It will be his first time in the building since he welcomed then-President-elect Donald Trump for coffee on the morning of Trump’s inauguration. That friendly greeting at the North Portico — including the awkward handoff of a blue Tiffany’s box the Trumps had brought as a gift — couldn’t foretell the acrimony that would lie ahead, as Trump shattered the relative amity that had once existed between former and current presidents.
Obama’s return to the White House won’t include any of that ugliness.
Instead, he’ll be celebrating one of his signature achievements, the Affordable Care Act, alongside the man who served with him in the building for eight years. President Joe Biden and Obama will announce steps the White House says will make health care
more affordable, including closing a loophole that prevents millions of Americans from qualifying for subsidies.
Still, that it took more than a year for Biden to welcome his former boss to the White House reflects his desire to stake out a presidency of his own, even as the timing of the visit makes clear he is not opposed to seeking help as Democrats brace for a bruising midterm election season.
After two terms working in Obama’s shadow, Biden has strived at moments to differentiate himself from his predecessor, most noticeably on foreign policy.
Obama has been cognizant of allowing Biden room to govern as his own man.
Right!!
While Obama has occasionally spoken to Biden over the last year, their telephone conversations have been infrequent, according to people close to both men, and they have seen each other only a few times over the last 15 months — despite Obama residing only 10 minutes away from the White House in Washington.
In public, each likes to play up a warm friendship that developed over Obama’s presidency. Biden often slips a reference to “Barack” in his remarks, harkening back to a piece of advice or an inside joke they shared. Sometimes the results are somewhat painful: On “Best Friends Day” in 2019, Biden shared an image of friendship bracelets with “Joe” and “Barack” written in beads.
When Obama visited the White House Today, he joined Biden for lunch in addition to attending the health care event in the Rose Garden. Obama and Biden had lunch together every week when they served in the White House.
“They are real friends, not just Washington friends,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. “I’m sure they will talk about events in the world as well as their families and personal lives.”
She said it was “exactly the right time” for Obama to return to the White House after more than five years away.
Still, there have been limits to their friendship. Biden revealed last year that he had been invited into Obama’s private residence only once over their eight years together in the White House. They have vastly different personalities and working styles. And their relationship has been colored by various slights, real or perceived, that still linger.
Obama declined to endorse Biden over other Democrats in the 2020 primary, a step both men insisted was necessary to allow a true contest within the party. Four years earlier, Obama had viewed Hillary Clinton as his Democratic successor instead of Biden, who decided not to run as he grappled with his son’s death.
All that makes Tuesday’s event a significant moment for each man. For Obama, it also marks the beginning of a string of public events, including a keynote speech on disinformation that he’ll deliver at Stanford later this month.
A popular surrogate emerges.
His return to the White House is the first sign of what many Democrats hope will be his increased involvement in the 2022 midterm elections. The former President and former first lady Michelle Obama are two of the most sought-after party leaders — expected to
be in high demand by Senate and House candidates this year.
That could potentially stand in contrast to Biden, whose approval ratings remain near historic lows heading into campaign season. Biden is eager to campaign for Democrats in the coming year, but has also made known he is open to any role his party sees as helpful.
Obama is no stranger to uphill midterm battles; he endured losses in both 2010 and 2014. Yet he left office with an approval rating among the highest for any departing president, and remains popular among Democrats.
The Obamas have not yet determined how visible they intend to be in the fall campaign, but aides say they will both devote time to Democratic efforts to maintain control of the House and Senate.
The decision to have Obama appear alongside Biden at the White House this week was designed to shine a brighter light on one of the often-overlooked achievements of the Biden administration: strengthening the Affordable Care Act.
It’s reminiscent of former President Bill Clinton coming to the White House to help explain the economic efforts employed by Obama during the fiscal crisis in the early years of his tenure. That appearance, in 2010, was remembered principally for Clinton holding court from the briefing room podium for half an hour — long after Obama had exited the room.
The health care law remains one of the lasting legacies of the Obama administration. When it passed, Biden made one of his most infamous asides when he whispered to Obama that it was a “big f**king deal.”
It’s no small irony that the messy health care fight — one of the central reasons Democrats lost control of Congress on Obama’s watch more than a decade ago — ended in a law now seen as broadly popular with Americans. Republicans have all but dropped their efforts to repeal and replace it after failing to do so for years.
Obama has remained engaged on the law since leaving office, taping videos encouraging Americans to enroll and breaking a near-silence on political issues to criticize Republicans for attempting to undermine it. He and Biden appeared in a video together last August encouraging Americans to sign up, one of their only joint appearances since Biden took office.
