The Patriot Post® · ObamaCare Drag Show Aims to Heel

It looks like the President really is skirting the issues with ObamaCare. Thanks to a new partnership with a Louisiana drag queen show, the administration thinks it’s finally be tapping into a market it needs to boost enrollment numbers. With the help of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a troupe of transvestites called Wednesday Night Tea has started promoting HealthCare.gov as part of its act. (If the law lacked legitimacy before, wait until a cast of cross-dressing men get through with it!)

According to the Washington Post, the show linked up with ObamaCare through Out2Enroll, the government’s new outreach to homosexuals and transgenders. In conjunction with the administration and outside groups, the Shreveport performers aim to register 300,000 people in the federal exchange. And just in time for Christmas, Out2Enroll is kicking off a social media campaign that organizers promise “will have ‘naughty’ elements as well as holiday cheer.” As if Americans weren’t convinced already, this is just further evidence of how backwards the White House strategy is.

By funneling more money to the LGBT community, the administration is only making the system more unsustainable. To properly funding the system, healthy applicants – not a high risk pool fed by even higher risk behavior. As taxpayers are about to find out, the system wasn’t designed to withstand the volume of elderly, sick, and at-risk patients most likely to enroll. Either the exchanges will buckle under the weight or the government (i.e. taxpayers) will start shouldering even higher costs to compensate for the medical demand.

In exchange for homosexuals’ help, the administration is sweetening the pot for the community by making a first-ever concession for same-sex couples. Under a rule announced Monday, the IRS is giving homosexual spouses the right to apply for health care tax breaks retroactively – an advantage no other taxpayers have had. As the AP explains, “Usually an employee must make their selections about who qualifies for those tax breaks before a tax year begins.” Letting same-sex “spouses” reach back and claim those benefits now is unprecedented – but unsurprising, given this administration’s pro-homosexual partiality.

In the meantime, if Louisiana’s health-care-in-heels doesn’t reel in the registrations, the administration has a back-up plan. At tomorrow’s ObamaCare event at the White House, it’s moms to the rescue! In a rare joint appearance, the President and First Lady are hosting women who they hope can lean on their older kids (26 and older) to enroll. “Women have a huge influence on their families and are a key demographic for the ongoing effort to ensure that consumers know about the benefits they can access through the health care law,” said one White House official. According to the latest polling, the administration has its work cut out for it with women, where the law is bleeding support. The Hill points out that “A Kaiser poll released earlier this month found that four in 10 college-educated Caucasian women hold a ‘very unfavorable’ view of the law – 10 points worse than a month ago.”

Maybe they, like countless other Americans, are starting to experience the system and its defects firsthand. Making matters worse, male and female customers are being subjected to one of the law’s greatest scams: the $67 million “navigator” program. Based on a new report from the House Oversight Committee, these navigators don’t have a compass – moral or otherwise. If they aren’t incompetent at helping people register for ObamaCare, they’re corrupt. After interviews with state chapters and HHS liaisons, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was stunned to see the program’s lack of basic safeguards against fraud and privacy leaks. In some offices, navigators were feeding shoppers misinformation, exposing sensitive information, and not securing personal data like social security numbers and income levels. Worse, others “encouraged consumers to commit tax fraud by underreporting income to qualify for ObamaCare’s health insurance subsidies.” Without federal background checks for workers or any meaningful supervision, the entire program is ripe for abuse.

So is the rest of the law, according to the courts – and no abuse is greater than the HHS mandate. Monday, another judge ruled against the administration’s overreach, ordering faith-based groups to pay for drugs that can destroy a human embryo. New York’s Catholic Archdiocese had filed the suit, arguing that the mandate violated the religious freedom of their two schools and two health care systems. Judge Brian Cogan agreed, and issued the first permanent injunction against the rule in the 88 cases filed so far. “The court has correctly cut through the artificial construct which essentially made faith-based organizations other than churches and other houses of worship second-class citizens with second-class First Amendment protections.”

In Georgia, Tomorrow Never Dys

If 75% of Americans think Christmas should be celebrated in public schools, they’re sure to be happy about a decision from Statesboro, Georgia. Earlier this month, the Bulloch School District got plenty of blowback for a new policy clamping down on teachers’ rights. In an email to staff, administrators ordered employees to walk away from student-led prayers, holiday symbols, Bible verse screensavers, Christmas card displays, and anything else remotely religious. Hundreds of people turned out at the school board meeting to protest the censorship – including Liberty Institute’s Jeremy Dys.

After passionate pleas from the town and a legal argument from Liberty, Bulloch has decided to back off and reverse their week-old rules. The decision was met by cheers, especially by District employees. “While the Board’s commitment to religious liberty will become more apparent by its consistent, future actions… today it is clear that they are listening to the voices of the voters who put them into office,” Jeremy said. Once again, the forces of political correctness back down in the shadow of a community standing up. Let this be an inspiration to you parents, who’ve asked what you can do to turn the tide in education. Get involved. Run for a spot on your local school board and change the policies contrary to our nation’s Christian heritage!

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.