The Chicago Temple, that is, on Clark across Washington from the Daley Center, where Congr. Jan Schakowsky (D-North Side and North Shore) came to talk up ObamaCare to businesswomen Aug. 21 but couldn’t stay away from another apparent favorite topic, obstructionist Republicans.
They have mounted a “last-gasp push back,” she said, promoting “myths” and “lies” about ObamaCare’s raising costs and being “bad for businesses.”
In fact, she said, ObamaCare will lead to creation of 1.5 million more “small businesses,” as found by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. Not quite. — it’s 1.5 million more self-employed individuals, not businesses.
Republicans are discouraging sign-ups for Obamacare, “especially young people,” she said, calling it “political malpractice” and ticking off reasons the young should sign up, including that they “won’t have to worry when riding a bike” or “on an adventure, jumping off things.”
A “well-funded, concerted effort” is underway “to undermine” ObamaCare, she warned, countering with a battle cry, “It’s the law of the land! We can’t say it often enough.” Conceding “bumps in road” ahead — not Sen. Baucus’s “train wreck” — she vowed, “We are absolutely going forward,” and added, “Once [ObamaCare] is experienced, debate will be over. It will be a success and will be popular.”
As for ObamaCare adding to the deficit, “It’s a myth,” she said, part of “an extensive campaign to confuse people.” And then she unveiled a supposed clincher. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted ObamaCare will save “over a trillion dollars”!
In 20 years, the White House says. While spending about a trillion, the CBO says, leading to slight improvement in the deficit. Can you imagine a Congress member leaving that part out?
Be that as it may, it was maybe “the proudest day” in Schakowsky’s life when ObamaCare, which her subcommittee helped to write, was passed. She predicted it’s to be “up in lights some day with social security and medicare.”
Among its benefits, she said, was that “being a woman is no longer a pre-existing [health] condition.” She cited non-coverage of pregnancy by “most policies.”
There will be “no out of pocket costs,” she predicted. Not for contraception, for instance, which has become “controversial.” “Can you imagine?” she asked. “In the 21st Century?” She praised Planned Parenthood, which she said “has become a major target.” The group applauded.
There was a slight glitch in the praise-filled session, billed as instructional for small-business owners. It was the matter of “shared responsibility,” also known as the employers’ mandate to provide insurance for full-timers or else, and its delay until 2015.
Asked about this, the otherwise alarmingly fluent and rapid-fire explainer from the U.S. Small Business Administration entered on an involved exposition from which as far as this listener could tell, she never emerged. It is certain, however, that she did not say it was to give breathing space for Democrat candidates in the 2014 election. It’s an issue that is “very sensitive [for] businesses,” she did add.
The gathering was organized by Women’s Business Development Center, Women Employed, and YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago.
Blithe Spirit 