11/18/2013, 11:56 pm
"When Congress fails to act, Joe and I are going to act to ensure Affordable Freedom for all Americans. It is the responsible thing to do." President Obama declared in a press conference at 11:05 AM EST.
"I am directing the Justice Department, the IRS, the Department of Education, the EPA, the UN, UNESCO, UNEP, UPEP, UCRAP, as well as the Supreme Court to suspend enforcement of the Bill of Rights immediately. We are not in any way changing the existing law. But where existing law conflicts with the Affordable Freedom Act, we must act responsibly and appropriately. We will appropriate the necessary funding through shared responsibility fees collected by the IRS."
Despite President Obama finding himself in yet another pickle of mendacity ("if you like your freedom, you can keep your freedom"), White House spokesman Jay Carney reassured press reporters today that the President meant what he said and said what he meant when he said he would have a "fix" to restore the right to affordable freedom for all Americans.
Carney said "It has come to our attention that the cost of freedom - eternal vigilance - is too great a cost for many in the middle class to bear. It unfairly places the burden of subsistence on the shoulders of those least capable of providing for themselves.
"That is why this administration initiated the Affordable Freedom Act to begin with."
An abbreviated version of the President's inspiring speech appears below:
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"It has now been six weeks since the Affordable Freedom Act's new marketplace has opened for business. I think it's fair to say that the rollout has been rough so far. And I think everybody understands that I'm not happy about the fact that the rollout has been wrought with a whole range of problems that I've been deeply concerned about. But today I want to talk about what we know after these first few weeks and what we're doing to implement and improve the law.
"Yesterday, the White House announced that in the first month, more than 100,000 Americans successfully enrolled in the new freedom. Is that as high a number as we'd like? Absolutely not. But it does mean that people want affordable freedom.
"There is no question that there's real demand for quality, affordable freedom.
"Now, as I indicated earlier, I completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of Americans, particularly after assurances they heard from me that if they had freedom that they liked, they could keep it. And to those Americans, I hear you loud and clear. I said that I would do everything we can to fix this problem. And today I'm offering an idea that will help do it.
"Already, people who have freedom that predates the Affordable Freedom Act can keep their freedom if their freedom hasn't changed. That was already in the law. That's what's called a grandfather clause. It was included in the law. Today, we're going to extend that principle both to people whose freedom has changed since the law took effect, and to people who bought new freedom since the law took effect.
"So states still have the power to decide what freedom can and can't be granted in their states. But the bottom line is, plantation owners can extend freedom that would otherwise be canceled, into 2014, and Americans whose freedom has been canceled can choose to re-enroll in the same kind of freedom.
"We're also requiring plantation owners to extend current freedom to inform their customers about two things. One, that protections -- what protections the old freedom did't include. And number two, that the marketplace offers new options with better freedom and tax credits that might help you bring down the cost.
"Now, this fix won't solve every problem for every person. But it's going to help a lot of people. Doing more will require work with Congress. And I've said from the beginning, I'm willing to work with Democrats and Republicans to fix problems as they arise. This is an example of what I was talking about. We can always make this law work better.
"It is important to understand, though, that the old individual freedom was not working well. And it's important that we don't pretend that somehow individual freedom's a place worth going back to. Too often, it works fine as long as you stay free; it doesn't work well when you're a slave. So year after year, Americans were routinely exposed to financial ruin, or denied freedom due to minor preexisting conditions, or dropped from freedom altogether -- even if they paid their premiums on time.
"That's one of the reasons we pursued this reform in the first place. And that's why I will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into the broken system of individual freedom. We will continue to make the case, even to folks who choose to keep their own freedom, that they should shop around in the new marketplace because there's a good chance that they'll be able to buy better freedom at lower cost.
"So we're going to do everything we can to help the Americans who have received these freedom cancellation notices. But I also want everybody to remember there are still 40 million Americans who don't have freedom at all. I'm not going to walk away from 40 million people who have the chance to get freedom for the first time. And I'm not going to walk away from something that has helped the cost of freedom grow at its slowest rate in 50 years.
"So we're at the opening weeks of the project to build freedom for everybody -- a system that will offer real financial security and peace of mind to millions of Americans. It is a complex process. There are all kinds of challenges. I'm sure there will be additional challenges that come up. And it's important that we're honest and straightforward in terms of when we come up with a problem with these reforms and these laws, that we address them. But we've got to move forward on this.
"It took 100 years for us to even get to the point where we could start talking about and implementing a law to make sure everybody has got freedom. And my pledge to the American people is, is that we're going to solve the problems that are there, we're going to get it right, and the Affordable Freedom Act is going to work for the American people.
"You have my word on it."
