The Real Obama Liberal Legacy is a periodic series to highlight the results of liberal progressivism put into practice.
Next up, Obamacare's embarrassing delays. As the president gets set to make another pitch today for his signature health care law, we look back at when it all began to go wrong.
Time was of the essence when President Obama raced his health care bill through Congress—or so he said. Just weeks before he signed the bill into law, he rebuffed any notion of redrafting what so many people considered a fundamentally flawed piece of legislation.
“I don’t see how another year of negotiations would help,” he said. And later in the same speech: “The American people, and the U.S. economy, just can’t wait that long.”
So, despite the public’s decidedly mixed reaction, he signed it—in the hopes that with just a little patience, the American people would learn to love Obamacare.
But that day never came. And as they started implementing the very legislation they rushed into law, the president and his administration realized Obamacare just wasn’t workable.
And so began a series of embarrassing delays.
In November 2012, just one day before the deadline, the administration announced it was giving states another month to decide whether they would create their own health insurance exchanges.
OK, fine.
But then, in July 2013, the administration announced it was delaying the employer mandate by one year to 2015. In the words of one Treasury official: “We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively.”
You don’t say.
Then in October 2013, the administration “tweaked” the individual mandate—after a disastrous website rollout.
In January 2014, the administration extended high-risk pools. Then it delayed the employer mandate—again. Then it extended high-risk pools—again.
And we’re being concise. The point is, from the start, Obamacare has been a mess. Instead of listening to the people’s concerns, the president charged forward. So it’s no surprise then that, according to one count, there have been over 70 changes to Obamacare since it became law.
Luckily, there is a better way. After listening to the American people, House Republicans have put together a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare and promote affordable, high-quality care for all. Read more about our plan at better.gop.