bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Throughout the government shutdown, Democrats, who knew Republicans wouldn’t be able to delay Obamacare, routinely said, “It’s settled law.” President Obama was re-elected, they say – though he said almost nothing about Obamacare during the campaign, and what he did say amounted to platitudes he knew were false. And the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional.

The debate was over, progressives crowed. It was going to happen. Soon they will be eating crow, and Republicans have to position themselves smartly and strategically now to make sure that crow is served up to them on a silver platter.

The roll out of Obamacare has been a disaster that makes “New Coke” look like the iPad. The website rarely works, and when it does, it sends incorrect information to insurers. And when young and healthy people do sign up, they discover they’re going to be paying exponentially more for insurance to subsidize premiums for wealthy retirees.

That last one should stick in the craw of everyone under 35. They will be paying thousands of dollars per year more so retirees who technically have no income but own their homes and are living off savings and investments – which don’t count as income when it comes to subsidies for the “poor.” And they will be paying for this until they reach 65 and go on Medicare, at which point still younger people will be subsidizing them.

In short: Obamacare is a massive wealth “spreading” from the young and struggling to the old and well off.

Add to that Obamacare’s devastating impact on the economy and part-timing of the American workforce, and you can almost see the train flying off the rails.

There will be attempts at bi-partisan “fixes” to some of the more visible problems caused by Obamacare. Republicans and Democrats have been working together to delay or repeal the medical device tax and change the definition of a full-time employee back to 40 hours per week from Obamacare’s 30 – to name just two.

Republicans must resist the urge to help with these “fixes.”

We just spent a month being lectured by arrogant know-it-alls about how Obamacare is “settled law.” So keep it settled.

Obamacare is failing already, and it will continue to fail in more spectacular ways as we move forward, let it.

Democrat wrote the bill, Democrats v**ed for the bill, a Democrat president signed it into law. It’s theirs. Make them live with it. As is.

Do not change one comma, one letter. It’s settled law! This is what they wanted, this is what people v**ed for. If the full failure of Obamacare isn’t allowed to happen, if “fixes” are passed, it will live on in a money-sucking spiral of destruction that will lead to a complete and total government takeover of health care in this country – which is their goal.

It’s going to be painful, but it’s also going to be quick. And the pain will be nothing compared to the damage to the economy and our future if this Frankenstein’s monster is helped to limp into permanency.

Meanwhile, this is also a chance for conservative groups to flex their muscles (and ample money) in a non-circular firing squad way. I have to address them directly now.

Set up a website as a clearinghouse for Obamacare failure stories.

I know you don’t play nice with each other, but get over it. One website, not competing websites – and the focus has to be spreading these collected stories to the media, both national and local. I know you love adding to your email lists, but this can’t be about that. This has to be about spreading the t***h the media will do its damnedest to ignore.

Gather stories from any source possible, including user-submitted. Verify them and record the actual people going through them on video in 30- and 60-second clips. Then blast them out daily to every local media outlet in their area. And post new ones on the site daily. Go around the media like President Reagan used to. Overwhelm them into covering the t***h.

It’s going to take money, but this can’t be a fundraiser for you. Asking people for money is understandable in normal circumstances, but this is not a normal circumstance. Collect stories, film them and get them out there – that is the only purpose here. If you want to win, that is. If you’d rather be the voice of the conservative movement or the Tea Party group, then that’s your priority – not making the country a better place – and I can’t help you.

Republicans have to be united. Conservatives have to be united. If done right, this effort will have no spokesman on TV. It will be a conduit for getting real people with real Obamacare horror stories in front of any camera, at any time, anywhere in the country. It will be a major undertaking, a massive database and possibly the most important thing any or all of you can do over the next year.

Progressives are unified and indignant. They are indifferent to the cost to both the country and individual, and the pain to the individual is, to them, irrelevant. This is about the concept.

To protect their agenda, they will highlight any success story, no matter how dubious. Conservatives must beat them at their own game. They trot out personal stories constantly; we must do the same. If the president gives a speech touting Obamacare in Fresno, Calif., every reporter within 100 miles should be served up a menu of people suffering under it before Air Force One touches the ground.

This is a winnable fight. It’s our fight to win. But if there’s one thing Republicans and conservatives excel at, it’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Obamacare is a disaster, not just in code on a website, but in concept and construction. It survives if we allow it to survive. No more delays, no more defunds, and no more changes. Every unconstitutional change the president makes must be immediately met with a court challenge, even if it’s good. It’s his law. It’s his “medicine.” Make him take it.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Agree 100%! And crow is best served cold.

