However, we would be dealing with something much worse if Mitt Romney was President.
Don't get me wrong. I supported Mitt Romney and I still believe the people of this country made one of the gravest errors in our history by choosing Barack Obama over Romney last year.
When it comes to the Obamacare disaster there would have been little Romney could have done to impact what we are seeing right now. In fact, the political reality is that it would probably be far worse.
Why do I say that?
Let's consider how Romney would have approached his responsibilities as President as opposed to Obama.
First, Romney would have clearly appointed a top notch Secretary of HHS that had a solid business, health care and technology background. Romney would have expected detailed reports on the status on the Obamacare implementation and would have undoubtedly determined early on that the launch was in serious trouble. Compare that with the involvement of Obama and Sebelius
Of course, had he said anything he would have immediately been criticized as an alarmist who was trying to undermine Obamacare.
Second, he would have seen the same problems with the implementation of the employer mandate and small business exchange that the Obama administration saw. The same with the waiver on the rule regarding annual limits. It was not remotely possible for these provisions in the law to be implemented without tremendous disruptions. Trust me, Obama did not want to waive or delay these requirements. He was backed into a corner and had no choice.
Of course, Mitt Romney would have believed in the rule of law and understood he had no authority to unilaterally ignore and waive statutory requirements under the law as Obama did. He probably would have gone to Congress and asked for a delay. He would have been rebuked by the Democrats in Congress who would have told him that he had taken a solemn oath to implement and administer the laws of the United States. He better find a way to follow the law.
Third, Romney would have realized several months before October 1 that without full end-to-end tests of the Obamacare website by that time that it was simply irresponsible to implement the law and subject the American people to the ensuing chaos that would occur.
He would have asked for legislation to delay the law. He again would have been criticized as merely being an alarmist in order to delay Obamacare and prevent millions of people from gaining healthcare.
Fourth, when the website launched as the complete disaster we know it is today, Romney would have been criticized as being responsible for its failure. Ex-President Obama, Ex-HHS Secretary Sebelius and other Obama Administration figures would all be quoted as saying that everything was on track and working fine when they left. Romney and his team had sabotaged the launch for blatant political purposes to try and get the law repealed.
The result would have been an even bigger disaster, even more political division, even more finger pointing and less accountability (if that is possible) than we are seeing now.
It was just about one year ago on Election Night that I was about as low as I have ever been in my life. It was a very dark cloud that descended on me that night.
My father used to talk about finding the silver linings in those clouds.
What we have seen over the last month is one of those silver linings.
This one is all on Barack Obama and the Democrats.
The clock is ticking.
There is no where to hide. There is no one else to blame. There is only one President and one party to look to for answers.
I have found a silver lining in that cloud. On this issue, I am thankful that Mitt Romney is not the President of the United States.
Returning to reality, President Obama and his Administration have boxed themselves in pretty good on Obamacare right now.
They have 30 days (by their own number) to get their website working. It will be very interesting to see what happens if we get to that date and there are still problems. They have to hit that date or it will get really, really ugly. That is what I really call a RED line.
My view is that Sebelius has not been fired to date because Obama needs her around come December 1 as his own insurance policy. He needs someone to blame and throw overboard to keep himself afloat with the American people. Expect her to be fired if they don't get the website operating normally by that date.
Perhaps their tech surge can save the day. I will be surprised if it will on that timetable. What is shocking to me is that anyone in the Obama Administration would put forth a date certain to fix the website with what we know right now. That shows either incredible confidence, chutzpah or one more concocted claim by a desperate President that is looking more and more like the Wizard of Oz. Everyone is beginning to realize there really is nothing behind the curtain.
Consider if you are one 2 million Americans with individual healthcare coverage that has received a cancellation notice of your current coverage due to the Obamacare mandates. You have to obtain new coverage in the healthcare exchange effective January 1 or you will become uninsured.
What do you do?
Right now you need to undergo hours on the website attempting to sign-on, apply and attempt to assess what your options are. For many, the options will be bleak. Higher costs, higher deductibles and higher out of pocket costs. All of this after they were promised that "You can keep the health plan you have. Period".
With each succeeding day you are going to get more desperate. January 1 is getting closer and you are concerned about being uninsured. It is not a long time between November 30 and January 1. That website is going to have to handle a mad rush in those last 30 days of the year that might put the Black Friday Door Busters Sale at Best Buy to shame.
Bear in mind that this is the group that was responsible all along. They bought insurance. And now they are the big losers. In fact, they may end up uninsured and facing financial ruin because of having their health insurance cancelled by Obamacare while also being unable to obtain other coverage by January 1.
They are not worried about the March 31 deadline to avoid a penalty. Kathleen Sebelius keeps talking about people having plenty of time to sign-up with that date being more than four months away. These people really want insurance and they have it now. Their date is January 1 and we are getting awfully close to that date for anyone to have confidence they will be signed up correctly.
If you think things are bad now, it could get much, much worse.
President Obama missed the memo on millions of people being dropped from their plans, he missed the memo that the website was not ready to go live and he clearly does not understand the most basic principal of medicine..."First, do no harm".
The only good out of all this is...no matter how bad it gets...it would be worse with Romney.
However, this is just one silver lining in one cloud and they just keep rolling in. If we could only have another Presidential election next week.
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