#purewashington

by Darren Littell

President Barack Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act, continues to remain unpopular across the country according to recent polls. Unable to turn the law’s popularity around, and given the proximity of midterm elections, Gary Peters is now trying to distance himself away from the law he once firmly supported.

When asked what he thought about Obamacare just a few weeks ago, he replied, “The law is not perfect. I’ve never voted on a perfect law, never will vote on a perfect law, and so you have to go back and constantly refine it.”

This is Gary Peters’ latest flip-flop on the issue.

As one of Obamacare’s earliest supporters, Peters told families in August of 2013, “I actually got the bill, and read the bill. And the more I read it, the more I liked it.”

His record of flip-flopping on issues has been well-documented. Gary Peters has changed his stance on the individual mandate several times since 2013.

These constant flip-flops lead to more questions that deserve answers. If Peters read the bill more than once and understood it, why did he continue lying to Michigan families, telling them “if you’re covered and you like your insurance, you can keep it”?

Don’t the 225,000 Michigan families who lost their health care because they fell for Gary Peters’ intentional deceit deserve an answer?

As someone who claimed he read the bill multiple times, did Peters not see the mounting problems the law would cause, or did he chose to ignore them?

In addition to the families who lost their health insurance due to Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported that under Obamacare, the labor force will lose the equivalent of 2 million full-time employees by 2017 and more than 2.5 million by 2024.

These issues are coupled with the fact that Democrats like Peters celebrated Obamacare’s enrollment numbers, only to be hit with another glitch: people aren’t buying, they’re only looking.

Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee released a report noting that few families have paid their premiums to start coverage – including only 55 percent of the families enrolled in Michigan.

Peters feels the pressure from public opinion, even more so now because he finds himself in a contested Senate seat he thought he would easily win. Between Peters’ track record of flip-flops, his vocal support for Obamacare and a strong opponent in Terri Lynn Land, he’s having a hard time convincing his pals in Washington he can win.

Gary ‘Pure Washington’ Peters is a classic politician: his support will go whichever way the political winds are blowing. We deserve better.