“We’re going to get even more people covered in the years to come under your guidance,” Obama told Biden in the video. “Love you, man.” Signing off, as Obama told Biden he was proud of him, the sitting President said to expect him to stay in touch. “I’m still going to call you for advice,” Biden said.
Obama’s visit to the White House Today will not be his last.
Plans have been underway for months for the formal unveiling of his portrait — a presidential rite of passage that was disrupted during the Trump administration and delayed during the first year of the Biden administration, when the Covid-19 pandemic limited such events at the White House.
Watch Live: Obama returns to White House for health care event with Biden – CBS News
Washington — Former President Barack Obama is returning to the White House for the first time since leaving office for an event marking the 12th anniversary of his signature healthcare law as the Biden administration takes steps aimed at lowering costs for families seeking coverage.
Obama will appear with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday and deliver remarks about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which he signed into law in 2010. The law, also known as Obamacare, expanded access to health insurance for millions of Americans. The event coincides with new actions the Biden administration announced to fix what’s become known as the “family glitch” in the ACA.
Under current law, families are only eligible for health insurance through the ACA’s marketplace if they would be forced to spend more than about 10% of their income on coverage through their employer or other programs. But if an employee’s cost exceeds 10% when family members are added to an insurance plan, the family is still viewed as having affordable coverage and ineligible for subsidized coverage under the ACA.
A new rule proposed by the Treasury Department would enable family members who must pay more than 10% of their income for health care coverage to get financial help, according to a senior Biden administration official.
“As a result, 200,000 uninsured people are expected to gain coverage and nearly a million more are expected to see lower premiums every day,” the official told reporters on a background call.
The rule wouldn’t go into effect until January 2023, and the official couldn’t say how much it will cost the government to fix the so-called “family glitch” or how the government would pay for it. According to the official, Mr. Biden will sign an executive order directing agencies to do everything within their power to make healthcare more accessible and affordable.
Enrollment in ACA-subsidized plans spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a record 14.5 million Americans signing up for coverage in 2021. But more generous financial aid for coverage that was included in COVID-19 relief bills is set to expire by the end of this year, and Mr. Biden’s efforts to boost coverage through his social spending legislation have stalled in Congress.
OBAMACARE EXPANSION THROUGH “COVID RELIEF”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Democrats’ partisan $2 trillion “COVID emergency” law included significant expansions of the Affordable Care Act.
It raises subsidies for people who are currently eligible and adds payoffs for higher-income people Obamacare originally deemed too wealthy. Democrats are likely to try to make these temporary policy changes permanent, moving them a step closer to their goal of a single, government-run health care system for all Americans.
The so-called American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law on March 11, included a sweeping expansion of the Affordable Care Act. President Biden campaigned on his plan to expand the Affordable Care Act and Democrats used the pandemic as an opportunity to include several provisions to get more people into the government-run system. The changes are temporary – lasting two years – and the Democrats are likely to try to make them permanent.
COST OF PREMIUM TAX CREDIT INCREASE.
Democrats’ partisan, $2 trillion plan extends ACA subsidies.
In the form of premium tax credits, to higher-income people who did not previously qualify for them; it increases subsidies for people who already qualified; and it waives
the requirement that people who miscalculated their income in 2020 repay premium subsidies they got improperly.
LAVISH NEW SUBSIDIES
The law substantially increases government aid for people who are already eligible for subsidies, reducing the amount of their income people must pay toward their premiums. Previously, people with an income between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level were required to spend as much as 4.14% of their income on their Obamacare premiums for a silver level plan, with the federal government paying anything above that number. Under Democrats’ new law, these people pay nothing for a silver level plan – their entire premium is paid by taxpayers.
Through the end of 2022, the law also subsidizes health insurance for people at any income level, not just those with lower incomes. Under the previous rules, people earning more than 400% of the poverty level were not eligible for a subsidy at all. Under the new structure, those people would never have to pay more than 8.5% of their income for premiums for a silver plan, no matter how much they earn. Contrary to Democrats’ marketing of their law as COVID relief, the more generous subsidies also have no requirement that a recipient’s income was affected at all by the pandemic shutdowns.
EXPANDED SUBSIDIES TO HIGHER INCOME EARNERS.
The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation.
Estimate expanding premium assistance for just these two years will increase federal deficits by $34.2 billion between now and 2030. Today there are 9 million people eligible for the premium tax credits. CBO predicts it will increase the insured by only 800,000 people in 2021, and 1.3 million people in 2022, when the provision will be in effect for the full calendar year.