Poco624

It is understandable that most on the right would say that President Obama did little campaigning on OC, because you were too busy trying to keep up with Romney's "flip-flopping" on every political platform he campaigned on. In this video Obama says that Romney had "Romnesia" and ObamaCare would accept those with pre-existing conditions.

The President On The Campaign Trail Prescribes OC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veBdjFg9a68

Obama's whole campaign was about OC, bettering the middle class, equal pay for equal work, better education, better wages to help people out of poverty, and closing Gitmo. And he has been unable to accomplish any of these because the House GOPers have refused to pass any bills that would help better the middle class. All they want to do is cut, cut, cut, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. And give more money to the rich, so they can blame the poverty in this country on Obama.

The Romney/Ryan campaign was all about repealing OC, taking away a woman's right to choose, a woman's right to use contraception, if you didn't work, you didn't eat, and abolishing the minimum wage. Nothing like tearing down the strength of America; and nothing like closing a coal business in MA saying it will make people sick and then campaign on being all for the coal country. Yep, this is what "flip-flopping" Romney was all about and America didn't buy his rhetoric.

Romney: I Will Repeal ObamaCare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIJ38FhEJFA

Since RomneyCare was used as the blueprint for Obamacare and Romney/Ryan was all for repealing OC they lost MA by more than 20 points. Unbelievable, as governor of MA he gave the state RomneyCare and then his administration worked with the Obama administration to create OC and now he is repealling it. I think there is a name for someone like that, oh yes, HYPOCRITE.
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bmac32 Loc: West Florida

OK simply compare the roll out for both programs. Romneycarewasworked out by both parties Obamacare was behind closed doors with zero input from republicans. With RC one could look at the plans and see the costs, OC not even close.

Poco624

Oh, how little ye knows about Obamacare or Romneycare. You and my Republican cousin thinks everything Obama does is in the backroom, and nobody does backrooms better than GOP governors when writing legislation suppressing v**ers rights and women's rights. Ohio hid their anti-women legislation in a budget bill late Friday evening when they thought no one was watching, but they were. Texas tried to pass their anti-women bill just before midnight and claimed that they did, but someone noticed that the last date stamped on the bill was after midnight and that was a no-no.

And since the Texas GOP knows that no woman will v**e for them they are now suppressing women's v**e. I wonder how the Republican women are taking that? Nevermind, they are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and wouldn't know the difference anyway.

NC governor hid his anti-woman bill in a "Ban Shira Law" bill until it was pointed out that he was banning what he was enacting. Yep, he was banning the Shira Law while enforcing in on the women of NC, it doesn't work that way. Then he removed it from that legislation and put it in a "motorcycle safety" bill, when a reporter asked him why, he just said they both had to do with safety. Ha,Ha,Ha! Yeah, right. He was trying to hide the anti-women bill.

The Republicans did have an input in OC. The part where the different insurance agencies would be handling the health insurance. You should know that because they thought that Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and other agencies would be making a bigger profit. But no, they will not because OC says that .80 cents of every $1 will be spent on medical insurance, not profit. BTW, some insurance companies have dropped out because they will not be making the big profit. The whole idea of OC is to cut the cost of medical care in this country, or did you get that memo?

The outrage over the implementation of Obamacare is just mind boggling. No one seems to remember the implementation of Medicare Part D - prescriptions, in January 2006, under Bush, but I found some neighbors who do remember and it was disastrous. There were people taking their written prescriptions to the pharmacy and the pharmacist did not know what was going on.

That problem was worked out and the Obamacare problem will also be worked out.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

WOW, just WOW. Solving all the worlds problems at once? OK it was a front room with no republican input. Harry and Nancy blocked any input from the other side. Any idea from the other side wasn't allowed on the floor. Obamacare and Romneycare are about as close as a Yugo and a Mercedes.

Poco624

No, I wasn't solving all the worlds problems, I am just pointing out that GOP are great for making legislation in backrooms.

RC and OC were about as close as a Yugo and Mercedes? Nope, just about the same, except RC was implemented for a state and OC was developed for a nation.

BTW, I lived in MA when Mitt Romney was governor and when RC was implemented in April, 2006. As a matter of fact I even v**ed for him. Most of the reasons I v**ed for him turned out to be based on lies.

When Romney ran for the MA governor he was pro-choice.

