OUR VIEW: Rebrand Obamacare? We say go ahead and try you arrogant, ignorant, tone-deaf, radical, socialist ninnies.
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Like a criminal clad in jail house orange, the job-killing Obamacare is getting its day in court. After being convicted on all counts in the court of public opinion in 2010, the despised legislation now goes before the US Supreme Court this week to be sentenced.
While the Supreme Court can send one element of the law to the gas chamber, the individual mandate, the law has already claimed scores of political lives, including Colorado's John Salazar and Betsy Markey (#thanksobamacare!). It is simply one of the most unpopular laws passed by Congress in years.
A New York Times/CBS News poll out today shows that only 36% of Americans support the law, while 47% stand in opposition. Most important for politicians is another number — intensity. The number of people in the poll who say they strongly oppose the law is double the number who strongly support the law.
As pollsters might tell Democrats, when the strongly oppose outnumbers the strongly support by two to one, you are up sh*t creek without a political paddle.
That hasn't stopped lame liberal attack groups like ProgressNow, and as of last week, the Obama administration itself, from trying to rebrand the term "Obamacare" two years too late. Previously, ProgressNow tried to bring its awesome (read: non-existent) influence to change the debate around the legislation by reclaiming the term Obamacare with a laughable Twitter campaign on the hashtag #thanksobamacare. Obama's political handlers joined the fun last week with the hashtag #ilikeobamacare.
As is often the case with such social media efforts by the White House, the hashtag was quickly taken over by conservatives who used it to mock the law and Obama.
Why is their effort doomed to failure? Quite simply, a hashtag is not going to undo the damage done by the law itself.
In Colorado, there are a few reasons.
In 2011, health care premiums in Colorado rose, on average, by 14.4%, and in 2012, are slated to rise by another 9.4% in the state. Rising prices mean unhappy voters.
Those rising costs, and other provisions in the law, caused six major health insurance companies to stop carrying child policies in Colorado. Aetna, one of the largest carriers in the country, stopped selling new policies to small groups altogether.
Not only is the law helping kill insurance company options for Coloradans, but its damaging a major Colorado industry — the ski industry. A Colorado Ski Country USA estimate found that Obamacare could cost the industry between $9 and $14 million per year, an effect called "a stunning blow to any large employer like ours that employs seasonal staff," by Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp President Chris Diamond.
Doctors themselves hate the bill. A recent survey found that 60% of doctors believe Obamacare will have a negative impact overall on patient care.
An even more eye-popping stat from the same survey — 43% of doctors are considering retiring in the next five years due to Obamacare.
Legislators of all stripes should hate the law too. The Heritage Foundation in 2010 estimated that from 2014-2020, the law will cost Colorado an additional almost $350 million.
All of these facts and figures portend more importantly to most Coloradans than a Twitter campaign run by Obama's cronies.
Too bad for Congressional candidates Sal Pace and Joe Miklosi, who have voted in favor of Obamacare, that Coloradans cast the ballots, and not the staffers at ProgressNow or the White House.
Rebrand Obamacare? We say go ahead and try you arrogant, ignorant, tone-deaf, radical, socialist ninnies.
(Pic via Peter Boddie’s JeffCO Bridge To Nowhere Obamacare Protest)