According to one analysis, on an annualized basis this equals about $17,000 per newly insured person. About 40% of them will have incomes above 400% of the poverty level. These higher earners will receive the greatest benefit from the law’s changes.
For example, a typical family of four making $106,265 – 401% of the poverty level –
could now get $9,763 in premium tax credits, whereas before they got $0.
A single 60-year-old man earning $70,840 would not have gotten a subsidy before, but now he can collect a premium tax credit of more than $5,000. Because Obamacare plans can be so expensive, the study found “a 64-year-old couple in Kay County, Oklahoma, earning $500,000 per year, which faces a benchmark premium of $49,897 a year, would qualify for a PTC of $5,946.”
NO REQUIREMENT TO PAY BACK SUBSIDIES.
Under the ACA, people get premium tax credit subsidies based on what they estimate their income will be for the year. These credits are paid monthly, in advance. The idea was that recipients would later reconcile their predicted income with what they actually earned and report on their taxes the next year. If people estimated wrong and got a subsidy to which they were not entitled, they were required to pay some or all of the excess back to the IRS. Democrats have now removed this requirement for the 2020 tax year. CBO’s analysis of the ACA components of the Democrats’ bill estimates this provision will cost $6.3 billion. More oversight and accountability of funds is needed, not less; and Democrats have given no indication these policies are intended to remain temporary.
Obama Touts Health Care Law, Calls It ‘High Point’ of Tenure.
Addresses Biden as My President 🙁
Biden and Obama are marking the 12th anniversary of the law that back in
2010 the then-vice president had memorably called a “big (expletive) deal”.
By Zeke Miller and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar • Published April 5, 2022
President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Tuesday to savor the 12th anniversary of his signature Affordable Care Act, which is now part of the fabric of the American health care system and whose reach President Joe Biden is looking to extend.
Sign-ups under the health law have increased under Biden’s stewardship, and more generous taxpayer subsidies have cut costs for enrollees, albeit temporarily.
Obama’s last time in the mansion was Jan. 20, 2017, when he left to escort his successor,
a president-elect bent on overturning “Obamacare,” to the Capitol to be inauguration.
“It’s good to be back in the White House.
It’s been a while,” Obama said in the East Room after he was introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris. He opened by referring to Biden as “vice president” before acknowledging the joke and embracing his former No. 2.
Obama said he and Biden accomplished “a lot” in their eight years as stewards of the country, but “nothing made me prouder than providing better health care and more protections to millions of people across this country.”
“The ACA was an example of why you run for office in the first place,” Obama said,
calling it the “high point of my time here.”
Biden and Obama marked the 12th anniversary of the law, which back in 2010 the then-vice president had memorably called a “big (expletive) deal.” Its staying power has been enhanced by three Supreme Court victories and an emphatic thumbs-down vote by the
late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which took the wind out of President Donald Trump’s
efforts to repeal and replace it.
The law was such a bugaboo in 2010 that Democrats rarely invoked it as they went into
a midterm election that turned out to be, in Obama’s own words, a “shellacking.”
Now, Democrats are hoping the political equation will work to their advantage, and that a focus on shoring up the tween-age health law can help them avoid a debacle at the polls this November.
In addition to talking about health care at the White House, Biden and Obama met over lunch, recalling their weekly ritual when Biden served as Obama’s vice president. “They are real friends, not just Washington friends,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, also commonly known as Obamacare. This is the third time law has survived a conservative challenge heard by the Supreme Court.
Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and to make permanent subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that were included in Biden’s pandemic relief bill. Harris also called out 12 states that have not expanded eligibility for Medicaid.
Obama likes to refer to his health care law as a “starter home” that Americans can build upon, gradually reducing the 9% share of the population that remains uninsured. The rate was nearly 15% in 2013, before the coverage provisions of the law took effect. Between the health law’s Medicaid expansion and its health insurance markets, more than 30 million people are now estimated to be getting coverage.
Shortly after taking office, Biden opened up the health insurance markets to anyone seeking coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his coronavirus relief bill provided a significant, though temporary, increase in financial assistance. The result was a record 14.5 million people signed up for subsidized private coverage.
When it comes to how to keep that trend going, Obama and Biden have no shortage of options to discuss.
Biden administration has been working on a fix to what’s known as the family glitch,
A quirk estimated to be keeping about 5 million people from getting coverage under the law. The White House announced the new policy proposal Tuesday. People tripped up by the family glitch are dependents of workers who have an offer of employer coverage that the government interprets as being affordable. As a rule, people with affordable employer coverage are not eligible for taxpayer-subsidized ACA plans.
