The authors present an experimental study of a Kerr oscillator driven by a squeezing process, which creates an effective static two-well potential in the phase space. They observe multiple simultaneous two-fold degeneracies in the spectrum of the oscillator, which can be turned on and off by adjusting the frequency of the squeezing drive. These degeneracies are explained by the destructive interference of tunnel paths in the classically forbidden region of the double-well potential. By exploiting this interference, the authors demonstrate a peaked enhancement of the incoherent well-switching lifetime, creating a protected cat qubit in the ground state manifold of the oscillator. This work illustrates the relationship between degeneracies and noise protection in a driven quantum system, providing a means to control tunneling in a way that is independent of the barrier height. The experimental setup involves a superconducting circuit with a SNAIL-transmon, readout resonator, and Purcell filter, and the results are validated through detailed measurements and theoretical analysis. The findings have implications for quantum computing and quantum information, offering a new paradigm for fault-tolerant syndrome measurement in quantum error correction.The authors present an experimental study of a Kerr oscillator driven by a squeezing process, which creates an effective static two-well potential in the phase space. They observe multiple simultaneous two-fold degeneracies in the spectrum of the oscillator, which can be turned on and off by adjusting the frequency of the squeezing drive. These degeneracies are explained by the destructive interference of tunnel paths in the classically forbidden region of the double-well potential. By exploiting this interference, the authors demonstrate a peaked enhancement of the incoherent well-switching lifetime, creating a protected cat qubit in the ground state manifold of the oscillator. This work illustrates the relationship between degeneracies and noise protection in a driven quantum system, providing a means to control tunneling in a way that is independent of the barrier height. The experimental setup involves a superconducting circuit with a SNAIL-transmon, readout resonator, and Purcell filter, and the results are validated through detailed measurements and theoretical analysis. The findings have implications for quantum computing and quantum information, offering a new paradigm for fault-tolerant syndrome measurement in quantum error correction.