No doubt when President Obama told Mitt Romney during the first 2012 presidential debate that he “liked” the term “Obamacare,” he was confident the appellation would be revered as an historic accomplishment for his administration.
Certainly Democrats have been willing to spend your hard-earned tax money to preserve the president’s aspirations. Bloomberg Government reports the cost of HealthCare.gov has now exceeded the $2 billion mark, while the total cost of Obama’s health care reform is more than $73 billion.
But nowadays it’s difficult to find a Democrat who openly supports any of this president’s policies in their election campaigns, much less Obama’s signature health care legislation. But in a recent speech, President Obama assured Americans his policies were indeed on November’s ballot.
“I am not on the ballot this fall,” President Obama said. “But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.”
Yes, there are people who now have healthcare who didn’t prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
But millions have been forced off their existing plan (despite Obama’s promise this would never happen, winning him the esteemed Politifact “Lie of the Year” Award) into health care exchanges where they’re experiencing less coverage, higher deductibles and fewer choices in providers.
In fact, if the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had scored the ACA correctly, it probably would never have passed! According to Forbes Magazine, 12.5 percent fewer people are uninsured by 2014, rather than the 37.3 percent projected by the CBO.
Additionally, of the millions with canceled coverage, 1 million remain uninsured. And Americans are experiencing far higher premiums than originally estimated while nearly $7,000 will be added in taxes/fees over a decade even for families in the lowest 20 percent of household income.
And all around the country businesses are preparing for the impact of the employer mandate under Obamacare. Understand, these companies will not simply absorb these additional costs. They’ll either cut expenses or raise prices.
Currently hundreds of employers are cutting back on employee’s hours to avoid paying for health care, forcing these individuals into purchasing coverage from an exchange or pay a fine.
And many people still don’t realize the IRS will be the enforcer for ensuring everyone meets their “shared responsibility payment” as decreed by the individual mandate of Obamacare. And Americans have already seen what IRS leadership is willing to do to propagate this president’s ultra-liberal agenda.
Now, there are points in the ACA which should remain, such as coverage for “pre-existing” conditions. But Democrats failed to engage in the necessary conversation about allowing the free market to work in the insurance industry by instituting healthy interstate competition and tort reform.
Instead, they went right for socialized medicine.
Simply put, Barack Obama and complicit Democrats passed legislation that forces Americans into purchasing a product, despite their wants or needs, so they can “redistribute” the assets as they deem “fair.” They’ve taken the “care” out of health care and made it health “control.”
So Democrats may want to run, but they cannot hide. They gave us Obamacare.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Free State Patriot 
Mark here is last week’s article that the HD removed from its site:
Election is not about Obama or coal
Oct. 24, 2014 @ 12:24 AM
To be fair about the soon-coming election, it is important to consider two observations. As a general rule, presidents lose support during mid-term elections, especially second mid-terms; and mid-terms are rarely a referendum on the president’s agenda. The referendum is on how well congressmen and senators have taken care of their constituents.
Common sense underscores these observations. Whatever happens with the Congress, the president is a lame duck; but he continues to wield the veto power and he speaks from the “Bully Pulpit.”
President Obama’s agenda has changed little since he won his second term with a convincing majority.
In Congress, however, nothing has changed in the last two years. Before the president’s second election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly declared that his primary goal was to defeat Obama. He failed! McConnell said the Republican objective would then be to block whatever proposals the president made.
The oft-repeated cliche, “If the president supported oxygen, the Congress would be against it,” became the Republican motto. Whatever the president proposed, the House opposed along solid party-lines with stubborn, obstructionist hostility. What the small Democratic majority in the Senate proposes, the House refuses to consider and vice versa.
Absolutely nothing is new here! We’ve watched with frustration as the Congress of the United States has discarded budgets, nominations, proposals and suggestions. If an idea comes to Capitol Hill from the White House, it is automatically dead on arrival.
An example. With the threat of the Ebola virus, now more than ever the U.S. needs a surgeon general. We should have had a surgeon general long ago; however, Senator Rand Paul’s “Hold” is why we do not! Now that President Obama has named an ebola czar by executive order, we’ll be hearing more about how the White House has overstepped its bounds and bypassed the Senate.
I fear that Kentucky will return the chief congressional obstructionist, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, back to Washington. McConnell is the man who boasted during a debate with his opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes, “I will be the majority leader in the next term.” The possibility sends shivers down my spine! McConnell is far more concerned about his personal advancement and his clout in the U.S. Senate than he is about what’s happening in Kentucky. His remark “It’s not my job to bring jobs to Kentucky” tells me that he is clearly out of touch with Kentucky!
I would have been pleased to hear a political advertisement for West Virginia or Kentucky about the candidates running, their qualifications, and what they planned to accomplish. What we heard was “Obama, Obama, Obama!” President Obama’s name is not on the ballot. Candidates did everything in their power to link opponents to President Obama.
The bottom line is that if we send the same bunch back to Washington, D.C., we might want different results, but we’ll get the same results. I’d like to believe West Virginians and Kentuckians are smarter than that!
Milt Hankins of Ashland, Ky., is a retired minister, theologian and freelance writer.
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He’s a mess
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They removed another one last summer so I started clipping certain ones into my evernote data.
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I missed that one
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