Obama administration officials remain clueless

ScissorTales: Obama administration officials remain clueless

By The Oklahoman Editorial Board | November 1, 2014

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EFFORTS to refine Obamacare dross into gold are turning into self-parodies of liberal spin.

At a recent hearing conducted by the Virginia legislature, federal Health and Human Services official Joanne Grossie told lawmakers that people shouldn’t view the cancellation of insurance policies due to Obamacare as losing insurance. It’s really an “invitation” to get another policy, Grossie said.

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“If you got one of the notices that your policy was going to be discontinued because it didn’t adhere to the law, it meant that now you could go into the health insurance marketplace,” she said. “So, I just want to remind you that you weren’t losing insurance; you were just losing that insurance plan and were now being invited to go into the health insurance marketplace.”

Gosh, that puts things in a whole new perspective! No doubt, the administration’s new logic can be applied to a wide range of situations in both politics and daily life.

Your wages haven’t been stagnant thanks to President Obama’s economic policies. You’ve merely been “invited” to live an increasingly frugal lifestyle. You weren’t fired from your job. You were “invited” to look for other employment opportunities. Your spouse didn’t divorce you. You were merely “invited” to return to the single life.

You didn’t … well, you get the idea. That federal officials offer farcical answers in response to serious questions shows this administration’s disdain for, or cluelessness about, the general public. Remember, Obama promised that we could keep our coverage if we liked it. That invitation got lost in the maelstrom that characterizes the Obamacare fiasco.

A special assist

Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook cut the ribbon Monday at Russell’s Reading Room, which will house 1,200 books for students at North Highland Elementary School, 8400 N Robinson. The Oklahoma Publishing Co. has a soft spot for North Highland — for the past several years, employees have tutored students there. Most of the kids come from low-income homes, where it’s safe to say that books are a luxury. Through his foundation, Westbrook is providing a chance for these students to improve their reading skills and broaden their horizons. Westbrook plans to open two more reading centers in the coming month, and says he hopes to expand beyond that. Westbrook has compiled plenty of assists during his time in the NBA, but none compare to the gift he’s providing Oklahoma City school children. Kudos.

There he goes again

We’ve long criticized (not very successfully, we must admit) the practice of Oklahoma state representatives using taxpayer-funded press releases to advance a political or ideological agenda rather than a policymaking agenda. The worst offenders have generally been the most conservative Republicans in the House, those who form what we call the ideological caucus. Less conservative Democrats can play the game too and a prime example is Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor. Dorman used the public press release service last week to push a prime plank in his campaign — taking the Medicaid expansion bait from Washington, something that Republican Gov. Mary Fallin has opposed. We respect Dorman’s views on Medicaid expansion, but he should have confined his poli-ticking so close to the election to efforts financed by his campaign, not the taxpayer.

Transparency

When he became executive director of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, Lee Slater said the agency would favor transparency over prohibition and compliance over punishment. It appears he’s achieving those goals. Speaking before the Oklahoma Common Cause annual meeting, Slater noted the commission’s old rules sometimes contradicted each other and that some district attorneys complained the rules were impossible to enforce. Under Slater’s leadership, the agency has since rewritten many of those rules — with apparent positive impact. This year, he said 99 percent of those required to file campaign finance reports have done so, compared with only about 60 percent in the past. That’s a win for those who believe citizens should know who funds state political campaigns, and a sign that Slater’s approach is working. The old rules might have sounded good in theory, but their practical effect was to discourage transparent reporting and public disclosure.