ABC’s Jonathan Karl did his best to get Bill Kristol to admit ObamaCare is working on ABC’s “This Week” but the “Weekly Standard” editor refused to give into the fill-in host’s demands. Karl attempted to persuade Kristol to “Give the president a little credit here right? 7.1 million sign-ups after that disastrous start. They hit their number; they went past their number.”
Appearing on Sunday April 6, Kristol shot down Karl’s assertion and argued, “It’s like saying you’ve got to give the Soviet Union a lot of credit. 200 million people bought bread in their grocery stores. If it’s the only place you can buy health insurance, they’re going to get people to buy health insurance there.” [See video below.]
Kristol continued his dissection of ObamaCare, and pointed out: “The RAND Corporation says about 800,000 of those people were previously uninsured. 800,000 out of 7 million. The huge bulk of them previously insured. So, big deal, he moved people from insurance plans they liked to forcing them into the exchanges.”
Kristol concluded his criticism of ObamaCare: “The president tried to say this week; oh the debate’s over. No way. The ObamaCare debate is real.”
Kudos to Kristol for throwing some much needed cold water on the ObamaCare cheerleading by the media. Just last week, all three networks cheered on the ObamaCare “sign-up surge” yet ignored the lack of young enrollees signing up for health insurance.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC
This Week with George Stephanopoulos
April 6, 2014
10:39 a.m. Eastern
JONATHAN KARL: The big issue still, the number one issue, dominant issue for the Republicans in this campaign is going to be ObamaCare. But Bill I’ve got to ask you, I mean you’ve got to give the president a little credit here right? 7.1 million sign-ups after that disastrous start. They hit their number; they went past their number.
BILL KRISOL: The RAND Corporation says about 800,000 of those people were previously uninsured. 800,000 out of 7 million. The huge bulk of them previously insured. So, big deal. He moved people from insurance plans they liked to forcing them into the exchanges. It’s like saying you’ve got to give the Soviet Union a lot of credit. 200 million people bought bread in their grocery stores. If it’s the only place you can buy health insurance, they’re going to get people to buy health insurance there. The debate is not over. The president tried to say this week; oh the debate’s over. No way. The ObamaCare debate is real. But on that ad, which I like actually. That's a response to the ads attacking the Koch’s obviously. But it's also an attempt to tell Republicans, don't let them tie you into the insurance companies. That's been the best Democratic talking point in response to the failure of ObamaCare. The Republicans want to go back to the old system the pre-ObamaCare. I think they need to have an alternative to answer that. And for Republicans who are in the pocket of the insurance companies. Those ads say no, the Democrats actually, the Obama Administration worked with the insurance companies to write this bill.
