Dear Mark: I am puzzled. Recently I've been hearing liberals claim that the Affordable Care Act was a Republican idea and that we should stop complaining for this reason. I've heard a lot of whacky excuses in my life, but this one takes the cake. Where are they getting such ridiculous information? — Can't Be Can It?

Dear Can't Be: This notion that Obamacare is actually a conservative idea is just the latest attempt to deflect blame away from Democrats for this debacle. Democrats realize the albatross Obamacare has become and are looking for any way possible to disassociate themselves from this train wreck.

This "stretch" comes from an article published over 20 years ago by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. The article does, in fact, discuss that an "individual mandate" would be needed to implement universal health insurance.

Here's what Stuart Butler, one of the author's, had to say in 2012: "The confusion arises from the fact that 20 years ago, I held the view that as a technical matter, some form of requirement to purchase insurance was needed in a near-universal insurance market to avoid massive instability through "adverse selection" (insurers avoiding bad risks and healthy people declining coverage). At that time, President Clinton was proposing a universal health care plan, and Heritage and I devised a viable alternative."

Publishing an economic theory or idea is a far cry from actually putting a bill before congress, like the Democrats did with Obamacare. The reality is that only Democrats wrote the law, only Democrats voted for the law, only Democrats are implementing the law and only Democrats will choke on the law when the 2014 midterm elections arrive.

Dear Mark: I just received an encouraging email from the Whitehouse explaining how important Jan. 1 was for most Americans and that the tide is favorably turning for the Affordable Care Act after all of the glitches. Why don't you get off of the administration's back for once? — The Truth

Dear Truth: I received that same email from Whitehouse Deputy Senior Advisor, David Simas, that said "Americans across the country have new health insurance that starts today, thanks to the Affordable Care Act."

With the recent news that millions of Americans have lost their coverage and that the government can't even verify who has successfully enrolled in the exchanges or made payments, Mr. Simas' statement sounds more like a pipe dream. Of course, with pot being legalized in Colorado, we know what liberals like to put in their "pipes."

Dear Mark: I just read where a university is trying to ban the word "Obamacare." Granted, I'm not a fan of the president or his health care law, but I am a fan of the constitution and free speech no matter how idiotic the phrase. Are the thought police really becoming that bold on our college campuses? — Nervous Ned

Dear Nervous: Believe me, if liberals in academia thought they could banish certain words and phrases, they would in a heartbeat. Although, the AP Stylebook is doing a pretty good job of altering the language to suit its agenda; i.e. "undocumented worker" versus "illegal alien."

Fear not, because in this case, Michigan's Lake Superior State University has simply compiled a list of words from 2013 that it feels should be "banished from the Queen's English for misuse, overuse and general uselessness." In addition to "Obamacare," here are some of the other words the university thinks should be banned: "selfie," "T-Bone," and "twerking."

I was taught that you are judged by the company you keep, so let's see, a word implying narcissism, a car wreck, and jamming one's butt in the air to porn music, yep, I'd say "Obamacare" belongs with those other banned words.

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