GOP STAR: OBAMA PEDDLING 

'CRACK COCAINE' OF DEPENDENCY

Congresswoman says Dems 'can't wait to addict' Americans to Obamacare

 GARTH KANT 

Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. He is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News."

Pulling no punches, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND exactly why she thinks President Obama and Democrats are unwilling to negotiate with the GOP over Obamacare's well-documented problems.

"I think the reason is because President Obama can't wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care.

"Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans, it will be virtually impossible for us to pull these benefits back from people," the congresswoman explained.

"All they want to do is buy love from people by giving them massive government subsidies," Bachmann summed up.

That's why she wants lawmakers to do whatever they can to stop Obamacare, now.

"If it means delaying it, rather than repealing it. I'm for it. We have to do what we can do."

Warning they are "making it up as they go along," Bachmann predicted disaster if Obamacare goes ahead.

"They're trying to fly a plane they haven't even built yet," she said.

In her interview with WND, Bachmann was blunt but described with surgical precision the reasons she opposes the implementation of Obamacare.

Her observations included:

• Almost every one of Obama's promises about Obamacare has turned out to be false.
• The president lied about abortion not being funded under Obamacare.
• No one should hand over any private information to the health-care exchanges and the federal data hub.
• The HHS admits there is no way to prevent Obamacare fraud.
• People don't trust the government after the NSA abuse of private information.
• People don't believe the government can't be hacked.
• The government isn't even trying to secure Americans' private information.
• You can't trust the people running the heath-care exchanges.
• The people running the health-care exchanges obviously are not trained.
• The people running Obamacare are completely unprepared to go forward.
• They're making the decision to move forward based upon politics.
• The president, arrogantly, is more concerned with saving face than keeping health-care data secure.
• 
  

Delay instead of defund

The House of Representatives passed a bill defunding Obamacare, but on Friday, the Senate restored the funding. Over the weekend, the House responded by sending the Senate a spending bill that would keep the government running past the Sept. 30 deadline but would also delay implementing Obamacare by a year.

Some Republicans think that is the wrong move. They believe the health-care law should be implemented immediately because it will be such a disaster, and voters will make Democrats pay for it at the polls in the 2014 elections.

But Bachmann, like her fellow Republican and staunch Obamacare opponent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, does not think it is fair to the American people who she says will be hurt if the law goes into effect in its present state.

"Whatever we can do to relieve the suffering of this economy and the American people" is what is most important, said the Minnesotan.

"On every possible level, this is a government program that is clearly not ready for prime time," she reflected.

"The administration is very defensive about this program because it's bad on so many levels."

Scams and con artists

WND has documented 52 reasons Obamcare is not ready for implementation. Among them reasons is California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones' conclusion: "We can have a real disaster on our hands."

The Democrat warned of the dangers of putting personal and financial information into the hands of some of the more than 21,000 enrollment counselors who, by his own admission, are not being adequately screened and monitored. Making matters worse, Jones said the exchange does not even have a plan for investigating complaints.

Another looming disaster is con artists.

Consumer experts have warned that Obamcare creates a huge opportunity for swindling people by stealing their money and their sensitive personal information.

They saw the problem getting only worse Oct. 1, when millions of Americans can begin shopping for coverage on health insurance exchanges set up by their states or the federal government.

"There are fake exchanges already up and running on the Internet," warned Montana's Commissioner of Securities and Insurance in August.

Administration worried

The potential for disaster is so bad the Obama administration called a hasty, but not much publicized, emergency meeting Sept 18 warning that Obamacare users could face massive fraud.

The administration's biggest concern is apparently identity theft, because Obamacare users will have to provide their personal, financial and health information.

In fact, the administration plans to create a whole new bureaucracy just to handle Obamacare complaints.

These reasons, and many more, are why Bachmann says Obamacare is not ready and should at least be delayed, if not stopped entirely.

WND asked if she heard concern from constituents about turning over the distribution of health and financial information to the government?

"Oh, yes. People are extremely nervous, especially after all of the NSA issues earlier this year," she said.

"People don't trust government, at all," Bachman added. "They don't trust government's ability not to be hacked, but they also look at a federal government that would intentionally misuse their data."

Personal information endangered

Bachmann said "a perfect example" illustrating those concerns occurred in Minnesota just a few weeks ago.

"An employee who works for the state health exchange mistakenly sent the personal information and data of more than 2,400 people to an insurance agent," she said.

All of the people happened to be insurance agents, and the information included their names, their businesses, their business license numbers and Social Security numbers.

The congresswoman said "the person who received the information was floored."

"He said the information wasn't even encrypted. So he got information that wasn't encrypted, it wasn't secured and it was on an Excel spreadsheet. So, this Minnesota health care exchange was using outdated technology and outdated software to send information.

"On every possible level, there was no protection, at all," she observed.

