Here’s a little timeline based largely on information from Heritage and POLITICO: Oct. 1, 2013 – Healthcare.gov launches. Oct. 2, 2013 – Six enrollments had occurred. Healthcare.gov crashes. About 100 enrollments occur by day’s end. Oct. 3, 2013 – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee notes: “As of yesterday, there were 248 enrollments.” Administration officials downplay major glitches and claim no enrollment numbers are available, which will become a reoccurring trend. Oct. 16, 2013 – The Senate votes 81-18 to end the government shutdown. The House follows suit, voting 285-144 in favor of reopening government. Oct. 17, 2013 – Obama signs a bill to reopen government. Oct. 23, 2013 – Obama Administration continues to avoid questions about Obamacare problems and enrollment numbers. The White House unilaterally extends the deadline to buy coverage without a penalty to March 31. Nov. 14, 2013 – Obama offers a “fix” for millions of Americans receiving insurance cancellation notices due to his healthcare overhaul: unilaterally changing his law to grandfather plans that were initially declared subpar by Obamacare standards. Nov. 21, 2013 – The Administration delays Obamacare open enrollment for 2015 by one month so that Democrats running in 2014 are not massacred by negative press. Nov. 27, 2013 – The President decides to again break his own law and delay the small-business Obamacare exchange for another year. Dec. 1, 2013 – The Administration launches a “fixed” Healthcare.gov. Dec. 12, 2013 – Deadline for Obamacare coverage beginning on Jan. 1 is extended by the White House until Dec. 23. Dec. 18, 2013 – The White House attempts to boost enrollment numbers by working out a plan to count Americans who have enrolled in, but not paid for, Obamacare. Dec. 23, 2013 – Deadline for Obamacare coverage beginning on Jan. 1 is extended by the White House until Dec. 24. Dec. 24, 2013 – People attempting to enroll for Jan. 1 coverage, but kept from doing so by a broken enrollment site, are given more time. Feb. 10, 2014 – Obama gives small businesses that meet certain conditions and have 50 to 100 employees an employer-mandate waiver until 2016. March 5, 2014 – Obama tries to make good on his “keep your plan” promise. If your plan still exists, keep it until 2016. This is another ploy to protect vulnerable 2014 Democrats from cancellation headlines. March 12, 2014 – Representative Kevin Brady (R-Texas) asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “Are you going to delay the mandate that individuals have to buy health care or pay a tax?” Sebelius replied, “No sir.” March 14, 2014 – The President extends enrollment deadlines for the third time, this time to give high-risk individuals more time to enroll in Obamacare. March 25, 2014 – Final enrollment deadline is extended again. Obama said during last year’s budget battle that Obamacare is the law of the land, so Republicans ought to just get over it and move on. And while delaying “the law of the land” would likely have given time for a bipartisan review of the law that may have eliminated many of the Obamacare kinks that have since presented, the President was adamant that the law would work only if it was implemented on schedule. Today, Obamacare is off-schedule, it isn’t working and the President keeps moving the “lawful” deadlines that he put into place. This is the same man who ensured his party’s Senate majority wouldn’t budge an inch to move a thing, back when the Republicans were floating the (very sensible, as it turns out) idea. The joke, it seems, is on anyone who believes that the office of the executive is still in any way burdened by Constitutional checks and balances.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:32:40 +0000
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