Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 47 stations) by proposing that after spending $634 million to create a website for Obamacare enrollment, the system crashed on day one. This was another indication that the administration rushed into Obamacare without appropriate planning.
“Even Wolf Blitzer asked a leading Democrat to consider postponing Obamacare. It is obvious that Obama intended to launch the Affordable Care Act whether the American public liked it or not,” said Neal.
Co-host Dr. Rich Roffman, agreed, adding that the original budget for the website was an outstanding $93 million, but mushroomed in cost. One of the biggest reasons was that the site was created by two different firms that did not communicate with each other during the website creation. In fact, the system was never tested.
“If a private contractor performed this poorly and wasted this much money, they would have been fired. But I bet that the firms that messed this site up will get their money,” proposed Dr. Roffman.
Made in America welcomed back frequent guest U.S. Representative Blake Farenthold serving his second term in Congress, representing the 27th District of Texas.
(NOTE: This discussion took place October 12 when it appeared that a deal was close to ending the shutdown)
“It’s the point where we had to practically offer the president a bribe just so he would talk to us. We are here to govern, and that means talking with one another. The American way is to talk, so I’m puzzled why more people aren’t angry at the way that Obama has refused to talk with Republicans,” noted Farenthold.
Farenthold noted that things have gotten so out of hand that the Mayor of Washington D.C. talked to Harry Reid seeking permission to pick up the garbage.
“The president wants to shut down the GOP, not just the government. We’re all sick and tired of the president’s refusal to negotiate. The argument is whether the president should get everything without involving congress. When that happens it’s not a republic, it’s a dictatorship,” concluded Farenthold.
Neal and Dr. Roffman segued to a discussion on recent poll numbers that reflect a growing public concern about the economy.
“The latest finding is that 76 percent of Americans think the economy is headed in the wrong direction. Yet, even with these numbers, the president’s approval rating is still fairly high. The mainstream media doesn’t talk about this disenchantment. Even James Woods, a once supportive Democrat, has indicated he won’t support the current administration, even if it means killing his acting career,” said Neal, who added, when confronted by his new stance, Woods is quoted as saying, “My country comes first.” “It’s amazing that Obama has an approval rating of 37 percent. I don’t get it. There’s a big disconnect between his approval ratings and the people who still say they support him. What’s it going to take, even after the unemployment claims jumped– 66,000 more people over the previous week,” asked Dr. Roffman.
Made in America’s next guest was return guest John Berlau, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who blames mainstream media for not looking into the flawed operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“All through the housing collapse, as late as 1990, they were both making loans to Countrywide, contributing to the rise in defaults. This government sponsored enterprise was doomed to fail, but it was still being spun by liberals as the solution for people who wanted to own their own home,” proposed Berlau.
Neal concurred, suggesting that the American dream was defined by being able to own your own house, but it became another entitlement that wasn’t controlled.
“Barney Frank knew about the troubles with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but decided to roll the dice, not taking into account inflation and a change in mortgage rates. His Dodd-Frank bill made things worse, since community banks had to stop making loans. I worked with a small bank that never had a default, but due to Dodd-Frank, they were ordered to stop making home loans,’ concluded Berlau.
The final guest on Made in America was return guest Gretchen Hamel, Executive Director of Public Notice, who suggested that the government, which historically doesn’t do big programs well, should have known that taking on Obamacare was going to be beyond their capabilities.
“Day one should have been proof that this program was too big to handle when the system crashed and few people could sign up for Obamacare. And when they did, they found out they couldn’t afford the premiums. It didn’t take long for people to realize that they would better off getting penalized for non-compliance than paying their premiums,” suggested Hamel, who added that the GOP predicted this would happen, and they were right.
Neal and co-host Dr. Rich Roffman concluded the show by returning to the topic of cronyism and its impact on enriching friends of the White House.
“At the start of the show we talked about the Obamacare website costing $634 million. That’s higher than the startup costs for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other popular social sites combined. And once again, a big American project that could have employed American tech people was farmed out to CGI Federal based in Canada. But Canada may have been 1,000,000 miles away since they never talked to their U.S. counterpart. So when the back and front ends of the website were integrated, they failed miserably,” related Dr. Roffman.
Dr. Roffman added that Obamacare was so unpopular that in Tennessee,
free cell phones were handed out to anyone who would enroll in Obamacare. Chad Henderson, who was trotted out by the administration as one of its first enrollees, was later found out to have not signed up, but he has until January to decide.
“The inherent opportunities for cronyism connected with Obamacare is probably not even measureable,” concluded Dr. Roffman.
Each week Neal Asbury’s Made in America provides Neal’s insights into the week’s top news stories and their impact on the worlds of entrepreneurship, small business ownership and the overall economy. Neal’s analysis, together with co-host Dr. Richard Roffman, a veteran 30-year publisher with extensive domestic and international experience, takes a non-biased approach based on real life experience in business as an American manufacturer and exporter. Made in America airs nationally each Saturday from 7-8:00 PM on Radio America. Link to Made in America at http://www.nealasburysmadeinamerica.com.
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