As Stephen Denan reported for The Washington Times, “the Senate voted Monday afternoon to kill House Republicans’ latest stopgap spending offer, holding firm in their demand that Congress continue to fund Obamacare as part of any government-funding debate.”
The 54-46 vote officially tabled both proposals the House GOP passed early Sunday morning, one of which would have funded the government while delaying the health law for a year, and the other of which would have repealed one of the Affordable Care Act’s tax increases.
As Politico’s Chief Economic Correspondent and CNBC Contributor Ben White reported Monday, “all the late efforts by Republicans, especially in the leadership team, reflect fear that the GOP will shoulder all the blame for a shutdown and have its already low public standing plunge even further.”
There’s a reason for that.
As Examiner noted Aug. 19, "polls have shown that a consistent majority of Americans have opposed Obamacare since it was signed into law in 2010 and that a growing majority still want the law repealed.” Despite all of the promised benefits, the legislation has proven to be little more than “’a clumsy monstrosity’ of broken promises, delays and waivers.”
Gallup’s Aug. 15 survey showed Obama’s approval numbers dropped seven percentage points on the economy, five percentage points on taxes and the federal deficit, three percentage points on terrorism and foreign affairs and one percentage point on healthcare.
While Gallup’s Sept. 11 survey showed approval ratings for congressional Democrats had gone up by three percentage points, approval for congressional Republicans rose five percentage points.
In light of this, Obama-friendly media launched a coordinated effort to distract Americans from their displeasure with the president’s job performance and more favorable view of congressional Republicans.
Consider the June 2 column in Politico written by Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman.
After citing Obama’s prediction of “’glitches and bumps’ when major provisions of the Affordable Care Act are implemented,” Atman identified specific “glitches the media must watch for in covering ACA” wand advised them on how to get the story “right.”
We are establishing partnerships with regional newspapers, NPR affiliates and others, so that together we can spot the most relevant state and local stories to report them locally and nationally through our distribution partners. Other news organizations will find their own answers.
“How well news organizations step up to these and other ACA coverage challenges will have a big impact on implementation of the law and public judgment about it,” Altman admonished.
“When the “death panel” story broke, many news organizations sprang into action to fact check and debunk the claim.”
Those “news organizations” were “NPR” and “others” -- like NBC and CBS in partnership with The Associated Press -- and “regional newspapers” like The Washington Post and The Huffington Post.
“Cable news covered the story day after day” Altman lamented. “No doubt the repeated coverage of nonexistent death panels contributed to public anxiety about the law. Today, 40 percent of the American people still believe there are death panels in ACA.”
“Cable news” is code for Fox News, where Sean Hannity covered the story about “high-profile Democrat and one-time medical doctor” Howard Dean’s admission that Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board is a “health care rationing body” that has the authority to “stop certain treatments.”
Meanwhile, NBC and Kaiser have joined at the Obamacare propaganda hip.
As Daniel Halper reported Friday for The Weekly Standard, NBC announced in a press release “that it would be launching a week of programming to help Obamacare get off its feet.”
“Ready or Not, the New Healthcare Law” kicked off on Monday, citing results from a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, “conducted in conjunction with NBC News, that details public opinion and awareness about the ACA.”
However, according to Kaiser’s methodology, “the survey was conducted August 13-19.”
That was well over a month ago.
A lot has happened in the 42-47 days that have passed since then.
Curiously, NBC’s decision to launch “a week of programming to help Obamacare get off its feet,” followed the Sept. 11 assertion by NBC's Chuck Todd that it’s the president’s job -- not the media’s job -- to sell Obamacare.
Obama fans didn't like that, and all hell broke loose.
Other Obamacare surveys conducted by members of the pro-Obamacare media are also outdated.
CNBC’s Steve Liesman reported Sept. 23 hat a “CNBC All-America Economic Survey of 800 people across the country showed that, Americans opposed defunding Obamacare by a plurality of 44 percent to 38 percent.”
First, this poll was “conducted Monday through Thursday” – two weeks prior to Friday’s Senate vote to support cloture.
Second, that’s only a spread of six percentage points.
With “a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent,” that small spread drops to 2.6 percent.
