And in summation . . . .

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

IN THE EVENT Gentle Reader missed our president’s Mission Accomplished statement during the course of his last press conference, or just may have gotten in the understandable habit of tuning him out whenever hearing his now familiar voice, it’s simple enough to sum up Mr. Obama’s latest declaration of victory on behalf of Obamacare, formally and ironically known as the Affordable Care Act-no matter how unaffordable it may prove.

This time the president was going on about what a splendid success his Signature Accomplishment/Failure has been, how it’s covering more people at less cost than ever, and why its critics should stop asking nosy questions.

Questions like these: How many Americans who’ve signed up for Obamacare actually paid their first premium? Or found their old insurance policies canceled thanks to this president’s latest dispensation, or their new ones more expensive? Can we really keep our doctors/policies if we like them? And-key question-has the number of uninsured Americans really decreased thanks to Obamacare? Or is it the same or even greater? And the answer is: There may be none, for somehow the statistics that might answer that central question about Obamacare are no longer available.

The Census Bureau used to keep figures about how many of us now have health insurance and how many of us don’t compared to the past, but the Census has changed its policy and it’s no longer possible to tell, which the president may find convenient. But the rest of us are left without enough information to either prove or disprove his claim about Obamacare’s covering more of us at less cost. Does that claim hold water or is it just the usual hot air? There’s no telling.

But this much is clear: The president wants the rest of us to cut out all this talk about repeal-and-replace and move on to something else, anything else. This discussion is over, this question is settled. The president’s response to all these annoying questions is to change the subject. His statements last Thursday could be summarized in a single, declarative sentence:

Shut up, he explained.

Editorial, Pages 13 on 04/22/2014