Bruce Braley Broke His Promise on Obamacare

After the White House finally admitted that some Americans would lose their health we learned that President Obama knowingly broke his promise that Americans will be able to keep their insurance plans and doctors if they so choose.

Top Democratic Congressional leaders are admitting it as well.

House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer conceded to reporters today that Democrats knew people would not be able to keep their current health care plans under Obamacare and expressed qualified contrition for President Obama’s repeated vows to the contrary.

“We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would be required to get more extensive coverage,” Hoyer said in response to a question from National Review Online.

Asked by another reporter how repeated statements by Obama to the contrary weren’t “misleading,” Hoyer said, “I don’t think the message was wrong. I think the message was accurate. It was not precise enough . . . [it] should have been caveated with ’assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.’”

Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA), one of the primary advocates of the Affordable Care Act in the House of Representatives, also broke his promise.

Congressman Braley in a statement released on 3/21/10 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act said, “This bill will decrease health insurance costs, expand access to quality, affordable health care, improve reimbursements for Iowa medical providers and allow Americans to maintain their choice of health insurance.”

Perhaps he didn’t know because he took the “I won’t know what is in the bill until after I pass it” approach that Nancy Pelosi subscribed to.  Perhaps he did know.  This leaves us with two ways of looking at Congressman Braley – he’s either incompetent or he’s a liar.

Braley will probably just say like Stoyer that his statement wasn’t “precise enough” and excuse it like most Democrats have done since this news broke.  Obamacare is his legacy and this albatross needs to be hung around his neck.  Iowans deserve better in the U.S. Senate.

Photo credit: Iowa Democrats via Flickr (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)