A CBS News/New York Times Poll showed “eight in 10 Americans find it unacceptable for either President Obama or members of Congress to threaten to shut down the government during budget negotiations in order to achieve their goals” and 51 percent “think that Obama is making more of an effort to work with Republicans.”
That poll – released Friday – was conducted Sept. 19-23. That’s 8-12 days before Friday’s cloture vote and 11-15 days before Monday’s Senate vote to reject the House compromise.
“House Republicans are threatening to shut down the government to keep uninsured Americans from getting the health care they need,” Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi barked through Facebook Saturday.
Of course, this is the woman Politico noted was too busy “celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary outside Washington, D.C.” to bother showing up for Sunday’s House vote.
Then there’s this.
Apparently, the Kaiser/media partnership also includes a key Obamacare player in the Obama administration.
Following Monday’s “Ready or Not, the New Healthcare Law” kick-off, “NBC Nightly News” held the interview – also announced in the press release -- between NBC News’ Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
After noting “all the run up time to the eve of this,” Snyderman first asked Sebelius if the lingering “confusion” and lack of “enthusiasm” among Americans about Obamacare was her fault.
“I think we bear part of the responsibility of not being able to get through a lot of the noise” answered the woman who is responsible for implementing and explaining the president’s healthcare law.
During the rest of the interview – which lasted all of two minutes and 37 seconds -- other questions received equally vacuous answers.
After admitting the middle class has been “taking it on the chin” and attempting a rambling excuse as to why Obama’s promise of reduced costs haven’t panned out, Sebelius was asked to describe what “success” looks like.
“Well,” Sebelius said with a strange lack of confidence, “I think success looks like -- uhhh -- at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014.”
Considering the Sept. 26 Washington Post report, the that the feature that allows employees at small businesses to shop for and compare plans online won’t be available on the government’s website until Nov. 1 -- and the feature to allow employees to pick their own health plan using funds from the workplace has been pushed off until 2015 -- 7 million “looks like” a set of keys on the front seat through a car window with all the doors locked.
There they are. But you can’t touch them unless you break in.
The Sept. 26 report on WebMD “from Kaiser Health News” -- that the Spanish-version for the healthcare exchange won’t be up and running until Oct. 21 because the administration wanted it to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month -- demonstrates where all the “confusion” comes from.
Hispanic Heritage Month began on Sept. 15 and ends on Oct. 15.
Why didn’t Snyderman ask about that?
Not “relevant?”
Incidentally, Kaiser Health News is part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Even as President Obama and his administration are making a last minute push to encourage enrollment in Obamacare,” Jeryl Bier reported for The Weekly Standard Monday, “a quiet change was made on the Healthcare.gov website regarding those who will still not be able to afford coverage after the program kicks in” Tuesday.
From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, this question appeared.
Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?
The answer:
If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center.
“However,” Bier noticed, “sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to "free" care was dropped.
Where can I get low-cost care in my community?
“If you can't afford any health plan,” the revised answer states, “you can get low-cost health care at a nearby community health center.
On its July 1, 2010 launch date by “our administration,” Sebelius touted the Healthcare.gov website was the “new consumer website that provides unprecedented transparency into the health care marketplace.”
Considering Sebelius’ July 2, 2010 post on HHS.gov – lauding Healthcare.gov as “a website we designed to help you, your family, your business, your parents and grandparents, and your neighbors and friends get the information you need to make the best choices about your health care – you’d think that dropping the word “free” from “free healthcare” was “relevant.”
Obviously, the problems Sebelius is having in trying to alleviate the “confusion” and lack of “enthusiasm” has less to do with her inability “to get through a lot of the noise” and more to do with the growing list of things Americans keep finding out has been kept quiet.
But here’s the best part.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that American who went to Healthcare.gov for enrollment -- which opened at 8:00 a.m. -- "were getting error messages, including one warning the “system is down.”
“In the first week, first month, first three months, I would suspect that there will be glitches, The Washington Times quoted Obama obfuscating to NPR.
However, according to the new message on the White House blog, the administration is blaming Congress.
Due to Congress’s failure to pass legislation to fund the government, the information on this web site may not be up to date. Some submissions may not be processed, and we may not be able to respond to your inquiries.
“The decision about what stories to cover can be even more important than how to cover them,” Altman admonished further in Politico.
Indeed.
And -- as Noam Chomsky once said -- “I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way.”
It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them.
