[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2013/09/41188240001_2636975066001_vs-521f9fd2e4b068e86c06344e-86366013001.jpg)Recall from history that one of the Eastern Block’s longest-serving and brutal dictators, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, fell from power after a single speech in front of his subjects. On December 21, 1989, President Ceausescu spoke from a balcony in Bucharest to a group of about 80,000 Romanians, during which opposition to Ceausescu’s rule galvanized. A few people in the crowd began booing and jeering, totally unheard-of during Ceausescu’s rule. The booing spread, then the crowd began chanting opposition slogans, and eventually charged the presidential building en mass.
The popular opposition galvanized despite unanimous support of the military and state-run media. Within three days of the speech, Ceausescu and his wife had been deposed and executed, and Romania became a newly-freed, former communist country. It was a staggeringly-swift turn of events. And it all began and gathered momentum during a single speech, now known as the Ceausescu Balcony Speech.
Metaphorically, Obamacare has just now walked onto the balcony and has begun to speak to its subjects, us Americans, who will be held captive by its new regime of laws, regulations and distortions. Despite widespread positive coverage from the mainstream media, liberal celebrities, and even politicians who accuse opponents of racism, doubts are coalescing. Popular support has never been that strong, and people are only now coming face to face with the real problems of Obamacare, and they don’t like them.
The media is starting to cover horror stories of healthcare premiums doubling and tripling, and thousands of workers getting laid off or converted to working less than 30 hours a week. Doctors are retiring to avoid having to deal with it. Retired workers are losing their insurance and told to go to the Obamacare exchanges or coverage. Health insurance companies are exiting states. A new problem has also emerged: Americans are being told of a newly-discovered Obamacare “family glitch,” in which many workers will be able to keep their healthcare coverage but their spouses and children will be dropped.
The hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the Obama administration to provide paid “navigators” to “get the word out,” and help from liberal celebrities can only sugar-coat things so long. Within the next few weeks Americans will receive notices in the mail describing the true, terrible details of changes to their healthcare coverage.
A few lucky Americans, like some unions and members of Congress and their staffs, will be exempt from Obamacare. Agents at the IRS, who will enforce Obamacare on the rest of us, are urging Congress to vote against a proposal that will place them in the same healthcare boat as the rest of us. Seems like the healthcare that is good enough for the rest of us is not good enough for the IRS.
And whatever happened to President Obama’s promises? Remember when he told us “if you like your doctor or healthcare plan, you can keep it”? The White House doesn’t want us to remember those comments. President Obama also probably wants us to forget when he said that under Obamacare a typical family’s healthcare premium will decrease by $2,500. The reality is that for most Americans, their health insurance premiums will rise dramatically, and they may not be able to keep their current insurance coverage at all.
The dynamics in Congress are just beginning to change. A few days ago the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to fund the government except for Obamacare. Even some Democrat representatives voted for it. Only a few weeks earlier, this would have been unthinkable.
While the Democratically-controlled Senate is expected to pass a resolution that will fund Obamacare, Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid is trying his best to pass the resolution in such a way that vulnerable Democrat Senators up or re-election in 2014 do not need to publicly show their support for Obamacare. Voters back home in Alaska, Arkansas or North Carolina, for example, might not approve of their senators voting to keep Obamacare in place.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s filibuster did not win a vote on defunding Obamacare, but he was at least successful in presenting to the general public some of the arguments against Obamacare that are usually ignored by the mainstream press, and Democrats in general are on the defense.
Yes, the bottom is falling out of Obamacare support, and like the end of Nicolae Ceausescu, it could be very quick.
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