Yesterday, during the worst press conference in Presidential history, Barack Obama decided that he wanted to suspend part of his own law for a year. Essentially, he passed the buck to insurance companies by announcing that they could reinstate cancelled, allegedly-but-not-really substandard, insurance policies until sometime in 2014 - presumably after the mid-term elections.
Just about everyone agrees that this is illegal, unconstitutional, and that the President can't do it without Congress passing some kind of legislation to make it happen.
Even Howard Dean doesn't think Obama has the power to alter laws on his own:
Howard Deans "thud" in that clip is just delicious, isn't it?
Fortunately for the President, House Republicans have (foolishly) decided to offer him something resembling a lifeline. Moments ago, the House passed a bipartisan bill sponsored by Fred Upton (R-MI) called "The Keep Your Plan Act." The bill is designed to allow people to hang on to their suddenly nonexistent plans without facing penalty.
Obama should love this right? Wrong. The President doesn't like this legislation one bit. He prefers to alter things on his terms and in accordance with his private political whims. For the White House, Upton's bill was always a non-starter. In fact, late last night Obama issued a veto threat.
Late last night, President Obama threatened to veto our bill to allow you to #KeepYourPlan. pic.twitter.com/dXMhsTXWtn
— Eric Cantor (@GOPLeader) November 15, 2013
So remember, everyone, President Obama promises that he's willing to work with Congress on a way to fulfill his vow that "If you like your plan, you can keep you plan." However, if they actually manage to come up with anything close to a solution, he's not interested and he'll veto it. In essence, he's just told a lie about being willing to fix his previous lie - at least if he has to do it through legal channels.
We suppose that kind of duplicity is par for the Obama course.
