Not surprisingly, the President is contradicting himself. Not verbally, necessarily, but if you look at this health care debate logically, you can see it for yourself.
He starts off this sound bite above by "countering" the "absurd notion" that under HR 3200 "illegal immigrants are to be covered." Problem with this claim: the Bill as it is written, has no verification mechanism to ensure those who access the system are in fact, American citizens. So the net effect is that it WILL cover illegals. The fact that on multiple occasions Democrats in the House committees have blocked provisions that would establish a verification mechanism proves that this is their backdoor method of ensuring that illegals will be covered under Obamacare. If you think we have an illegal immigration problem now, imagine the headache - financial and otherwise - that will come across the border looking for treatment if and when this monster gets passed in its current form.
Next, he claims that it is misinformation to say that this plan will involve government takeover of health care. Again, this is stealthy slight-of-hand to make this claim. No where in the bill does it actually SAY that private insurance will be eliminated, but if you look at the claims made by its proponents here, isn't it safe to be suspicious? And can a private business (i.e., private insurers) really compete with a government that hasn't had to balance its books for years? The Federal Government, folks, can borrow for an eternity and stay in business - we know this because it has done so for most of the last 100 years. Private insurers can't, and the Democrats who support this thing know that. Once the private market dries up, its over. There will be nothing but the Public Option (or Co Ops, same thing). Then we will be locked into single payer. Again, follow the logic. "For now, wink wink to my single payer allies, you can keep your private coverage."
The next claim made by Obama in the clip above is that abortion will not be provided with taxpayer dollars. The President here is counting on the fact that people are not reading the bill. As John Sexton at Verum Serum points out in a post last week, Annenburg's Fact Check finds that (emphasis in the original):
"for (abortions not provided by Medicaid), the Capps amendment leaves it to the secretary of Health and Human Services to decide whether or not they will be covered. It says, 'Nothing in this Act shall be construed as preventing the public health insurance option from providing' abortion services that would not be legal for Medicaid coverage. Says the NRLC’s Johnson: 'The Capps Amendment MANDATES that the public plan cover any Medicaid-fundable abortions, and AUTHORIZES the secretary to cover all other abortions. … [F]rom day one, she [Secretary Kathleen Sebelius] is authorized to pay for them all. And, she will.'”
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is a known advocate of Abortion "rights". If the bill, as it is written, gives her office the leeway to determine on a case by case basis which abortions will be funded through the public option, I think it follows logically that under this provision, taxpayers will be paying for abortions that are not the result of Rape or Life of Mother. Mr. President, we've read the bill.
Lastly, Obama claims that we aren't going to "pull the plug on Grandma". Everyone in the room chuckles. He makes us feel reassured, doesn't he? Again, follow the logic. We shared the post by Economist Cliff Asness from his "Stumbling on Truth" blog a few days ago. As Asness points out, if the government is going to eventually be controlling health care because its competition has dried up; If there are limited hospital beds and a nation of people covered for medical expenses by a sole provider; If there are a limited number of doctors and a seemingly limitless number of aging people being "insured", the resource scarcity is eventually going to empower the government to reserve the right to .... pull the plug on Grandma. Asness was correct when he makes the case that seems so lost on so many single payer advocates (paraphrase): There is no way an unlimited number of people can have access equally to a limited number of resources. Plain and simple. Once the government purse strings are providing for the entire nation's health care, its not too inconceivable for said government to start making these kind of choices for us.
What's more, Obama has eluded to this on more than one occasion. We all know the infamous health care forum where a woman spoke of her 100 year old Grandmother needing a pacemaker. Obama's retort? Maybe we need to consider whether or not she should just take a pain pill. And that's not the only instance. Bloomberg here tells the story of Obama's grandmother's hip replacement surgery
"during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a 'sustainable model' for health care."
Folks, let me cut to the chase here: Barack Obama and the Democrats who support this bill are counting on the "Uncle Barry" personna to convince as many people as possible that this is NOT the trojan horse that it really is. Obama and the Single Payer Democrats know that their dreams of Single Payer Universal Coverage (and its traveling companions of state-funded abortion, coverage for illegals, and monopoly, rationing and control of health care) are things you will not support if presented openly. So, they claim that the details of bill - which if followed to their logical ends spell out exactly the Single Payer nightmares that we the people fear - aren't what they truly are. Uncle Barry and his soothing voice are counting on you not knowing the details of the bill. All you need is to sit on Uncle Barry's lap, Mr & Mrs America, and trust him.
That's the net effect of the video here above. Trust him. Sorry, Mr. President. Something happened on the way to the Town Hall. We the people read the Bill and followed its prescriptions logically.
And we don't trust you.
******UPDATE*****
In all my haste to get this posted, I left out the article that prompted me to write it in the first place. Hat tip to my Facebook Friend Gene Fama, Economic Soulmate and son of the infamous Chicago economist who shares the same name.
Betsy McCaughey writes today in the Wall Street Journal a fascinating piece about Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the President's Chief of Staff. Dr Emanuel is a Health Policy Advisor to the President and, if you will read the post you'll discover that he is an enemy of the Hippocratic Oath and a proponent of Health Care Rationing.
Again, folks, follow it logically.
