Surprise! Obama Lies about healthcare bill, slanders doctors and Cambridge policeman

Will Malven
7/23/2009

President Obama is a master at speaking a lot of words while saying nothing, but last night's performance was simply amazing. He held a one hour "press conference" in which he took just 11 questions and spent 41 minutes answering them. Wow! Just wow.

As for the content of his statement and answers, has there ever been a more accomplished liar in the White House? Obama puts even Bill Clinton to shame in the ease with which he lies.

The topic of this alleged "press conference" was the floundering congressional health care reform bill, the text of which can be found here. To say that the president put his spin on the plan would be an understatement of historic proportions.

When asserting that this plan will broaden coverage to every American without increasing federal costs, our Liar in Chief uses an interesting rhetorical ruse...he is claiming credit for doing something for the American people while nothing is done until after he is firmly ensconced in the White House for his second term. When it comes time to pay the piper President Obama will be untouchable.

I've already covered the old canard about "you can keep your present coverage if you are happy with it" in previous blogs, Kennedy healthcare plan: buying a pig in a poke and Lawmakers clash over cost of health care overhaul (let the games begin), but I have listed it here again with some of the other more memorable lies Obama told last night (it would be impossible to list them all).

• "Six months ago, I took office amid the worst recession in half a century. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month and our financial system was on the verge of collapse."
  
  The recession of 1980-1982 was much deeper.


• "As a result of the action we took in those first weeks, we have 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 a Recovery Act that has already saved jobs and created new ones;"
  
  Excuse me? This economy has lost 2.5 million jobs in the past four months. The President Obama and Democrats in Congress promised that the "stimulus" package would provide a quick injection of money into the economy. They are now claiming that it was never intended as a quick fix.


• "I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade – and I mean it.
  
  A lie by omission. The Congressional plan is back-loaded with much of the cost to the federal government occurring after 2012 (after the 2012 Presidential elections have concluded). Interestingly, the number of Americans this plan will cover will not increase until that same time. The truth is that according to the CBO the current congressional plan will increase the national deficit by $239 Billion between the years 2010 and 2019. Virtually all of that additional tax-burden will accrue after 2012.


• "If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.
  
  This is a lie by implication. Obama is implying that the plan currently before Congress will prevent healthcare costs from "skyrocketing." But the Director of the CBO, Douglas Elmendorf (a Democrat appointee) testified before Congress that the bill would increase federal costs:
  

  CBO Chief: Health Bills To Increase Federal Costs
  
  CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – HEALTH
  By David Clarke and Edward Epstein
  July 16, 2009 – 12:52 p.m.
  
  The health care overhauls released to date would increase, not reduce, the burgeoning long-term health costs facing the government, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said Thursday.
  
  That is not a message likely to sit well with congressional Democrats or the Obama administration, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., said Thursday she thinks lawmakers can find ways to wring more costs out of the health system as they continue work on their bills.
  
  The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Democrat Max Baucus of Montana, who has not yet released a bill, said his panel is acutely aware of the long-term cost concern. “Clearly our committee will do what it can,” he said. “We are very seriously concerned about that issue. We very much want to come up with a bill that bends the cost curve.”

  Uh-oh Mr. President looks like you have a little difficulty with the facts.


• If you already have health insurance, the reform we're proposing will provide you with more security and more stability. It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it.
  
  As long as nothing changes in your plan. If your insurer makes any change to the terms, conditions, or benefits (like copays or deductibles) your policy is no longer qualified and you will be forced to move to a "qualified plan" as defined by a commissioner. Additionally, said insurer cannot enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day the new healthcare plan comes into effect. Pages 16 & 17 of the bill.


• "...we know that we're spending -- on average we, here in the United States, are spending about $6,000 more than other advanced countries where they're just as healthy and I've said this before, if you found out that your neighbor had gotten the same car for $6,000 less, you'd want to figure out how to get that deal."
  
  People in those other nations are not getting the same health care Americans are getting, that is why they all come to our nation to get treatment for conditions that their own nation's health care system either won't provide or ration thus requiring long waiting times.

As I said, this is just a smattering of the many lies he interspersed in his mostly meaningless blather as he avoided answering any questions of genuine substance.

Additionally during this performance, he managed to slander the Cambridge Police for properly arresting Professor Henry Gates saying they "acted stupidly." He also slandered doctors, accusing them of prescribing treatments based on how much money they would be paid rather than assigning treatment based on the needs of the patient.

The President's performance really was spectacular; a tour de force of blaming, lying, and obfuscation.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!!

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