Is Mark Begich Becoming a “Knucklehead?”
Photo Credit: APFairbanks, Alaska. — U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller is pleased to learn that Senator Mark Begich has apparently changed his mind and now embraces delaying Obamacare’s individual enrollment mandate. According to news reports, Begich has joined with other “red state” Democrat Senators – who are coincidentally up for re-election next year – in signing a letter to Kathleen Sebelius calling for an open-ended delay in the deadline to enroll for Obamacare until the much-publicized website problems are resolved.
One of the Republican compromise proposals to fully fund the government earlier this month called for a one-year delay in the individual mandate. Senator Begich called those who offered this compromise “a small band of knuckleheads” who are “holding the country hostage over the health care law.”
Miller said, “I am happy to learn that Senator Begich has taken off his rose-colored glasses long enough to see one of the glaring flaws of Obamacare. Interestingly enough, the senator promised the people of Alaska that the healthcare exchange would function like buying airline tickets on Expedia. Well, let’s just say that was a little overly optimistic.”
Over two weeks after the launch of the exchange, not a single Alaskan had been able to sign up. Now after nearly four weeks, major systemic problems continue to plague the Obamacare website.
Miller opposed the passage of Obamacare because it created another entitlement program the federal government did not have the Constitutional authority to undertake. Further, with the nation already experiencing trillion dollar plus deficits, it could in no way afford the program. The so-called Affordable Care Act also did not address rising healthcare costs. Instead of introducing more free market principles into the heavily regulated health insurance industry, Obamacare does just the opposite, adding over 20,000 pages of new regulations to-date.
“If the federal government cannot even set up a website, why should the American people have any confidence it can oversee healthcare for an entire nation? Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman’s words come to mind: ‘If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand,’” said Miller. He added, “Too bad Mark Begich could not have been more of a ‘knucklehead’ back in 2010 when he was the 60th and deciding vote for Obamacare’s passage.”