Earlier this week President Obama announced 7.1 million Americans had "enrolled" (whatever the heck that means at this point) in Obamacare. He made the announcement in the Rose Garden at the White House complete with a roaring crowd.
But apparently, a Rose Garden announcement wasn't what Obama really wanted. Instead, he asked the networks to put aside a primetime spot on Tuesday so he could announce the White House hit their enrollment goal number, the same goal the White House denied ever having. His request was denied....by everyone. Oof. Buzzfeed has the scoop:
White House officials sought valuable primetime air for a rare, impromptu Tuesday night address to tout the accomplishment of signing up more than 7 million people under the Affordable Care Act.
But network officials refused to make the kind of accommodation they did previously for the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, for instance, and Obama was left instead cutting into the much smaller audiences of Ellen and other daytime shows.
Three sources familiar with the request confirmed the White House asked for the primetime slot in their effort both to emphasize a bright moment following the challenging roll out and, more important, to try to reintroduce the country to a law that remains unpopular. One top White House official referred BuzzFeed to another top official for comment on the conversation with networks, but the second official did not respond to a request for comment.
Typically, primetime addresses from the President of the United States are reserved for serious things like killing Osama bin Laden, State of the Union addresses, announcements that we're going to war, the end of a war, etc. Leave it to Barack Obama to make this kind of "historic" and arrogant request about a failing program. Over to you, Jimmy Fallon.
That’s right, the White House said that it surpassed its goal for people enrolled in ObamaCare. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you make something mandatory and fine people if they don't do it. And then keep extending the deadline for months. It’s like a Cinderella story. It’s just a beautiful thing. You make everyone do it. Isn’t it great how many people do it? But if you still haven't enrolled, you might have to pay a penalty called the individual shared responsibility payment, which is 1% of your salary. Then Americans said, ‘Man, good thing I don't have a job.
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