I disagree with Zoë Carpenter, writing at The Nation. I don’t think that the greatest hazards facing ObamaCare are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, “conservative Congressional Republicans”, an organized ObamaCare resistance, or determined local opposition to ObamaCare. She’s confusing the the lightning bug with the lightning.
I think the greatest hazards to ObamaCare are its supporters—over-promising and under-delivering. That’s why the roll-out on October 1 is so important for the future of the program. Nightmare stories are certain to be rebroadcast and amplified by those who oppose the program or the president or both. The public is already skeptical about the program. A clumsy or just plain bad roll-out of the program could galvanize that skepticism into outright public opposition. No social program can survive real public opposition.
They should act more like Scotty from Star Trek.
” A clumsy or just plain bad roll-out of the program could galvanize that skepticism into outright public opposition. No social program can survive real public opposition.”
…unless the strategy of the conservatives does shut down the government, and the dems successfully blame the R’s for any and all ensuing grief. Then, the government shut-down will be yet another intervening issue that distracts the public from the ‘awfulness’ of Obamacare implementation.
It happened with the 2012 election and Sandy taking the light off of Benghazi. Then enter Syria, detouring attention away from the IRS, NSA, DOJ reporter harassment, and continuing Benghazi issues. Then the Naval base shooting exploded, ramping up dormant gun control interest, easing us away from thinking too much about whether to trust the Russian/Syrian deal. Now fiscal theatre arises, from the ashes of unresolved budget and debt ceiling hassles, to speed up the departure of lingering criticism towards Obama’s incompetent handling of Syria, refocusing the country’s sights onto republican obstructionism, once again.
Basically, government accountability has completely been lost during the past 5 years, as various events roll around the lazy Susan of media by-lines, interrupting Obama’s failures and errors, in a brilliantly timed manner. One gasp/groan sufficiently replaces another fast enough for the public, with a short attention span, to be lulled into a convenient amnesia state of forgetfulness towards the party in power, while the lesser one gets all the finger-pointing and blame.
It’s a great gig for the dems, so far!
Heh. Just keep exempting every political constituency you have………..and just stick it straight up the………..well, the little people.
The One. Exposed.
The October 1 debut of the ACA exchanges will be a day that will live in infamy. Hmm, I think I cribbed that line from somewhere.
I toiled in the data processing vineyards for more than 40 years. I have authored many systems and, of course, observed the introduction of hundreds or thousands more.
People will expect the kind of performance they see in credit card, banking or airline systems. Folks, those systems started development more than 40 years ago!
The ACA exchanges will choke, gasp, wheeze and just plain stink from day one. The only question remaining is how many billions will be pissed away trying to salvage this God awful mess.
But…but Roy, more people will have access to health insurance! Nothing else matters but that claim, and the visual of bending the cost curve.