Likewise, the president refuses to acknowledge that conservatives have any “serious alternatives” to the law. As someone who helped draft not one, but two, such alternatives, I can categorically call that claim false. President Obama likely knows such alternatives exist, but because they disagree with his objectives, he refuses to acknowledge them.
There’s an ironic contradiction between the president’s refusal to acknowledge conservative alternatives to Obamacare and his self-proclaimed willingness to accept ideas from any quarter. In his speech Thursday, the president joked that he would even change the name of Obamacare to “Reagancare” or “Paul Ryancare” if Republicans would agree to improve the measure.
But there’s a not-insignificant catch: President Obama will discuss ideas from anyone, but only if they accomplish his objectives. If the ideas don’t synch up with his objectives—if he doesn’t win on the policy, to echo Trump—then to the president, those ideas simply don’t exist.
The president once again talked about Obamacare’s program of state waivers, which he claimed would provide states flexibility. But as I have previously noted, the law permits states to waive some of the law’s requirements only if they agree to accomplish the law’s objectives. States can impose more mandates and regulations, and cover more people, but not fewer.
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