But the issue with the current interpretation is that affordability is determined
by the cost for employee-only coverage, and not more expensive family policies.
Workers able to afford their own share may not be able to cover premiums for the
entire family. So, the family is cut out of ACA coverage.
A Biden administration regulation addressing the issue recently cleared White House review. The intent of the original policy was to prevent people with employer coverage from going into the health law’s subsidized markets, but advocates say it has proven too restrictive. The White House estimates that the fix would help 200,000 people get insurance and bring costs down for nearly 1 million more.
There are more fundamental issues for the two presidents to consider as well, both policy-wise and politically.
Unless Democrats in Congress finally coalesce around a version of Biden’s social legislation, his enhanced financial assistance for millions purchasing ACA plans will expire at the end of this year. A return to higher premiums would likely trigger an increase in the number of uninsured people, a political embarrassment for Democrats committed to expanding coverage.
The Biden legislation, which passed the House but sputtered in the Senate, also includes a mechanism for providing coverage to as many as 4 million uninsured low-income adults in states that have refused the health law’s Medicaid expansion. It would deliver on Biden’s campaign promise to build on existing government programs to move the U.S. closer to coverage for all.
OBAMACARE EXPANSION THROUGH “COVID RELIEF”KEY TAKEAWAYS
Democrats’ partisan $2 trillion “COVID emergency” law included significant expansions
of the Affordable Care Act. What Happens if You Overestimate Your ACA Subsidy?
– HealthCare.com (healthcareinsider.com)
It raises subsidies for people who are currently eligible and adds payoffs for higher-
income people Obamacare originally deemed too wealthy. Democrats are likely to
try to make these temporary policy changes permanent, moving them a step closer
to their goal of a single, government-run health care system for all Americans.
You don’t fix a problem by throwing money at it.
My Response to Mr. Robert Miller.
The Big Lie: Biden’s new budget includes massive tax hike on workers (msn.com)
When it comes to health care you attack the root cause which is the cost to the providers. Good Samaritan Hospital closed its doors on the West Side of Dayton because of Obamacare. Those patients that weren’t paying bills. All that Obamacare did was increase insurance premiums. Doctors today pay $350,000 for their education and that’s bullshit. What needs to be done is strike a balance in health care through enrollment fees. Where everybody pays and I mean everybody a percentage of their income. That money then should subsidize health care for their expenses and not go into a politician’s pocket. That’s true Universal Health Care Coverage!!!
Keyword on Microsoft Bing — Biden increased the Cost of Insulin. Biden froze Trump’s order so he can now take credit for a $35 cap. Also, If Bill Gates had listened to scientists our weather patterns today. Would not be so extreme. Bing: Bill Gates didn’t Listen to Scientists about Chemtrails. Chemtrail Conspiracy and The chemicals listed in those trails and the impact they have on our environment. Biden is pretending to be God, he wants to fix our climate which is a hoax. Many politicians own mansions on the coast.
Bing: Does Al Gore own ocean front property?
Al Gore got all that Bullshit started with his documentary: An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 and one nation under God can’t fix a climate if all other countries are unwilling. The United States is a small percentage of the big picture. As far as your statement about water safety in the United States Most life-threatening waterborne diseases caused by microbes (such as typhoid fever or cholera) are rare in the United States (chlorine in water is a more alarming safety factor to the pineal gland than poor water quality.)
On January 6th: 700 patriots were arrested out of the 10s of 1000s which were there.
A big percentage for holding a camera and taking pictures. Your comment about the Proud Boys, the Oaths Keepers, the 3 percenters doesn’t concern me. As much as Antifa which is an Obama and his Brother Hooded funded organization. BLM is a marxist group. Bing: Obama is a Marxist and a member of the Muslim brotherhood. In 2020, Kamala Harris was bailing rioters burning our cities out of jail the next day after being arrested.
One last Tidbit: Biden can’t be helping poverty rates with gas prices and inflation rates spinning out of control. Bing: Bidens tax Increase for the Middle to Working Class.
(he’s lying about that as well.)
And Bing: Maria Piacesi was only eight when she met Joe Biden in 2015, while she was with her Uncle — Senator Steve Daines and his wife, in a highly publicized video,
Explain That One?
Lastly Bing: Clinton Foundation is a Hedge Fund, The Biden Crime Family and also
The Pelosi Crime Family which stems from the Baltimore Mafia. GOD Bless America…
Watch Live: Obama returns to White House for health care event with Biden.
Why Do I Owe Back Subsidies After Getting a Job? (obamacarefacts.com)