain of money and respectability, they both are right out of a trailer park. So many of these people turn out to be just trash with no class or morals or any sense of decorum.
"We Deserved Better than Kathleen Sebelius"
Are you sure about that?
The country voted in Barack Obama, so no, we deserved exactly who His Incompetency appointed.
The country did something stupid, so "we" deserve something?
#1
The country didn't vote for this jackass--some 40% of the voters voted against him. And what about the people who did their patriotic duty and voted "none of the above" by not voting at all? What about the people who voted Libertarian?
#2
I don't deserve anything because some jackass won a popularity contest.
This is why "democracy" is such a farce--democracy is insufficiently democratic. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb arguing about what's for dinner. It's the subjugation of the minority by the majority...
In markets, I get to represent myself. In markets, I can choose not to participate at all--but not in a democracy. I get drafted into being to blame--because I'm part of the "country", whatever the fuck you mean by that?
I don't think so.
We'll never get other people to respect our individual rights if we can't even see ourselves that we don't deserve anything as a "country".
A democratic republic - the worst system of government in the world ... except for all the other ones.
Baloney!
In free markets, I get to make decisions for myself--like whether to buy health insurance and whether the quality of the policies I purchase are sufficient for me.
That has nothing to do with being in a democratic republic. The Chinese may be more free than we are in that regard.
Elections are primarily a means for politicians to legitimize the horrible decisions they make on our behalf.
If I want to make choices for myself (and that's about the best definition for a libertarian I can think of) then the only upside of democracy is that it lets us throw the bums out periodically.
The fact is that democracy legitimizes nothing. Democracy certainly isn't a justification for violating someone's individual rights or someone's freedom to choose for himself.
Ken, I agree that the government is doing all sorts of stuff I don't like, and that violate our basic rights. But do you have a suggestion for a better form of government? All of the other forms are worse. If we were following the Constitution we would be much better off, but we aren't following it.
"But do you have a suggestion for a better form of government?"
Yes, I prefer a government that is restricted to foreign policy, adjudicating contractual disputes, and generally protecting our rights with police and criminal courts.
I like federalism, more like what we used to have before the 17th Amendment--and like we drew up in Germany's constitution.
Have you noticed that Vladamir Putin finds elections extremely helpful? Hey, they're in a democracy now!
So what?
Getting to vote for your own master doesn't mean you aren't a slave. It certainly doesn't mean that the politicians we vote for are going to reflect any of our values or take our views into consideration when making public policy. You only get that by participating in a market.
I am just under no illusions about how it's okay for the government to start making choices on our behalf--just because the majority wants that. That may be some kind of democracy, but it's also the biggest form of horseshit legitimacy I know of.
Government by the people is when people are free to make choices for themselves without interference from powerful politicians, and the fact that we get to vote for our politicians--who make our choices for us--does not make it government by the people.
Obama just stated in presser that "most" of "the 7 1/2 million who signed up "got health insurance for the first time." So he must have some info that hasn't been released yet?
In the same sense that Dumas had information about the Count of Monte Christo that the rest of the French didn't have in 1844, probably so.
Or he's simply lying again.
It's not like he's somehow above making demonstrably and knowingly false statements to support his arguments. That's how he's run his entire Presidency.
She meant well.
"most" of "the 7 1/2 million who signed up "got health insurance for the first time."
Early data and all that, but it seems unlikely:
And Rand estimates only 1.4 million of the previously uninsured got coverage through the marketplace.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....98624.html
Oh, and that expansion in employer policies?
the Rand study shows "there are actually more people who had insurance through work last year and now have no insurance at all (2.1 million) than there are people who had no insurance last year and now have it through the exchanges (1.4 million)."
Top notch work, there.
Something tells me those March 31 numbers aren't as high as previously reported.
Wasn't there some concern about the site counting enrollments twice?