Bill Clinton on the GOP Obsession With Obamacare

Via Addicting Info: Former President Bill Clinton appeared on This Week. Clinton remarked about the Republican Party's obsession with the Affordable Care Act.

“This bill [Obamacare] has already produced a lot of good results. Look, they are desperate for this bill to fail. Because, if it’s not a failure, everything they’ve been telling us since 1980, “big government’s bad,” is wrong. They so badly want it to fail. Can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was sitting around just begging for America to fail? I don’t know what’s going to happen. I would be shocked if it fails. I just think when all these dire predictions don’t come out, if they don’t, I believe that pretty sooOn, within the next several years, this will belie Medicare and Medicaid. It will be a normal part of our lives ad people will be glad it’s there.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that enrollment on has been extended. Go to Healthcare.gov to find out is you qualify.

Charlie Crist Ad Defends Obamacare

Running away from Obamacare didn't help Alex Sink win her congressional race. Charlie Crist has released an ad defending Obamacare and attacking Rick Scott's position. This is text from the voiceover in the ad.

“Rick Scott wants to take us back to the days of insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, where women are charged more than men, and lifetime caps limit care even for kids with cancer.’’

President Harry Truman said, "Given the choice between a Republican and sonmeone who acts like a Republican --- People will vote for the real Republican all the time." Crist is a Democrat now. Republican voters aren't going to flock to Crist if he flip flops on Obamacare. Crist has lost those voters forever. Democrats have to defend Obamacare. There is no other viable political option.

Dubious Rubio Panders Himself Into A Corner

Jim Newell of Salon wrote on how Marco Rubio is having a terrible year. Newell correctly notes the reason is that Rubio is a shameless panderer who could care less about policy. Rubio is against taking his own immigration bill to conference. Rubio voted to shutdown the government and have the Treasury Department default all to defund Obamacare. Rubio had to explain to Marc Caputo why he signed up for Obamacare and (unlike other Republican senators) took the $10,000 subsidy. As usual, Rubio ducked out of his interview with Caputo as fast as he could.

Rubio on Monday defended his decision to accept the annual subsidy, and said it wasn’t that special.

“It’s an [employer] contribution,” Rubio said. “It’s available to every employee of the federal government.”

Caputo asked Rubio about his cat fight with Rep. Paul Ryan over the budget deal. Rubio got out of the interview ASAP. Even Ryan realizes another shutdown is a political loser.Rubio proposes that the Senate turn down a bipartisan House budget deal. Rubio's reason is he is both hysterically against both less and more spending. That is the kind of nonsense a shameless panderer like Rubio will say.

Rubio Enrolls Family Into Obamacare

This is politically embarrassing for Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio enrolled his family into Obamacare.

"Senator Rubio spent time looking at all the options and decided to enroll through the DC exchange for coverage for him and his family," a spokeswoman told the Buzz. The deadline was today.

Rubio took the federal subsidy afforded to lawmakers and staff -- a perk some Republicans wanted to kill off.

Rubio could have gotten health insurance outside the exchange. Of course, that would have cost more. The whole point of the exchanges is to lower gealth insurance premiums for consumers. That is why Rubio enrolled in the D.C. exchange. However, that won't stop Rubio from going on Fox News and saying Obamacare is a disaster.

Quote of the Day

“I am not an expert in health care, or Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, or however you choose to describe it, but I do know this: I have benefited from that kind of universal health care in my 55 years of public life. And I don’t see why we can’t do what Europe is doing, what Canada is doing, what Korea is doing, what all these other places are doing.”

Colin Powell

This a rare time I actually agree with Colin Powell. To think that Powell is to the left of President Barack Obama on health care. I look forward to Powell being called a socialist by tea party bloggers.

John Boehner Successfully Signs Up For Obamacare

Congratulations to Speaker John Boehner for successfully signing up for Obamacare. As a cigarette smoker, Boehner would of had a hard time getting health coverage in Ohio. Thanks to the rules of Obamacare in Washington DC, Boehner has health insurance.

The House Republican Playbook

The New York Times obtained a copy of the House Republican playbook for talking points against Obamacare. To drive a cliche into the ground; Republicans even have a picture of a football play on page 3.

Jonathan Chait noticed that Republicans drew up the most idiotic football imaginable. Republicans only field ten players, line up in an illegal formation and run a bootleg straight into a defensive back who isn't covering a receiver.

Chait writes:

This is literally the only play I can imagine that could not work against this defense.

This is coming from the same party that recently gave us the Ted Cruz government shutdown and Clint Eastwood talking to a chair.

Hurricane Katrina Talking Point From Fox News

Jon Stewart has this reaction to Fox News comparing the Obamacare rollout to Hurricane Katrina.

“Are you out of your –” Stewart began to say, before stopping once he heard his audience’s collected groan. “Do you know you’ve disappointed our audience? They think you might be out of your f*cking mind.”

Fox News is running hard with the Hurricane Katrina talking point.

Special Interest Politics v. Reality

If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, I would like one card-carrying member of the left -- just one -- to admit that this is about the Constitutionality of the law; not health care.

After admitting that, I would then like that one honest member of the left to admit that the Obama administration royally fucked up by forcing through a health care bill that was unlawful; and instead of advancing the cause of health coverage for all, the Obama administration set this cause back by decades because they fucked up.

This is no longer about idealism, this is about reality. The time for cheerleaders, pom-poms, rah-rahs and sis-boom-fucking-bahs is over. We may vote for a politician, and we may generally like a politician, but if they royally fuck up then it's about time we hold them accountable.

Just saying.