By Scott Whitlock
At least for Thursday, the network morning shows admitted that ObamaCare is an “embarrassing,” “botched” failure that has landed with a “resounding thud.” ABC, NBC and CBS offered blunt, stark descriptions of the health care law’s low enrollment rates and the disastrous implementation. Good Morning America reporter Jim Avila explained, “The President’s signature achievement, health care for everyone, officially got off to a resounding thud.” He added that Republicans are “seizing on the botched rollout.”
Over on NBC’s Today, Savannah Guthrie unloaded on the President: “A new poll that has the President’s approval rating hitting an all-time low as the administration is forced to acknowledge health care enrollment numbers that are embarrassingly low.”
Correspondent Peter Alexander marveled, “For a better sense of just how few Americans signed up for ObamaCare in the first month – 106,000 total – consider that’s barely enough to fill a large football stadium and only one-fifth of what government officials had projected.”
Alexander made sure to repeatedly explain the danger to the Democratic Party: “Even Senate Democrats are getting anxious, especially those facing tough re-elections next year….But Democrats are losing patience, one calling it ‘a complete embarrassment.'”
CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose called the scant number of Americans who signed up for the health care law a “reality check for ObamaCare.”
Correspondent Major Garrett bleakly noted:
MAJOR GARRETT: “These numbers confirm starkly the worse administration fears: ObamaCare’s ineptly-designed federal health care website starved the program of hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Health care websites run by 14 states and the District of Columbia performed a bit better. Not only did these enrollment numbers fall well short of expectations, they came with an unconventional definition.
One noticeable feature of Thursday’s coverage is a lack of much effort to offer Democratic spin. CBS’s Garrett revealed, “Four times as many Americans signed up for health insurance entirely funded by the government than have signed up for private insurance. Over time, that could threaten the financial stability of this law.”
Avila on GMA closed by reminding viewers that the ObamaCare website cost $600 million. He casually remarked, “Now, to put that in perspective, that is four times what Apple paid to develop all of our iPhones.”
Editor’s note. This appeared at newsbusters.org. A transcript of the November 14 GMA segment can be found there.