Second, the rollout of these exchanges, and the lack of a reaction on the part of Reid or Obama, makes to my mind very clear they have NEVER cared if these things worked. They were never the end game. They were always just a step in the direction of full government control of the healthcare sector. I think they quite literally thought that rhetorical work was sufficient, that no matter how bad these things stank, that because they had control of most of the propaganda apparatus of this country, nobody would notice. If there were problems, they could blame them on Republicans, or just pretend they didn’t exist. That is how they deal with all other real problems, and the truth is it works pretty well. You just need to be an amoral asshole to use such tactics. Given that–and Obama and Reid and Pelosi clearly qualify–you can cover a lot of miles. Hell, there are people who still believe in Global Warming.
But as I have said, real people trying to pay real bills cannot be swayed by abstract rhetoric. All is well and good until the shit gets real, THEN people notice how much BS has been floating around.
I will repeat: if the Republicans never rise above their normal level of incompetence, they may still make this a stake to drive through the heart of the Democrat Party for a very, very long time. It is an awful law. It is like it was written by children based on the fairy tale proposition that details don’t matter, and that everything always works out in the end for nice people.
When it was passed, the ONLY concern was THAT it passed. But now it is law–or likely to become law, assuming the usual cowardice on Capital Hill–and its many, many deficiencies will become clear to all.