Randy Barnett:
Over on The Daily Caller, Josh Blackman offers a tongue-in-cheek parody Thanksgiving Address that could have been given by President Obama in November 2009 to honestly defend the yet-to-be-released Senate originated Affordable Care Act. But his parody is fair and nuanced enough to provide a template for what an honest description and defense of Obamacare would have looked like. Indeed, it is based on what the administration and its defenders have argued both in court and in the political sphere since the law was passed, and it would not take much tweaking to convert it from a parody into a good faith presentation and honest defense of the ACA.
So the question is, could Obamacare been enacted had it been accurately described and defended this way before its passage? And, if the answer to this is “No,” what does this tell us about the “democratic legitimacy” of the ACA? Here is a taste:
Our healthcare system is broken. There are over 40 million people without insurance. At the same time, it is not fair for some people to have very generous plans that are subsidized by employers. Further, it is also not fair for young and healthy
people to have cheap, bare-bones plans that do not contribute to the insurance pools. What we need is a way to equalize things.
So, under the Affordable Care Act, generous health insurance benefits, so-called “Cadillac plans,” will be heavily taxed to create incentives for your employer to drop them, so you will be forced to buy normalized insurance on the health care markets. Bare-bones plans that only cover catastrophic needs will not be compliant with the ACA. If you have one of these, particularly if you are on the individual market, it will be cancelled. Plus lots of other modest plans will also be cancelled. (We estimate this will affect at least ten million Americans.) If you do not have insurance, and you can afford
to buy it, we will penalize you if you decide to go uninsured. We cannot maintain the “status quo” of the broken healthcare system.
But, but, but…… ”all presidents lie!”
NYTimes quote.
And, ”the ends justify the means.”
And, ”it’s for your own good.”
And, ”you have to break some eggs to make an omelet.”
(What did I forget?)
Nanny G
YOU GOT IT ON THE NOSE,
at this time< nobody trust OBAMA,he can decide a day after the people sign in
and paid,
that a change is underway all by his own pencil,
he will continue to decieve the good TOLERANT CITIZENS of this GREATEST SUPER POWER EVER EXISTED
IN THE WORLD who can wipe his smile out in seconds,