HYPOTHETICAL NEWS FLASH: President Obama to Congress: “I Screwed Up. Now I’m Busy Fixing It”

[A Hypothetical Encounter Somewhere in the Nation’s capital]

14 NOVEMBER 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C.: In a Surprise, Imaginary Visit to the Capitol yesterday afternoon in the midst of an ongoing crisis over the Affordable Care Act Web site, President Barack Obama delivered the following address to a joint session of Congress:

“Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, and thank you for meeting here with me, to hear my unequivocal, public apology about the ongoing situation at healthcare-dot-gov.

“First of all, let me say it straight out: I screwed up. Now I’m busy fixing it.

“No question about it. It was my job to get this website up and running, so that millions of Americans can finally get access to the kind of healthcare insurance that Obamacare makes available. This was my job. We had an opening date of October first. The site wasn’t ready. It’s in better shape now, but it’s still not what it should be. It’s my fault. I deserve all of the blame. I screwed up.

“I’m sorry. I apologize. Words cannot convey how bad and embarrassed I feel that this happened, to my signature achievement, so deep into my watch.

“In addition to a fix, I owe you a full accounting. I intend to make sure that you get that accounting. I promise that you will have that accounting, as soon as this ACA start-up work is complete.

____________________

“But For right now—

“Hey! It’s only a website.

“And as the ‘face’ of Obamacare, with my name on it, it’s an important website.

“But still. It’s only the face. It’s not the insurance programs themselves.

“The important thing is to get the insurance policies up and running.

“Getting Obamacare up and running: that’s what my people are working on right now. Even as we speak.

____________________

“Now, we only have four more months left to do it. Only four more months, if we’re to see this thing through on time.

“And just about a month left, for people to get those first policies, that start January 1, 2014.

“Now, I realize it’s tempting, to spend a lot of time right now, figuring out how to blame the guy responsible. It’s tempting to call some people out on the carpet, and to see some heads roll. Right now!

“But we are busy right now! We have to get Obamacare up and running as soon as possible. We want millions of Americans get the solid healthcare coverage they are entitled to.

“And we still need to make that happen on time.

“When you’re aboard a ship that’s sprung a leak, you have two options:

“First, you can work to fix the leak, and keep the ship moving forward while you’re doing it.

“The second option is to sit around talking about how bad the leak is, and who caused it. Maybe make them walk the plank.

“So while you in Congress sit around, and hold hearings, and subpoena witnesses to assign blame (and we know that the blame falls on me), my people are going to keep working on patching the leak in the boat. We will keep busy, bailing and paddling. Moving the Obamacare forward.

___________________

“Hopefully, we can agree that we all want the best outcome for the American people. So in every thing we do, in the White House and here in the Capitol, blame has to come second. Because what comes first is working for the people. We are all here for one thing: to bring the American people the best outcomes possible.

“In that regard, my people and I have important work to do. We have a leaky website to fix. And then we have to make sure a bunch of insurance policies get to a bunch of our people.

____________________

“So if you’ll excuse me for the time being, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have important work to do. And right now, I’m going to get back to work.

“Thank you for your interest in the progress of the Affordable Care Act, and especially in the terrible website we put together.

 “It’s still ‘All Obama’s fault.’ I can’t really tell you sorry I am about that.

“God bless America.”

@GozoTweets

The Best of Both Worlds:

10 November 2013

The Best Way to buy ACA insurance is the best way to buy an airline ticket on Kayak or Expedia: do your comparison shopping on the website, and then contact your chosen provider directly.

You can create an account on healthcare.gov, log on, and shop for the policy you want.

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, call the insurer or insurers directly. These are helpful, sales-motivated people who will give you all the information you need, and then walk you through the application process. 

____________________

Just as When Working with any “sales-motivated people,” it’s best to know ahead of time what you plan to choose. 

On the other hand, one great thing about Obamacare: 

If you don’t like what you end up with this first go-around, you are free to change it a year from now. Such an easy way of comparison shopping and of changing policies never used to be available. 

 But now there’s better policies and the convenience of Obamacare.

 “Priceless.” 

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

When Churches Go into Public Business—

—They Must Follow the Laws of the Land, Same as Everybody Else:

18 MARCH 2012

The Furor over the Matter of the Affordable Care Act requiring all businesses (even church-run businesses)  to treat all American citizens equally is a civil-rights issue. 

The anti-contraception argument is the same as was once used to deny African-Americans public services (restaurants, hotels, buses, etc.) in the Jim Crow South. Back in the day, the argument against the 1964 Civil Rights Act went this way: 

Government should not be permitted to compel any business to provide the public with services that go against its owner’s conscience.


The same argument has been used by numerous political luminaries such as Barry Goldwater and Ron Paul. Even today, Senator Rand Paul seems not to have made ideological peace with the issue.

That argument did not hold up in 1964. It doesn’t hold up today.

Public businesses (even when church-run) must provide non-discriminatory services equally to all Americans. This has nothing to do with our sacrosanct, First Amendment principle of separation of church and state.

____________________

The Separation of Church and State is inviolate when it comes to how any religious institution conducts its religious activities.

But when anyone conducts a business for the general public—whether it is a Woolworth’s lunch counter or a church-run hospital—then that business cannot discriminate against any American citizen, regardless of that citizen’s race or gender or religion. And American employees are entitled to have insurance coverage that fits their needs, and allow them to follow the dictates of their consciences. Not the religious dictates of someone else.

____________________

This Matter Concerns: Discrimination.

It has nothing to do with the separation of church and state.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!