By Daniel Heller
Oops. I meant, the President. Sorry. But you have to admit the man can easily be confused with our Communist friend Fidel considering Obama has given some 265 speeches in his first 232 days in office. Some of us are still waiting for our mortgages and gas to be paid for by the President. Of course, (priorities, priorities) first comes healthcare.
Okay. His speech tonight: As classy and un-presidential as ever, he attacked and slandered those big, scary private American citizens on the radio such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh by calling them liars. Then he lied himself to the American people. That is, before he exploited the death of Ted Kennedy as an enchanting endnote to the 45-minute sermon, lecturing us on the moral imperative to seize the means and mode of healthcare production. Short and sweet, the speech was not.
Now, just to be fair, here’s one thing he didn’t lie about: “…under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.” He’s only breaking his campaign promise not to raise taxes on anybody who makes under $250,000 a year here, and reversing his position against a single-payer system while running against Hilary Clinton. (That’s not really a lie. Just politics as usual.) In other words, you will be forced. Or you will be fined. You will face the full strength of the federal police. And if you resist, your life will be ruined. Obama said so much tonight. And we should give him credit for his honesty.
Rhetorically, here’s an interesting truth he used, and then twisted, to support a lie: “consumers do better when there is choice and competition.” So, true. But government price controls do anything but lead to free market competition. They destroy it. (And since when did Democrats start defending market competition and the profit incentive?) Want competition? Allow insurance companies to compete over state lines. Want lower prices? A “loser pays” tort reform would ease pressure off physicians to pay millions of dollars in malpractice insurance annually, the cost of which they pass, legitimately, off to the consumer. Considering we have a government of lawyers, tort reform’s not going to happen.
To top it all off, here’s the biggest whopper: “First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future.” Sure. Senator Baucus’ healthcare bill only costs $900 billion—and that’s a conservative estimate. It’s more likely to cost over a trillion. Frank Luntz asked whether we want a government that has “the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the Post Office” to run our healthcare industry. Add a touch of Obama rhetoric that matches only El Jefe in its long-windedness, and you do start to wonder, should Obama just smoke cigars instead of cigarettes?
Okay. His speech tonight: As classy and un-presidential as ever, he attacked and slandered those big, scary private American citizens on the radio such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh by calling them liars. Then he lied himself to the American people. That is, before he exploited the death of Ted Kennedy as an enchanting endnote to the 45-minute sermon, lecturing us on the moral imperative to seize the means and mode of healthcare production. Short and sweet, the speech was not.
Now, just to be fair, here’s one thing he didn’t lie about: “…under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.” He’s only breaking his campaign promise not to raise taxes on anybody who makes under $250,000 a year here, and reversing his position against a single-payer system while running against Hilary Clinton. (That’s not really a lie. Just politics as usual.) In other words, you will be forced. Or you will be fined. You will face the full strength of the federal police. And if you resist, your life will be ruined. Obama said so much tonight. And we should give him credit for his honesty.
Rhetorically, here’s an interesting truth he used, and then twisted, to support a lie: “consumers do better when there is choice and competition.” So, true. But government price controls do anything but lead to free market competition. They destroy it. (And since when did Democrats start defending market competition and the profit incentive?) Want competition? Allow insurance companies to compete over state lines. Want lower prices? A “loser pays” tort reform would ease pressure off physicians to pay millions of dollars in malpractice insurance annually, the cost of which they pass, legitimately, off to the consumer. Considering we have a government of lawyers, tort reform’s not going to happen.
To top it all off, here’s the biggest whopper: “First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future.” Sure. Senator Baucus’ healthcare bill only costs $900 billion—and that’s a conservative estimate. It’s more likely to cost over a trillion. Frank Luntz asked whether we want a government that has “the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of the Post Office” to run our healthcare industry. Add a touch of Obama rhetoric that matches only El Jefe in its long-windedness, and you do start to wonder, should Obama just smoke cigars instead of cigarettes?
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