Dems’ Gov’t Healthcare Takeover is Over-Reaching, Self-Destructing

Obama Attempts to Address Government Healthcare Takeover’s Trampling on Religious Liberty, But This is Just the Latest Instance of Democrats’ Healthcare Overreach 

• President Obama’s attempt to address the uproar over his administration’s mandate that employers affiliated with religious entities provide contraceptive services that contradict their religious beliefs was the latest acknowledgment that the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare is a vast overreach by government.
• Democrats have repeatedly been forced to backtrack on elements of their healthcare law as those provisions have proved a fiscal disaster or politically unviable.
• Even this latest controversy was a creation of Democrats’ own making. The White House was repeatedly warned about how their decision would violate religious freedom. But once again, Democrats decided that it was more important to create a polarizing new rule as political payback for their liberal base than to respect Americans’ First Amendment right to religious liberty.

President Obama’s attempt to address the uproar over his administration’s mandate that employers affiliated with religious entities provide contraceptive services that contradict their religious beliefs was the latest acknowledgment that the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare is a vast overreach by government:

OBAMA SEEKS “TO QUELL A POLITICAL UPROAR OVER RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND CONTRACEPTION”: “Seeking to quell a political uproar over religious freedom and contraception, President Obama announced today that religious-affiliated institutions will not be mandated to cover birth control for their employees after all.” (Mary Bruce, “Obama Blinks on Contraception Rule,” ABC News, 2/10/2012)

BUT “OBAMA CONTRACEPTION ‘ACCOMODATION’ STILL IMPOSES STATE MANDATE ON CHURCH”: (Neil Munro, “Obama Contraception ‘Accomodation’ Still Imposes State Mandate on Church,” The Daily Caller, 2/10/2012)

Democrats have repeatedly been forced to backtrack on elements of their healthcare law as those provisions have proved a fiscal disaster or politically unviable:

OBAMA’S HHS DECLARES CLASS PROGRAM FOR LONG TERM CARE “TOO FLAWED TO SALVAGE”:

HHS OFFICIALS ABANDONED CLASS AFTER DETERMINING IT WAS “TOO FLAWED TO SALVAGE”: “CLASS is by far the biggest piece of healthcare reform to meet its end, and also the first to collapse entirely on its own. Republicans successfully repealed one much smaller provision, and the individual mandate could be struck down by the Supreme Court. But HHS officials acknowledged that CLASS fell apart simply because it was too flawed to salvage.” (Sam Baker, “Obama’s HHS Ends Controversial Program in Health Care Law,” The Hill, 10/14/2011)

POLITICO: CLASS “ABANDONED YET DEFENDED” BY HOUSE DEMOCRATS: “The Obama administration has abandoned health reform’s long-term care insurance program, saying it can’t figure out how to make the program solvent and isn’t going to try.

“And yet, it says it’s not interested in repealing the program for good. So when the House votes on Wednesday to wipe the CLASS Act off the books, the White House — and most Democrats — will be against it.” (Brett Norman and Jennifer Haberkorn, “CLASS ACT: Abandoned Yet Defended,” Politico, 1/31/2012) 

BUT DEMOCRATS WERE WARNED REPEATEDLY THAT THE PROGRAM LOOKED “LIKE A RECIPE FOR DISASTER”: “A Health and Human Services deputy secretary repeatedly warned his superiors and Democratic staff on the Hill that the Class program ‘seems like a recipe for disaster to me.’ Later, he even suggested that Democrats include a ‘failsafe’ for public support.” (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2011)

MEDICARE SCOREKEEPER RICK FOSTER PREDICTED THE “PROGRAM WOULD COLLAPSE IN SHORT ORDER AND REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT FEDERAL SUBSIDIES TO CONTINUE“: (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal,9/19/2011) 

BUT DEMOCRATS “WENT AHEAD ANYWAY”: (Joseph Rago, “GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/19/2011)

MEDICARE PILOT PROGRAMS SELF-DESTRUCT:

“CBO REPORT: MEDICARE PILOT PROGRAMS DON’T CONTROL HEALTHCARE COSTS”: (Megan McArdle, “CBO Report: Medicare Pilot Programs Don’t Control Healthcare Costs,” The Atlantic, 1/18/2012)

ANOTHER OBAMACARE BUST: “SPENDING WAS EITHER INCREASED ORUNCHANGED RELATIVE TO THE SPENDING THAT WOULD HAVE OCCURRED IN THE ABSENCE OF THE PROGRAM”: (“Lessons from Medicare’s Demonstration Projects on Disease Management, Care Coordination and Value-Based Payment,” Congressional Budget Office, January 2012)

EVEN OBAMA AGREES TO REPEAL ONEROUS 1099 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

“OBAMA SIGNS LAW REPEALING BUSINESS TAX REPORTING MANDATE”:(Richard Rubin, “Obama Signs Law Repealing Business Tax Reporting Mandate,” Bloomberg, 4/14/2011) 

SMALL BUSINESS GROUPS HAD AGGRESSIVELY OPPOSED 1099 REQUIREMENTS: (“New 1099 Tax Reporting Requirements Place Expensive Burden on Small Business Owners,” NFIB, Accessed 2/10/2012)

DEMS ISSUED THOUSANDS OF WAIVERS FOR THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE LAW:

OBAMA’S HHS GRANTS OVER 1,200 WAIVERS FROM HEALTHCARE LAW: (Sam Baker, “HHS Finalizes 1,200 Waivers Under Healthcare Reform Law,” The Hill, 1/6/2012) 

