OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Shocker: Now that the midterm elections are over, Team Obama is dumping all the bad news it buried in the weeks running up to what turned out to be a bloodbath for Democrats — and planning a devious move to try to save one embattled senator facing a runoff race.
“Obamacare falls short of enrollees, may not have enough to stay solvent,” The Washington Times headline blared Monday.
“The administration on Monday said fewer than 10 million Americans will enroll in Obamacare’s health exchanges this go-around, well short of the 13 million target congressional scorekeepers deemed critical to its economics, suggesting another rocky rollout in the law’s second year of full operation,” the article said.
According to the Congressional Budget Office — working off numbers provided by the Obama administration — Obamacare exchange enrollment could drop as low as 9 million (whatever happened to the 47 million “uninsured” President Obama kept talking about during the 2012 campaign?).
The administration’s new estimate came out just days before the second enrollment period for Obamacare opens. In a brazenly political move, Team Obama had delayed that start-up date, which last year was in October, until 11 days after the Nov. 4 elections. That way, the administration hid the fact that half as many people will sign up this time versus last — and by the end of 2015, just 5.9 million of the 8 million who originally signed up will still be in the federal exchanges.
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Obama minions played off the dramatic drop as simply setting lower expectations with the hopes of surpassing them (a pathetic storyline Politico picked up and ran verbatim in a story titled, “Obamacare and the low expectations game”).
But Obama gadfly Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, derided the White House for “a tactic that has become par for the course. Despite the administration’s habit of moving the goal posts, the fact is Obamacare is simply not delivering the results Americans were originally promised.”
Then, on Tuesday, a sneaky plan started to emerge that Senate Democrats are plotting to take a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline before the lame-duck session of Congress ends in mid-December — and, from most accounts, before the end of November.
The sudden change — Majority Leader Harry Reid has buried Keystone for years — is intended to save Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who faces a runoff election most political pundits predict she will lose.
Mrs. Landrieu will go head to head with Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy on Dec. 6 after neither candidate won a majority of votes Nov. 4. Senate Republicans promise Mr. Cassidy a seat on the energy committee if he beats the incumbent, knocking down one of Mrs. Landrieu’s key claims for why voters should pick her.
Bloomberg News, which broke the story, cut to the strategy behind the sudden change of heart. “The purpose of the vote would be symbolic: To highlight Landrieu’s support for the pipeline and her influence on energy issues in Washington — a centerpiece of her campaign. A vote in favor of the pipeline may benefit Landrieu…” the news agency wrote.
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Mrs. Landrieu, currently chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has tried to distance herself from Mr. Obama on energy issues, including his staunch opposition to the pipeline. Bloomberg noted that in the current Senate — before Republicans take over in January — there are at least 56 senators who support moving ahead with Keystone XL.
In all likelihood, Republicans will have enough support to pass the bill once they take over the Senate, setting up a confrontation with the president, who could veto the bill. Asked recently about whether the White House would reconsider its stance on Keystone, which would bring millions of barrels of crude oil via pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries, spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration plans to wait for a State Department report on the issue.
But the pipeline has been under review by State for more than six years, effectively killing any consideration. In fact, in April, the administration extended the review indefinitely. Environmentalists oppose the pipeline, and Team Obama, along with congressional Democrats, has needed their millions in campaign contributions.
Few think the Hail Mary move will be enough to save Mrs. Landrieu, who got just 43 percent of the vote on Nov. 4. More, such a move would unmask the highly partisan Democratic Senate — which denied Americans the prospect of cheaper gasoline but will move ahead with Keystone to save a colleague.
By Wednesday, reports emerged that Mr. Obama plans a slew of executive orders on “climate change,” which will no doubt renew the administration’s war on coal. And the president has already vowed to move ahead with amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
On Nov. 4, voters made clear their dissatisfaction with Democrats — and Mr. Obama. But both plan to move ahead with their agendas.
Luckily, voters will get another change to weigh in on Nov. 8, 2016.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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