You've sincerely got to give the guy props, because there are reporters who raise their hands every day for months, and never get a question in, while Pete is two-for-two using his "Hey, can a humble guy from flyover country get a break?" technique. Last year, he used it to pretend he gave a shit about black people (his is a satire site, you see). and this year, it was to ratfuck Obamacare by pushing his own version of Obamascare.
Carney fell for it again, but seemed to wise up quickly, telling the assembled TV crews to make sure Pete was getting his closeup. Boddie used his time to claim that his wife had lost her health insurance due to Obamacare, and now had to pay "double," but as with most tales of horror from the privileged, doesn't say what the old plan did or didn't cover, or provide any detail at all.
What is clear is that the "getting charged double" claim is new, or at least wasn't worth mentioning at the time the transition occurred. Colorado's health care exchange offers plans starting at $311/mo. for a 54 year-old, though, so if the old plan was $155 bucks a month, it's a pretty good bet that it didn't cover much.
Since Pete's blog is self-described satire, there's no reason to believe any of what he says anyway, but from a performance art standpoint, this is spot-on.
Unfortunately for Pete, Jay Carney has the facts on his side. Every poll has shown that the majority of Americans don't want Obamacare repealed, and most either support it or want it to be even more liberal. As for Pete's claim that most of the people enrolling are folks who had insurance before the ACA, there aren't any solid numbers, but considerable evidence that the opposite is true. In any case, even the folks who had their plans cancelled must be making out pretty well under Obamacare, since the only ones you ever hear complaining are people who don't know, or won't tell, the truth about their own health insurance.
Transcript:
Peter Boddie: Jay, one more question from Colorado?
MR. CARNEY: Colorado, what do you got?
Peter Boddie: Okay. I just wanted to follow up on that one about Obama -- well, the Affordable Care Act. And you mentioned that the Republicans are giving this pitch to, I guess, repeal the bill. And so my question --
MR. CARNEY: Surely your reporting reflects that.
Peter Boddie: What’s that?
MR. CARNEY: I’m not misstating --
Peter Boddie: No, no, no, it was the reasons you gave that I wanted to ask you about. And the last time I was here, I asked you a question and you didn’t really answer it, so I hope I’ll have better luck this time. (Laughter.)
MR. CARNEY: I think he’s waiting for his -- have you got the camera on him? Go ahead.
Peter Boddie: And I saw you using notes, so I’m going to use mine as well.
MR. CARNEY: Go for it.
Peter Boddie: When the law was first debated and passed -- and we’re talking about the Affordable Care Act -- the polls showed a majority of the people were not in favor of that, and yet it was pushed through. And so in terms of this pitch, the President continued to pitch to get it passed using statements like “you can keep your plan.” And, by the way, I know that’s not true because my wife lost her insurance because of the Affordable Care Act -- that you can --
MR. CARNEY: What’s your question, sir?
Peter Boddie: Well, I’m getting to it.
MR. CARNEY: Okay.
Peter Boddie: We don't get here very often from out in middle country, so when you get your chance, you got to ask.
MR. CARNEY: You’re welcome. Sure.
Peter Boddie: Okay. So anyway, the President’s pitch was that you can keep your plan, that your costs will go down, and I know that not to be true. So my question is: Will the President accede to the greater majority of Americans now who want it repealed?
MR. CARNEY: Well, actually that's not --
Peter Boddie: Why won’t he listen to the American people?
MR. CARNEY: You obviously haven’t seen the data because the majority of Americans do not in any poll want it repealed. The majority supports fixing it and improving it, not repealing it. I would ask you to check your data.
Secondly, the President made that pitch. Republicans in Congress fought it tooth and nail. It went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld it. It was the principal argument in a presidential election. The President won reelection.
And again, Republicans are free to make the repeal argument. My point was simply that when you go to individuals and you ask them, do you want quality, affordable health insurance, or do you want the insurance company to tell you that you’re not going to get coverage for that condition you have because the fine print says you can't. In fact, your sister, we’re going to charge her double even though you have identical medical histories because she’s a woman --
Peter Boddie: Well, my wife is getting charged double now because she lost her insurance.
MR. CARNEY: Well, again, I don't know the circumstances with your wife. And what I can tell you is that the Affordable Care Act provides quality, affordable health insurance to millions of people. They are -- million are --
Peter Boddie: But that's not true. More people have lost their insurance because of the act right now than have been -- didn't have insurance and have signed up. That is a fact.
MR. CARNEY: Okay, well, you’re entitled to your facts, sir. What I can tell you is that you and others who want to campaign on repeal are welcome to.
What I’m saying is that repeal for millions of Americans is not a good option and for all the reasons that I enumerated.
Thank you all very much.
Mark Knoller: One more question from Bethesda?
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