NANCY PELOSI’S DISTRICT THE “HANDS-DOWN WINNER” IN RECEIVING HEALTHCARE LAW WAIVERS: (“Restaurants, Cafes in Pelosi’s District Eat Up Health Care Law Waivers,” FoxNews.com, 5/17/2011) 

“LABOR UNIONS PRIMARY RECIPIENTS OF OBAMACARE WAIVERS”: (Paul Conner, “Labor Unions Primary Recipients of ObamaCare Waivers,” The Daily Caller, 1/7/2012)

543,812 UNION LABORERS RECEIVED WAIVERS FROM DEMOCRATS’ GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER, ONLY 69,813 PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYEES ALSO RECEIVED SUCH WAIVERS: (Paul Conner, “Labor Unions Primary Recipients of ObamaCare Waivers,” The Daily Caller, 1/7/2012)

DEMOCRATS’ INDIVIDUAL MANDATE TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE FACES SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE:

SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE ON WHETHER DEMOCRATS OVERSTEPPED POWER BY “REQUIRING THAT ALL AMERICANS BUY HEALTH INSURANCE BY 2014 OR PAY A PENALTY”: “At the heart of the legal battle is whether Congress overstepped its powers by requiring that all Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a provision known as the individual mandate.” (“Healthcare Law’s Fate Now in Supreme Court’s Hands,” Reuters, 11/14/2011)

BUT OBAMA HHS SECRETARY KATHLEEN SEBELIUS SAYS WHITE HOUSE WILL “KEEP GOING” IF SUPREME COURT DEEMS MANDATE UNCONSTITUTIONAL: (Sam Baker, “Sebelius: ‘We Keep Going’ if Court Strikes Down Mandate to Have Insurance,” The Hill, 1/24/2012)

KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION: 54% SAY SUPREME COURT SHOULD REJECT INSURANCE MANDATE, ONLY 17% WANT TO KEEP IT IN PLACE: (Louise Radonofsky, “Poll: Most Say High Court Should Reject Insurance Mandate,” The Wall Street Journal, 1/27/2012)

Even this latest controversy was a creation of Democrats’ own making. The White House was repeatedly warned about how their decision would violate religious freedom. But once again, Democrats decided that it was more important to create a polarizing new rule as political payback for their liberal base than to respect Americans’ First Amendment right to religious liberty:

MSNBC’S CHRIS MATTHEWS: “THE PRESIDENT MADE HIS DECISION…TO TAKE [HIS] CHANCES WITH OUR POLITICAL BASE, WITH OUR FUNDRAISERS”: “I don’t think they can work it out. I think this is one of the issues where the president made his decision to go with the women’s groups, fair enough, the really strong democrats, let the iffy Democrats go to the side, we’ll take our chances with our political base, with our fundraisers, with the people that show up at fundraisers, with the people that are secular and pro-choice and extremely activist, we’re not going to worry about these iffy, moderate conservative Catholics. I think they made their call.” (Remarks from Chris Matthews, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 2/10/2012) 

WHITE HOUSE WAS “SKITTISH FROM THE START ABOUT THE NEW RULE”: “The White House has been skittish from the start about the new rule, which was announced last month only after internal debates at the White House that, to some extent, pitted women — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who is Catholic; Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the deputy chief of staff, on one side, arguing forcefully in favor of the rule, administration officials said.” (Helene Cooper and Katharine Q. Seelye, “Obama Tries to Ease Ire on Contraception Rule,” The New York Times, 2/7/2012)

VP JOE BIDEN AND WH CHIEF OF STAFF BILL DALEY WARNED OBAMA AGAINST THE NEW RULE: “On the other side, cautioning that the administration tread carefully and look for ways to minimize another major break with the church, they said, were several Catholic men who are close advisers to Mr. Obama: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and William M. Daley, the chief of staff at the time. Also weighing in, administration officials said, was Denis R. McDonough, the deputy national security adviser, whose purview does not naturally extend to health issues, but who is a Catholic.” (Helene Cooper and Katharine Q. Seelye, “Obama Tries to Ease Ire on Contraception Rule,” The New York Times, 2/7/2012)

BUT “IT WAS OBAMA HIMSELF WHO MADE THE DECISION” THAT POLITICAL PAYBACK “OUTWEIGHED THE CONCERNS OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS”: ” ‘I can’t tell you how many times we went over this,’ one administration official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity. In the end, it was Mr. Obama himself who made the decision, aides say, calculating that at the end of the day, the issue of public health access outweighed the concerns of the religious institutions.”(Helene Cooper and Katharine Q. Seelye, “Obama Tries to Ease Ire on Contraception Rule,” The New York Times, 2/7/2012) 

IS THIS POLTICAL PAYBACK FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND THE DEMOCRATS’ ACTIVIST BASE?: “In late January the Health and Human Services Department required almost all insurance plans to cover contraceptive and sterilization methods, including the morning-after pill. The decision came after passionate lobbying by religious groups and liberals from the likes of Planned Parenthood, amid government promises of compromise.

“In the end, Planned Parenthood won. HHS chose to draw the rule’s conscience exceptions for ‘religious employers’ so narrowly that they will not be extended to religious charities, universities, schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other institutions that oppose contraception as a matter of religious belief.” (Editorial, “ObamaCare’s Great Awakening,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/8/2012)