Oppose Gimmick 'Fixes' to Obamacare

Major supporters of President Obama's Obamacare law are proposing new legislation to modify and "fix" problems associated with the new program.
Congress should reject any such legislation that offers minor adjustments to this radical law — unless significant changes are agreed to by President Obama and his supporters.
With the looming nightmare of 5 million Americans soon losing their current healthcare coverage, many major supporters of the law, including Obama himself, former President Clinton, and leading senators who backed the law such as Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, are pushing for legislation that will modify Obamacare and allow citizens to keep their current insurance.
It's understandable why these senators and congressmen want a political "bailout."
These were the same people who claimed, along with Obama, that under the new law every American gets to "keep their doctor, and their healthcare plan."
Nevertheless, conservatives in both the House and the Senate should OPPOSE any surgical fixes to a law that needs to be either significantly overhauled or scuttled completely.
Already, without any legal authority, the president has delayed key parts of the law, including the employer mandate, which was to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014.
The president by DECREE ordered a delay in implementation of the employer mandate until Jan. 1, 2015.
Frankly, I am shocked that no member of Congress has sought to hold the president accountable for this gross abuse of power and clear violation of the Constitution.
It is a dangerous precedent.
And he announced today he is making additional changes to the law, without congressional approval, for individuals to keep their insurance.
It is now clear why he wants the delay for the employer mandate. Studies have shown that as many as 50 million Americans who are covered by their employer insurance will lose it once the mandate goes into effect.
Obama and many of his supporters do not want Americans to witness the full impact of the employer mandate until after congressional elections next year.
They are fearful that when millions of Americans are forced onto state- and federal-run exchanges, and have to pay higher insurance premiums, they will wake up en masse, and support for this law will shrivel.
It is becoming more and more apparent to the American people that the Obamacare law is a failure and does not solve the key problems facing the country, especially dramatically rising health costs.
In fact there are little or no healthcare cost containment provisions in the law.
That's another lie the president told, claiming that, on average, premiums would decline by $2,000 or more.
Now we know they are skyrocketing!
Meanwhile, the major cuts in Obamacare consist of over $700 billion being robbed from seniors in the Medicare program — seniors who paid into the system all their lives. This is a disgrace.
We at the League of American Voters strongly support a vibrant, free market-based healthcare system.
We back an honest, sensible Medicare program.
Obamacare is based on socialistic principles, more focused on the idea that government and not the private sector is best in deciding your healthcare.
Now is not the time for Congress to make minor fixes to the law that politically helps Obamacare supporters in Congress — without addressing major issues and problems with the law.
The League strongly believes that if House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, along with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, want to change the law, they should agree to a number of significant provisions, among them:

• Permanently abolish the employer mandate. This is a job killer and will lead to millions of people losing their insurance and businesses moving to hire part-time, not full-time employees.
• Restore more than $700 billion in cuts to Medicare. This is an outrage that seniors are footing the bill to pay for millions of young people and others who did not have the time to sign up for private insurance.
• Abolish the Independent Payment Advisory Boards that will further cut Medicare benefits. These boards have no accountability and undoubtedly will lead to rationing of key services for Medicare patients. It's a dangerous plan that must be stopped.
• Abolish the so-called Cadillac tax. This tax of 40 percent on some insurance plans will eventually apply to more than half of those with insurance plans. Even Obama's union supporters realize this will further undermine the quality of healthcare.
• Abolish taxes on income, capital gains, dividends, and other excise fees created by Obamacare. These taxes add an estimated $175 billion in economic burden on taxpayers across the country. They should be stopped immediately.

Since Obamacare was first proposed, the League of American Voters, the nationwide grass-roots group that I chair, has been at the forefront in fighting this radical law. We need your help today to continue that fight.
The first thing you can do is contact your member of Congress or senator and demand that they not agree to any modest fixes to this law.
If Obama and his supporters in Congress truly believe in compromise, they should accept major changes to the law now. We understand that fully defunding or stopping Obamacare is not likely at this time.
But we have a chance to radically emasculate the most socialistic parts of the law.
We need your help in our national campaign to stop it.
I urgently need to send out millions of emails over the next few days to stop this rush to help Obama and his Obamacare supporters by cosmetically modifying the law.
We can't stop them without your support.
Please call your member of Congress today — tell them Michael Reagan asked you to call and that you OPPOSE any minor fixes to the law.
Call Congress and the Senate at 202-224-3121 today!
Please support our efforts to stop a political bailout for Obama on