Mitt Romney Says He Is Pro-Choice In 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdVRB9x_DAA

Romney "flipped flopped" on just about everything he ran on. You just never knew which Mitt Romney you were going to get each day.

Mitt Romney - Flip Flopping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djaffg5MTGE

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

My God you act like Romney is President and are living in the past. No difference maybe you should check that because according to the Daily Beast the differences are there.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

As one of those old farts who has been on Medicare for 16 years I have to ask you if you know how much I pay monthly for Medicare. Do you know that? It is pretty close to 10% of my Social Security check and that is more than either of my boys pays and they are both between $3000 and $6000 per month. I think it is time for people who aren't on Social Security to realize that we get to pay for Medicare till death gets hold of us.

Now let me say that I disagree with very little else in your post.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Should be $105 or so, at least that's what the wife is. We went off her policy at her work the same day but THEY lost mine so mine is $167. Called and went to SS with the paper worked signed by them and was told that was my problem, judge didn't think so so the check is in the system.

Poco624

Thank God, Romney is not president, we would never know what he had planned.

BTW, David Letterman said the Republicans will get something for the government shutdown, Hillary Clinton for eight years.

UncleJesse Loc: Hazzard Co, GA

Yea, I've heard of this strategy. A few Republicans stated this strategy when the shutdown was being floated around. I was endorsing it while others were convinced the shutdown was the way to go. But it's not organized or official and other Republicans note the risks involved making it unattractive. The risk is if the obamacare website gets fixed and if HHS and insurance companies equally voice the successes in a liberal leaning media. I think Forbes and Stein are on to a less risky, more feasible strategy: A Republican plan or amendments that improve it. That will play well with main street whether obamacare continues to be a flop or if it succeeds. Especially if it succeeds. If the strategy is to criticize, wait for failure but it succeeds, it will be viewed in main street's eyes even more negatively on Republicans following the loss of the shut down and debt ceiling strategy. I think they have a point. However, I wonder if there's anyone who can unite Republicans to take the time to organize a plan? It seems like lately, the focus has been a battle for control between old-school and new.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

And you just love Obama, right?

Poco624

Forgive me, for I am going to start a "Liberal rant" because I am sick and tired of reading about how Obama is destroying this country, all the while Congress is running it.

Congress has not passed one jobs bills, they are against immigration even if it will help reduce our deficit. They have not passed one bill that will help our veterans, they vetoed women's right to earn the same as a man doing the same job. It even took them almost a year to pass the VAWA knowing that pregnant women are the most vulnerable to domestic violence.

Yes, I like President Obama he loves peace as much as I do, and I am really sorry that he has a "do nothing" Congress. A president is only as powerful as his Congress, and he doesn't even have one that is worth mentioning.

The people in this country need jobs that pay livable wages, a good education and the freedom to make their own choices. Your party is against all of that and claim to be the party of "freedom", claim to be "Christians", but you are CINO's. You also claim to be the "family" party and yet, denying the right for the immigrants to keep their families together.

I don't know where the following taxes would be coming from had Obama not ended the "Bush Tax Cuts" and started taxing some of the rich. Which, BTW, only happened in January 2013.

The taxpayers are paying $7 billion a year for fast-food workers meals, while they pay their CEO's millions. Walmart makes a 4.5% annual profit off of their employees food stamps. Yes, there is fraud in SNAP and it isn't the people who really need government subsidies, it is the rich corporations.

And the House GOPers have absolutely no problem with this "food stamp fraud" because the money is going to the wealthy corporations. Even after claiming Obama's is spending too much they are still trying to cut food stamps to hungry children.

McDonald's Tells Workers To Get Food Stamps
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/315-19/20040-mcdonalds-tells-workers-to-get-food-stamps

Reagan's "Welfare Queen" Found! And it is Walmart!
http://t***h-out.org/opinion/item/13127-reagans-welfare-queen-found

Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, v**ed for Obama because if Romney won we would have gone war with Iran. Romney said if he won president he would increase the Navy's ships to 350, after complaining about Obama's deficit.

How Big Should The U.S. Navy Be?
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/22/163419358/what-does-the-navys-size-tells-about-u-s-power

Now, remember, under a Republican president only the poor will be paying taxes and those ships would have definitely increased the deficit.

The GOP's Bizarre, Disturbing Passion For Raising Taxes On The Poor
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/the-gops-bizarre-disturbing-passion-for-raising-taxes-on-the-poor/258126/

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

So does this mean you can't see it without reading?

The rest of your post is opinion which your surely entilited to have and as for the history you can't go back and change it.