#Obamacare watch: If you like your volunteer fire department… not @BarackObama’s problem, peasants!

Because the n-dimensional, urbane Democratic party geniuses that created this marvelous healthcare plan for us all have never actually grokked what ‘volunteer’ means in the first place.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs has asked the Internal Revenue Service, which has partial oversight of the law, to clarify if current IRS treatment of volunteer firefighters as employees means their hose companies or towns must offer health insurance coverage or pay a penalty if they don’t.

The organization representing the fire chiefs has been working on the issue with the IRS and White House for months.

“It could be a huge deal,” said U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, who is seeking clarification from the IRS. “In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of fire departments are fully or mostly volunteer firefighters. It’s the fourth highest amount in the country.”

So far, the IRS hasn’t decided what to do.

That the IRS can’t figure out a way to finesse not getting blamed for sucker-punching volunteer fire departments across the nation should tell you everything you need to know about just how messed up Obamacare actually is. And here’s the thing: this was both unexpected AND expected. Unexpected, because nobody sat down and said Hey, let’s wreck volunteer firefighter departments’ days. Expected, because (as Jim Geraghty notes):

Being on the Right, and having a skepticism about the ability of large, ambitious government programs, and a wariness about unforeseen consequences, isn’t optimistic, or cool, or exciting. It doesn’t stir people’s hearts, it doesn’t lift people’s souls, it doesn’t get their pulses racing or get them to roar cheers of joy.

No, all it has going for it is the long history of how humans have governed themselves and the advantage of avoiding big messes.

Via: Red State
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Allen West: White House ‘sounds like a very cheap retailer’ hawking Obamacare

Former Florida congressman Allen West mocked the news that the Obamacare website would be down for maintenance the night of its long-awaited Dec. 1 fix, warning that the White House’s repeated excuses make it sound “like a very cheap retailer.”

On Fox News Channel’s On The Record Friday night, West told Harris Faulker that the Obama administration’s decision to delay the website fix further was “incredible.”

“They should not have put their own set mandate on it,” he said, “because now everyone is watching them. And for them to continually come back and say that we can only take 50 thousand or as you just reported, [the website] is going to be down — this is eroding the confidence and the credibility not just of the Obama administration, but of President Obama himself.”

West added that the political ramifications for the Democratic party as a whole would be “chilling.”

The former congressman also had harsh words for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after Faulker read a holiday-shopping themed message from the secretary to consumers: ”The product is popular,” Sebelius wrote, “so avoid the lines and shop HealthCare.gov during off-peak hours (mornings/nights/weekends)… There are 23 shopping days in December (for coverage starting January 1, 2014). No need to rush.”

“Isn’t it very amazing that we have a United States federal government that is starting to sound like a very cheap retailer?” West said. “I don’t think that, once again, helps the confidence and the credibility of this administration. No poll-tested, market-driven little gimmick is going to solve this issue. The American people are very concerned.”

West also outlined a few Republican fixes for the health care law, including establishing high-risk pools and breaking down “state-by-state mini-monopolies” to promote competition.

Via: Daily Caller

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Let the Obamacare body count begin

There can be little doubt that by applying the logic of the left, the Obamacare body count can commence soon. David Henderson laid out the basics, rebuking lefty Matt Iglesias:

In comparing Bush on Hurricane Katrina and Obama on ObamaCare, Matt Yglesias writes:

The administration and the Democratic Party writ large had very high aspirations for the Affordable Care Act, viewing it as a legacy-defining major pillar of the American welfare state that would massively improve the lives of millions of people. If they can't make the basic infrastructure work, none of that will happen and it'll be a huge failing. But even in the worst case, they're not going to get anyone killed. That's a big difference.
Excuse me? In the worst case, where they don't get the infrastructure working and so millions of people will lose health insurance, they're not going to get anyone killed? How could that be? Surely some of the millions who lose health insurance will die without it. Maybe not many. But not "anyone?" Hard to believe.

On the same day, I noted:

It is already certain that on January 1^st, 2014, people with sick and injured family members will be showing up in emergency rooms and told that they have no health insurance coverage. Bankruptcy, lack of treatment, and eventually, fatalities will result. Obama lied and people died. The slogan writes itself.

Via: American Thinker

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