Little-Acorn
11-17-2013, 01:37 PM
If a private company had tried to run anything like Obamacare, making the same claims Obama did and conducting the same sales strategy and website operation, wouldn't all its officers be in JAIL by now, serving long sentences?
It's not hard to imagine the various liberals in government today, chortling with glee and declaring to all of us how they stopped the greedy, heartless, eeeevil CEOs, CFOs, and Advertising directors from taking advantage of the poor, helpless victims who became customers of such a deceptively advertised, expensive, and ripoff-prone scheme.
But since those liberals are the very ones doing the deceiving and ripping off, what are the chances we'll see the prosecutions that would have been made against members of the private sector who tried to do the same things?
P.S. Gotta love the name of the former FTC Commissioner describing all this. Precious.
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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363994/prosecute-healthcaregov-andrew-stiles
Prosecute HealthCare.gov?
The FTC has rules about deceptive advertising. But they don’t apply to the government.
by Andrew Stiles
November 15, 2013 12:00 AM
Conservatives often argue that the federal government should function more like a private business. Obamacare supporters should be grateful it does not, because otherwise HealthCare.gov would almost certainly run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as of the recently established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Orson Swindle, who served as an FTC commissioner from 1997 to 2005, says there are a number of practices that, if HealthCare.gov were a private entity, would result in its being “taken to the shed and horsewhipped” by government regulators.
President Obama’s oft-repeated falsehood, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — something the administration knew was untrue — would almost certainly be a textbook case of deceptive advertising, punishable under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practice in or affecting commerce.” This includes a “representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead the consumer,” such that the consumer would be “likely to have chosen differently but for the deception.”
Private companies engaged in HealthCare.gov’s kind of behavior would face severe consequences, Swindle tells National Review Online. “Businessmen would lose their businesses, salesmen would lose their licenses — that’s the kind of thing we are talking about here,” he says. “The bottom line is that no private entity would be allowed to get away with what the Obama administration is trying to get away with.”
Heather R. Higgins, president and CEO of Independent Women’s Voice, and founder of the Repeal Coalition, recently wrote on National Review Online that the GOP’s anti-Obamacare strategy should include demanding “that the standards that apply in the private sector to protect consumers against fraud, including bait-and-switch and determinations of liability, will apply to the government’s efforts as well.”
The federal government isn’t typically held to such standards; in fact, it’s somewhat frightening the extent to which it is able get away with behavior that would be unlawful in almost any other circumstance.
It's not hard to imagine the various liberals in government today, chortling with glee and declaring to all of us how they stopped the greedy, heartless, eeeevil CEOs, CFOs, and Advertising directors from taking advantage of the poor, helpless victims who became customers of such a deceptively advertised, expensive, and ripoff-prone scheme.
But since those liberals are the very ones doing the deceiving and ripping off, what are the chances we'll see the prosecutions that would have been made against members of the private sector who tried to do the same things?
P.S. Gotta love the name of the former FTC Commissioner describing all this. Precious.
------------------------------------------
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/363994/prosecute-healthcaregov-andrew-stiles
Prosecute HealthCare.gov?
The FTC has rules about deceptive advertising. But they don’t apply to the government.
by Andrew Stiles
November 15, 2013 12:00 AM
Conservatives often argue that the federal government should function more like a private business. Obamacare supporters should be grateful it does not, because otherwise HealthCare.gov would almost certainly run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as of the recently established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Orson Swindle, who served as an FTC commissioner from 1997 to 2005, says there are a number of practices that, if HealthCare.gov were a private entity, would result in its being “taken to the shed and horsewhipped” by government regulators.
President Obama’s oft-repeated falsehood, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — something the administration knew was untrue — would almost certainly be a textbook case of deceptive advertising, punishable under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practice in or affecting commerce.” This includes a “representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead the consumer,” such that the consumer would be “likely to have chosen differently but for the deception.”
Private companies engaged in HealthCare.gov’s kind of behavior would face severe consequences, Swindle tells National Review Online. “Businessmen would lose their businesses, salesmen would lose their licenses — that’s the kind of thing we are talking about here,” he says. “The bottom line is that no private entity would be allowed to get away with what the Obama administration is trying to get away with.”
Heather R. Higgins, president and CEO of Independent Women’s Voice, and founder of the Repeal Coalition, recently wrote on National Review Online that the GOP’s anti-Obamacare strategy should include demanding “that the standards that apply in the private sector to protect consumers against fraud, including bait-and-switch and determinations of liability, will apply to the government’s efforts as well.”
The federal government isn’t typically held to such standards; in fact, it’s somewhat frightening the extent to which it is able get away with behavior that would be unlawful in almost any other circumstance.