Potemkin President Reenacts Moment He Heard 11 Million Enrolled in Obamacare

The White House propaganda machine never sleeps.

On Wednesday the White House released a strange video reenacting the moment HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell told President Obama that 11 million Americans had enrolled in Obamacare.

In a staged White House scene that would have impressed Grigory Potemkin, who erected fake villages along the banks of the Dnieper River to fool Empress Catherine II during her journey to Crimea in 1789, Burwell is shown explaining to the president, “By our preliminary estimates there are 11.4 million who have either signed up or re-enrolled in this period that started November 15th.”

“That’s great!” Obama recites from the script.

The camera switches back and forth between Obama’s reenacted conversation with Burwell and “asides” from Obama explaining what it all means from the Oval Office (which is nicely staged with a bowl of sumptuous-looking apples).

“Well, we just got great news today,” Obama says, looking into the camera. “During this open enrollment period for the Affordable Care act — a.k.a. Obamacare — 11.4 million people have either re-enrolled or enrolled for the first time.”

The president goes on to defend his healthcare takeover saying, “It’s working a little better than we anticipated. It’s certainly working a lot better than the critics anticipated early on.”

“Everywhere I go around the country I’m meeting individuals who come up and thank me. ”

It seems odd that the White House would release a video promoting Obamacare days after the close of the open enrollment period, which ended on February 15th. However, HHS announced that there would be a grace period extending until February 22 for individuals who were unable to enroll due to “longer than normal wait times” at the Marketplace call center.

Is it possible the “preliminary estimate” of 11 million is as fake as the reenactment video? It wouldn’t be the first time that HHS inflated the numbers, so you have to wonder if this video is an attempt to boost lower-than-anticipated enrollment figures.