Obamacare

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last year President Obama was asked about the lessons he has learned from his first term. Instead of focusing on errors in judgment or policy, he seemed to indicate that he needed to do a better job--just a better job--of telling ``a story to the American people.'' In other words, the policy was just fine, and if Americans did not get it, it was because they had a listening problem. Well, that is an attitude that has come to define this administration.

I would say that is why folks will be rallying on the Capitol grounds today. They, like a growing number of Americans, are losing faith in government. They think it is working against them, not for them. And for good reason.

Let's take ObamaCare. This law has been pretty unpopular for several years now. It is not as though the American people have not been exposed--probably overexposed--to the arguments on both sides of the issue. ObamaCare must have been discussed hundreds of thousands--maybe even millions--of times over the past few years. That includes political debates, more speeches than any of us care to count, issue ads both pro and con, and--guess what--Americans still do not like the idea of ObamaCare, not because they are unable to understand or because they have not ``seen the right messenger.'' It is because most of them like their health care plan and want to keep it. It is because they do not want to pay more to the health insurance companies. And it is because they do not think the law is going to work as promised.

Yet the Washington Democrats' explanation for ObamaCare's enduring unpopularity still seems to be that the law is too complicated for their constituents to understand, and the Washington Democratic solution seems to be not to actually change the policy but to spend millions in a campaign-style PR--PR--blitz.

So the news flash would be this: If you still do not think Americans are able to understand a law you passed more than 3 years ago, then there is something wrong with the law, not with the American people.

Instead of going around the country trying to convince Americans why they are wrong, the administration could actually listen for a change. I think they should start over on health care and embrace the types of commonsense, step-by-step reforms that would actually lower the cost. I am not holding my breath that is going to happen.

So at a minimum they need to at least do this: The President, members of his Cabinet, and the congressional Democrats--congressional Democrats who voted for this law--need to get out and explain to Americans what is headed their way. Do not feed them the sunny picture painted in the ObamaCare ads the President's campaign team is already running but actually explain the reality of the situation to them. For instance, Americans need to know about the coming wave of premium hikes. We have already seen projected double-digit increases in some States. They need to know we are likely to see even more Americans lose the health care they want to keep, just like the thousands of Californians who will probably have to look for new plans after Aetna pulled out of the individual market in their State, almost certainly because of ObamaCare. They need to know they could lose their jobs or see their hours cut or struggle to find work in the first place. In fact, a recent survey showed that about 70 percent--70 percent--of small businesses say the law will make it harder for them to hire. Americans need to know all of these things because they need to prepare for them.

It is supremely unhelpful when the President claims that those who already have health care will not see changes, as he did just a few weeks ago. He knows that is not what many experts are saying. He owes it to the country to be frank about that. So it is time to get off the campaign trial, call off the PR spinmeisters, put down the communications plan. It is time to level with the American people.

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