Back in the days of the New York City financial crisis of the 1970's there was a famous newspaper headline when then president Ford said that he would not back a federal bailout of the city. It read: "Ford to New York: Drop Dead". I was reminded of that headline today when I heard that the Obamacare exchange for small business has been delayed for a year.
This news needs some explanation. Under the Obamacare law, there was to be an online exchange for small businesses just like the one for individuals. (Okay, unlike the one for individuals, the small business exchange was supposed to work.) Two months ago, when it became clear to the White House that the small business exchange would not be ready by October 1, when it was supposed to go live, Obama delayed the date for the small business exchange until December 1. On that date, small businesses were supposed to have a place where they could compare available policies as to features and prices and then purchase the plan that made most sense for them. Just last week, the Obama administration confirmed that the small business exchange would be ready on December 1 as promised. Today, on the day before Thanksgiving when most people are getting ready for the holiday or traveling, the Obamacrats announced that the small business exchange would be put off for another year.
This is more than just another in a long list of broken promises and outright lies. Keep in mind that while the small business exchange will not be working this year, all of the small businesses in the country must still comply with the requirements of Obamacare. Tens of millions of policies are going to be cancelled and the prices for nearly every policy are going to rise dramatically. Small business owners are going to have to search for new policies without having the exchange to help. As someone who used to buy health insurance for a small business, I can tell you that purchasing insurance is confusing and difficult even in good times. When something like forty million extra buyers are pushed into the market, the level of confusion and the lack of knowledgeable brokers will reach epidemic levels. If the extra time spent by the business owners and managers to find suitable insurance is only an extra $500 per company (which is likely a very, very low estimate), we are still talking about forcing small businesses across America to waste something like $5 billion over the next year. The truth is that Obamacare is ordering small businesses to comply with the rules and then taking away the method that any sane person would use to achieve compliance.
There is no question that Obama and his people knew before today that the small business exchange would not be ready this coming weekend. After all, if they were just running a few days behind schedule, they could have pushed back the opening of the exchange to December 10th rather than to fall of 2014. That means that when Obama waited until today to announce this further delay, it was a purely political move. He was trying to hide this failure by burying it in Thanksgiving events.
America deserves a president who actually accomplishes the tasks that are needed. It is not enough to have a president who knows how to sweep his failures under the rug.
This news needs some explanation. Under the Obamacare law, there was to be an online exchange for small businesses just like the one for individuals. (Okay, unlike the one for individuals, the small business exchange was supposed to work.) Two months ago, when it became clear to the White House that the small business exchange would not be ready by October 1, when it was supposed to go live, Obama delayed the date for the small business exchange until December 1. On that date, small businesses were supposed to have a place where they could compare available policies as to features and prices and then purchase the plan that made most sense for them. Just last week, the Obama administration confirmed that the small business exchange would be ready on December 1 as promised. Today, on the day before Thanksgiving when most people are getting ready for the holiday or traveling, the Obamacrats announced that the small business exchange would be put off for another year.
This is more than just another in a long list of broken promises and outright lies. Keep in mind that while the small business exchange will not be working this year, all of the small businesses in the country must still comply with the requirements of Obamacare. Tens of millions of policies are going to be cancelled and the prices for nearly every policy are going to rise dramatically. Small business owners are going to have to search for new policies without having the exchange to help. As someone who used to buy health insurance for a small business, I can tell you that purchasing insurance is confusing and difficult even in good times. When something like forty million extra buyers are pushed into the market, the level of confusion and the lack of knowledgeable brokers will reach epidemic levels. If the extra time spent by the business owners and managers to find suitable insurance is only an extra $500 per company (which is likely a very, very low estimate), we are still talking about forcing small businesses across America to waste something like $5 billion over the next year. The truth is that Obamacare is ordering small businesses to comply with the rules and then taking away the method that any sane person would use to achieve compliance.
There is no question that Obama and his people knew before today that the small business exchange would not be ready this coming weekend. After all, if they were just running a few days behind schedule, they could have pushed back the opening of the exchange to December 10th rather than to fall of 2014. That means that when Obama waited until today to announce this further delay, it was a purely political move. He was trying to hide this failure by burying it in Thanksgiving events.
America deserves a president who actually accomplishes the tasks that are needed. It is not enough to have a president who knows how to sweep his failures under the rug.
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