I called Congressman Gerry Connelly's office (my representative, after all), to instruct him to vote against funding enforcement of Obamacare. As part of that conversation, explaining the damage that the misnomered "'Affordable' Care Act" is inflicting, I explained that my son, who has worked for Trader Joe's for several years, has recently learned that he, along with thousands others of TJ's non-management (part-time) crew would be cast adrift from TJ's insurance coverage. That marooning of TJ's crew IS THE DIRECT IMPACT OF Obamacare on them.
Just days later I get a close typeset letter from Gerry, confirming his continued faith in Obamacare as the cure for what ails our health care system.
This morning, as I write this, twenty thousand part-time employees of Home Depot are waking up to discover that HD is eliminating health insurance coverage for them. This IS THE DIRECT IMPACT of Obamacare. And, to top it off, as I write this word comes that 160,000 Walgreens employees will be out on the insurance market looking for coverage because of the financial impact and costs to their employer of compliance with Obamacare.
Of course, Gerry is for government gerry-mandering of markets. As the inept chair of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, he tried to impose the Affordable Garbage Service ordinance on us residents. Then it was our incompetence to negotiate for garbage service with private companies. Today it is our incompetence to negotiate with employers and insurance companies.
Gerry's instinct -- ALWAYS WRONG -- is that the government can do better for us what we have the right to do for ourselves. He is welcome to insist on it, even though he is wrong. What he is not entitled to do is claim as truth what the facts show to be false. His FALSE CLAIMS are that Obamacare would "bring down premium costs for families and small businesses," "reduce the deficit," "protect [individuals'] choice of plan and doctor," and "improve access to care[.]" (I excerpted these Connelly claims from his letter to me, dated September 13, 2013.)
It is a unhealthy mania, a mental illness, for him to insist that Obamacare is having the salutary effects of controlling costs and increasing availability, when costs are spiraling upward, companies are departing markets, and businesses are moving THOUSANDS OFF their prior company-based coverage. Just as it was an unhealthy mania for the FLIGHT CREW and PASSENGERS on Bill Shatner's flight NOT TO SEE THE IMMINENT PERIL in which he knew them to be.
The O'Gremlin has scarred the Nation fairly badly. His economic recovery has worse indicators than George W. Bush's recession. More than 90 million Americans have departed the labor force -- improving employment numbers ARE NOT a reflection of a growing full time work force, but a shrinking pool of those seeking employment. Record claimants for SNAP, the program formerly known as Food Stamps. Debilitation of the military. Increased racial tensions across the Nation. These are all evidence of the O'Gremlin at work. Gerry Connelly can whistle past the graveyard ... and I can remind folks of his mania come Election Day 2014.
