Delicious irony: Liberal writers may strike over Obamacare insurance costs

What is best in life?

Conan the Barbarian: "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women."

Arnie might have added: "Schadenfreude's a bitch, ain't it?"

Liberal Hollywood writers are close to striking, partly over the skyrocketing costs of their health insurance.  What makes this so deliciously ironic is that, during the debate over health insurance, the writers inserted the politics of Obamacare into many of the most popular shows on TV.  They did their best to promote Obamacare and are now reaping their just rewards.

Breitbart:

One major sticking point in the negotiations is the unions' ailing health care plans, which reportedly face insolvency in three years due in large part to the astronomical rise in costs imposed throughout the health care industry by Obamacare. But in a plot twist usually reserved for their best dramas, it was actually top-tier Hollywood screenwriters that helped create the environment for the controversial bill's passage.

In 2009, Breitbart News was first to report on an unprecedented effort by the Obama administration to encourage Hollywood writers to insert storylines into TV shows that promoted the President's agenda, including his proposed healthcare legislation. Publicly launched by then-First Lady Michelle Obama and aided by CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and others, the Hollywood project was initially cloaked as an effort to promote volunteerism – with the overall message being one of selflessness and giving back. The massive initiative was aimed at the TV "showrunners" – or head writers – of sixty television programs, and eventually reached some of America's most watched series, including Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Hannah Montana, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Parks and Recreation, Private Practice, 'til Death, Desperate Housewives, and 30 Rock, to name a few.

Breitbart News saw through the positioning, ultimately labeling the primetime takeover a "Trojan horse" to push the President's healthcare legislation – which later came to be known as Obamacare. Our reporting pointed to TV episodes that were, at times, not even remotely subtle.

"People can't go around without health insurance, this is America," cried Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character Christine in the then-popular TV series The New Adventures of Old Christine.

"And forty-five million people don't have health insurance," replied her best friend, played by Wanda Sykes.

"What?! Man, I miss reading the paper for two days…why isn't anyone talking about this?!"

Now facing a cut in their own benefits, it appears Hollywood screenwriters' chickens are coming home to roost.

Liberal obliviousness to Obamacare's failure and the reasons for it masks the underlying denial of reality; they are at fault for their own problems.  They are the ones who forced Obamacare down the throats of the American people.  They are the ones who refused to listen when the opposition listed all the ways that the program would fail – almost all of them coming true.

Obamacare now has its tentacles spread throughout the entire health care system, making it difficult to repeal without mass disruption of markets and people's lives.  Call it "the left's revenge for their own folly."  Anything bad that happens when attempting to fix Obamacare's damage to the system will now fall on President Trump and the Republicans.

Obamacare opponents might want to wait until the entire system collapses, but realistically, that's not an option.  A meltdown would severely damage the health insurance market – perhaps beyond repair, given that many companies have already gotten out of the health insurance business.  And if pundits think the GOP replacement plan will throw millions off their insurance, that number will be double or triple if Obamacare fails.

As satisfying as the liberal writers' dilemma is, we should keep in mind that we aren't far off from a day where ordinary Americans who don't have a powerful union negotiating on their behalf will be faced with insurance that's unaffordable.  In a way, we're in the same boat as the Hollywood writers, and getting something done about Obamacare will become more urgent as time goes by.

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