That is why, Bachmann insisted: "At this point, no one should hand over any private information to these health care exchanges and the federal data hub, because, we know now, based upon this email that went out, you can't trust the people who are (running) the exchanges. They are obviously not trained."

Obamacare exchanges 'untrustworthy'

Even worse, she continued, "They don't even have an ability to secure the data. They aren't even attempting to secure the data."

WND asked if she had any faith the in the government to either stop scams or prevent the leaking of private information?

"Nope. In Minnesota, they've already proved they are untrustworthy. They haven't beta-tested security systems.       They are completely unprepared to go forward."

She said that showed the administration isn't "moving forward based upon proof of technical capability."

"They're making the decision to move forward based upon politics," she asserted.

Why would they do that?

"Because, the president wants to keep his name and his credibility," she said.

"That's an extremely arrogant move, because it has more to do with the president saving face than it has to do with the government being concerned about preserving integrity of its citizens' data."

Bachmann suggested Americans won't know what's in Obamacare until it is implemented "because the government is writing the rules for Obamacare as we speak."

Flying plane they haven't built

That's when she observed, "They're trying to fly a plane they haven't even built yet."

Bachmann then referred to a report on the Obamacare enrollment program released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which made these key findings:

• The administration created the Assisters program without congressional approval.
• Top HHS officials have admitted that the enrollment outreach programs are prime targets for fraud.
• Consumers have no way to verify that someone taking their application or encouraging enrollment is actually a Navigator or Assister.
• HHS officials were concerned about security risks but did not look into whether or not they could require background checks.
• HHS has criticized direct phone calls and door-to-door solicitation but has not banned them.
• In some states, Navigators and Assisters are paid based on the number of persons they enroll, creating a conflict of interest.

Bachmann noted: "[W]ithout any congressional authorization whatsoever, the federal government spent hundreds of millions of dollars training new Assisters, because different states wouldn't allow money to be spent on navigators, because even the HHS person in charge of implementing the day-to-day work of Obamacare said there is no way to prevent fraud in signing people up for Obamacare."

Obamacare and ACORN

The congresswoman told WND she had learned during a briefing that the navigators, or assisters, who will be signing up people for Obamacare "will be getting something like $59 a head for the people that they sign up. ACORN did that."

"ACORN signed up Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse," just making up names, "so people could make money. It was meant to be a scam."

ACORN, the community organizing and voter-registration organization that Obama worked for in the 1990s, was disbanded after massive allegations of voter law violations and at least 54 ACORN employees and individuals associated with ACORN were convicted of voter fraud.

"We know people will get signed up in a fraudulent way.        That's why President Obama has already waived or deleted 19 different areas for Obamcare. Because they make it up as they go along."

Bachmann insisted it is "unconstitutional for the executive to rewrite laws at will and spend money that Congress doesn't authorize."

"That's completely unconstitutional," she said.

'It's already falling apart'

WND asked if the administration's hastily called security summit was a sign Obama might be panicking because of the severity of problems with his health care plan.

"Yes, it's already fallen apart. It's proven it will go way over budget beyond what the president said. We already know that it's killing jobs. So yes, I think they are in a panic."

And that's when the congresswoman said there's another reason Harry Reid and the president "fight back so hard against any attempt to mitigate the negative impact of Obamacare, whether it's in the funding of government through the continuing resolution, or in tying raising the debt ceiling to delaying Obamacare."

'Crack cocaine' of dependency on government

"I think the reason is because President Obama can't wait to get Americans addicted to the crack cocaine of dependency on more government health care," she said. "Because, once they enroll millions of more individual Americans it will be virtually impossible for for us to pull these benefits back from people."

Again, she insisted, if Obamacare can not be stopped immediately, Congress should try to slow it down.

"On every possible level, this is a government program that is clearly not ready for prime time. The administration is very defensive about this program because it's bad on so many levels."

And that's when she observed that "all they want to do is buy love from people by giving them massive government subsidies."

"People are looking at getting, I'm not kidding, $18,000 a year worth of benefits. You buy a lot of love for $18,000 a year, and you know you are also going to be getting illegal aliens who are going to be getting access to these benefits. You know it."

'Lied to by the president'

Bachmann then referred to the so-called "contraception mandate" opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and other religious groups who contend they should not have to provide coverage that violates their beliefs.

"Remember, we were lied to by the president. He told us abortion will not be funded. It is. We were told sterilizations, contraceptives, all that, we were told wouldn't be part of the bill. It is. So, almost every promise the president has made has turned out to be false."

The tea party rock star declared: "Now is the time to put it out of its misery.

"I am the author of the bill to repeal Obamcare, we've done that (the House has passed it) several times. We have to do what we can do. Whether that means defunding it instead of repealing it, I'm for it. If it means delaying it, rather than repealing it. I'm for it," she said.

"Whatever we can do to relieve the suffering of this economy and the American people."

Follow Garth Kant on Twitter @DCgarth