If you’re a listener to my show(s) or have read my blog before, you know I’m skeptical when it comes to government. There’s not a whole lot our current president has done that I can say I’ve agreed with. A few things, but not much.
We all know, whether we agree with him or not, what the president has said about health care. Frankly, he’s been all over the board from “I am a proponent of a single payer health care system,” (2003 in a speech to the AFL-CIO) to “”I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter.” (August 11, 2009) to “…any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange a one stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits costs and track records of a variety of plans including a public option to increase competition to keep the insurance companies honest, ” (7/18/2009-weekly address) to “The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have … This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.” (August 16, 2009). So, pardon me if I listen to our president speak, then verify it all every time.
I will quote from my OWN blog on the first couple of things the president had to say tonight. You know why? Because he did it again:
“I took office amid the worst recession in half a century.” REALITY: Why don’t any of these network stooges ever call him out on this? Why does this president and all democrats get to forget about Jimmy Carter — the founding father of the misery index?
“We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month…” REALITY: CNN Money, in a report from January 9, 2009 says, “ A sobering U.S. Labor Department jobs report Friday showed the economy lost 524,000 jobs in December and 1.9 million in the year’s final four months, after the credit crisis began in September.” If I’m doing my math correctly, that’s a little more than 400,000 per month for the final four months.. just over half as many as our president cites. Further, the article puts the total job loss for 2008 at 2.6 million. Again, my remedial math tells me, that’s on average a little more than 200,000 per month for the year.
“…we’ve been able to pull our economy back from the brink. We took steps to stabilize our financial institutions and our housing market and we passed the Recovery Act that has already saved jobs and created new ones.” REALITY: The economy is closer to the brink now than ever. The budget deficit has ballooned to over a trillion dollars, the president cannot quantify these imaginary jobs he’s saved or created and if throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at financial, automotive and insurance institutions in order to control their every move is synonymous with “stabilizing” them, please don’t “stabilize” anything else!
Granted his quotes from tonight were not EXACTLY as the last speech.. but, close enough that the context was exactly the same. So, the above stands.
Tonight the president changed the game again. He, along with other big government-takeover-private-business democrats have been claiming there are nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. The number most often used has been 46 million. I have been telling you bogus this number is for a long time. In that number, there are at least 9.7 million NON-citizens including illegals. That isn’t my number — it’s from the US Census. Tonight the president dropped this on us:
“There are now more than thirty million American citizens who cannot get coverage.”
Huh? Has he been listening to my shows? Maybe — more likely — he was setting us up for what he said later:
“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up – under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.” Let’s see.. he had been saying 46 million… but, now says 30 — so, did he delete the other 16 million for the speech? BTW, in HR3200, the House Bill he’s touting, there is NO VERIFICATION REQUIREMENT as to the insured citizenship or legal status. So, Mr. President, not so much. And, there’s nothing in the bill that says abortions will NOT be paid.
As predicted, the president broke this old favorite out:
“First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” WRONG! As illustrated so well by (R) Rep. Mike Rogers – Michigan in my interview with him, the smallest change in the plan you have could lead to your being dropped from that plan and pushed to the public option. The president forgot to mention that.
He continued to address the “bogus claims” out there with this line:
“The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.” Here’s where he’s grabbing some of the terminology used by the opposition against them. I’ve never claimed “death panels” would exist in the plan, but “end of life counseling” would. The government would pay doctors with OUR money to break the bad news to an afflicted person that life could be coming to an end. Kinda like what happened to my father at the VA. Thankfully, they were wrong. BTW, who runs the VA? Just wondering. Also, the president didn’t get into it exactly how, but the way he plans to pay for this plan is about half with cuts to current medical care. MEDICARE and MEDICAID would be cut. Hmm.. who gets those services? The elderly and the poor. So much for it being morally right to pass his plan.
As far as the claim that there will be NO penalty for those who choose as free, liberated Americans to NOT buy health insurance. The president tonight admitted they WILL be forced to buy coverage:
“Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those – particularly the young and healthy – who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don’t sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for those people’s expensive emergency room visits. If some businesses don’t provide workers health care, it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when their workers get sick, and gives those businesses an unfair advantage over their competitors. And unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek – especially requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions – just can’t be achieved.”
As far as the public option going by the wayside… not so much. I was stunned as I watch O’Reilly on Fox after the speech claim the president tossed the public option out.. umm, here’s what the president said:
“But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange. Let me be clear – it would only be an option for those who don’t have insurance. No one would be forced to choose it, and it would not impact those of you who already have insurance. In fact, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, we believe that less than 5% of Americans would sign up.” So he gave in to the liberal wing of the party. The public option remains, and then allegedly no one would be forced to choose it. Fat chance!!
As for how he’ll pay for it? He never said, exactly. He did say this:
“First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.” Trust but verify Mr. President. That’s easy for you to say, but it’s in no current bill being considered. And, the Congressional Budget Office disagrees with your ability to NOT increase the deficit.
He does talk of paying for some of the plan.. and here’s where he admits funding will be stripped from current plans:
“…we’ve estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system – a system that is currently full of waste and abuse. Right now, too much of the hard-earned savings and tax dollars we spend on health care doesn’t make us healthier.” Okay, so current plans will be cut to pay for new plans we can’t afford.
President Obama is adept at always deflecting negativity from himself and backwards at fmr. President Bush, and he didn’t miss an opportunity to do it in this speech:
“Add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over ten years – less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.” A. the CBO says it will be more than a trillion and B. you can’t spend us into oblivion because we defended America’s interests in Afghanistan and Iraq or because the previous president gave tax cuts to ALL AMERICANS WHO PAY TAXES!!
This line actually made me laugh:
“It’s a plan that incorporates ideas from many of the people in this room tonight – Democrats and Republicans. And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open.” Umm, except yesterday when the big pow-wow on healthcare was by invitation only.. and only democrats were invited. When asked why that was, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “I don’t understand the question.”
Then then big finish — the summoning of the spirit of Ted Kennedy himself:
“I received one of those letters a few days ago. It was from our beloved friend and colleague, Ted Kennedy. He had written it back in May, shortly after he was told that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered upon his death.” Right then, there were close-ups of Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy’s widow. There seemed to be an attempt at tears.. but, they never came. The Vice President sat behind the president and appeared to poke himself in the eye a few times in an attempt to work up some water works. It just didn’t happen.
So, what’s my conclusion? We heard nothing new tonight except the fact that the president is willing to say anything to get his way. He also made sure to complain about the “special interests” trying to stop reform when, in fact, the special interests — labor unions — are behind why he wants it so much. In the bill there is a bail out for the unions which have shortfalls to the tune of 10 billion dollars in their retiree medical plans. The money was pain in, but the dues were mismanaged and now you and I get to bail them out. I don’t think so. Stay vigilant, stay strong and don’t give in to the Obama bull!
but, what do I know?
I’d love your comments.
j