On Thursday’s “The Kelly File,” Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume explained to host Megyn Kelly why even the so-called fix President Barack Obama proposed earlier in the day was fraught with problem of its own — and that it was meant to shift blame away from the administration.
Kelly asked Hume if Obama helped himself during Thursday’s press conference.
“Probably not very much, Megyn,” Hume said. “This is such a small effort here with all kinds of problems associated with it — whether it’s even possible for it to work, even if he’s legally authorized to have done it. I mean, I keep thinking about some insurance company going to federal court saying this is illegitimate. There is no constitutional or other legal authority for the president to have done this. And poof, whatever effect this has could be done. And the other thing, of course, is his answers while he was more apologetic than before in some ways and was saying the blame was on him. I think a lot of people’s answer would be, ‘Yeah, no kidding.’”
Obama’s new maneuvers could be deeply problematic for the insurance companies as well, he said.
“I must say, Megyn, I have my doubts as to whether he can,” Hume continued. “I also have doubts as to whether this is possible. You know, we have talked about the insurance companies, unlike the Obama administration, were ready for the law to roll out. And they took all the measures the law required them to take — to participate in the exchanges, to stop selling the no longer qualifying policies and all the rest of it. And what the president is now saying, ‘Oh, oops, well you can go on doing things kind of the way you were for another year.’ Well, they are really in no position to do that.”
As far as Obama’s objectives, Hume said it didn’t appear to him Obama was looking for an actual solution, but instead for a way to avoid blame.
“[H]e’s not looking to accomplish anything,” Hume said. “He’s looking to shift blame. He doesn’t want his law, and his party and himself to be blamed for cancellation notices. So he’s created this apparent fix that says, ‘OK, folks, you really can keep your policies. Sorry about that.’ Well, you know, I’m not sure that will work. When you think about it, it shouldn’t work. It’s dishonest.”
Hume predicted another wave of cancelations as the more of the law takes effect — and noted the media may have turned against Obama in a way it has never before.
“There is another train coming down the track and that is the employer mandate,” he said. “That was suspended. Once companies began to take a look at what they have to do to comply and so on, how many of those are going to dump people — people that are happy with their coverage, by the way, and are getting it tax-free as a benefit — how many of them will say, ‘Oh, this is great. I’m getting dumped into exchanges where I have to pay out of my pocket.’ If you’re not down the economic scale enough for a subsidy, how are they going to feel about that? Are they going to have another wave of cancellations of a different variety? And won’t that hit closer to the election? I think so. I think there is more trouble to come here. And this is just sort of the first taste of it.”
“And the other thing that is important here, Megyn, is something happened in the media that a myriad of other Obama issues — Benghazi and the IRS scandal — did not bring about and that was a huge segment of the mainstream media has turned against the president on this,” Hume continued. “They think he lied and they won’t say it that way, but that’s the skepticism with which he’s being treated. You saw it in CBS News’ Major Garrett’s question today. And the atmosphere is different in which he is operating. He doesn’t have the leeway he did before. You roll out some fakey-looking thing like this thing he did today, I’m not sure it sells.”