Are you beginning to think that, now that they know what’s in the bill, businesses in former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district don’t like it? I’m sure you’ve been as amused (outraged?) as I am that about 20 percent of the Obamacare waivers granted so far are in Pelosi’s district. Omri Ceren comments on Commentary’s Contentions blog:
Crony capitalism at its most basic. Create onerous regulations and then give out exemptions to allies and constituents. The only wrinkle in this case is that the demographic subsection unburdening itself of ObamaCare is the same demographic subsection that has been most pointedly exuberant in advocating health care reform, with California Democrats even passing symbolic health care laws just like the ones that their most liberal supporters are now opting out of.
On the federal level, of course, Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi was instrumental in securing ObamaCare’s passage. And now, for a disproportionate number of businesses in Pelosi’s San Francisco district, ObamaCare is not their problem, not any more. As if having entire states get waivers wasn’t enough of a debacle, now there’s this nonsense. The process is making the original passage of ObamaCare, which the President himself admitted was insufficiently transparent, seem like a model of good governance.
The passage of Obamacare was ideological muscle at its rawest. The Democrats twisted arms to pass an awful bill, one none of them had read, just because their party had advocated universal health care for many years. We told them and told them that we didn’t like it. But they didn’t care. The number of waivers granted indicates that the plan is unworkable. There’s something else disturbing: friends of the administration appear more likely to get a waiver.
If you’d like to delve more deeply into this phenomenon, Washington Examiner reporter David Freddoso’s Gangster Government is the place to start. Just finished it, and it is an eye-opener. You’ll understand the mentality behind waivers for friends.