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7 Quick Thoughts About Last Night’s Obama Health Care Speech
Written By : John Hawkins

1) Wilson’s “You lie” outburst is a political plus, not a minus because the discussion over it, even from people criticizing or disagreeing with him, will focus an inordinate amount of attention on the fact that Obama is lying and that illegal aliens will be able to get coverage under the bill.

2) Obama’s insurance coverage rhetoric was the stuff of fantasyland. If insurance companies have limited rates, can’t refuse anyone, and can’t kick people off their plans for lying to them, how do they survive? That’s a description of a government program, not insurance.

3) Many people have treated this speech as if it’s a signal from Obama that the public option is optional. To the contrary, he actually spent a great deal of time making it clear that he wants the public option, whether it’s called the public option, co-ops, or whatever. That indicates a certain path the bill will have to take: the Blue Dogs will have to be rolled in the House and the Dems will have to pursue reconciliation in the Senate, because no bill with the public option in it can possibly get 60 votes.

4) Another glaring public option problem was the fact that Obama was touting it as nationwide competition for insurance companies while also saying that it wouldn’t be subsidized by the government and that “we believe that less than 5% of Americans would sign up.” Well, no government run business can compete on an even footing with private industry. It either has to be subsidized or have the rules rewritten to favor it. Furthermore, if only 5% of Americans will sign up, how is it going to provide nationwide competition to the insurance industry? Moreover, if it is going to cover so few people, why are liberals so hellbent on making sure it’s in the plan? It’s also worth noting that Obama did nothing to address the public comments made by people like Barney Frank who’ve already admitted that the public option was just another way to get to single payer.

5) Obama spent a great deal of time talking about how he is going to cut waste out of Medicare to fund their new health care initiative. Of course, if the government were capable of doing that, Medicare wouldn’t be breaking the budget in the first place. Moreover, after what we’ve seen so far, why would anybody think that Barack Obama has the capability or even the desire to play the Tom Coburn/Jim DeMint role with Medicare? Moreover, if Barack Obama is so sure we can clawback hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare waste, why hasn’t he already started doing it?

6) The “do it for Ted Kennedy” pitch near the end was pretty nauseating. Immediately after hearing this…

He never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick; and he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance; what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent – there is something that could make you better, but I just can’t afford it.

…my thought was that if Ted could imagine the “sheer terror and helplessness” of being left to suffocate/drown to death in a car by a self-centered, drunken career politician who cared more about not being embarrassed than saving your life, then Mary Jo Kopechne would be alive today.

7) Obviously, judging by that speech, Barack Obama has come to the conclusion that the American people are stupid and the mainstream media will back him on anything he says. He didn’t make any kind of serious effort to address the many serious, substantial, and thoughtful criticisms of his plan that have been made. It was simply, as per usual, anybody who says anything bad about the plan is lying.

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  • http://www.thepiratescove.us William_Teach

    You could almost really stop with #1. The Wilson issue has almost completely stomped on Barry's speech. It seems to be all that anyone is talking about. Have had CNN and MSNBC on at the store on our Direct TV link (sound off, of course,) and all i see is Wilson.

    It is the big story in the MSM.

    It is all over Memeorandum and other similar sites.

    The Usual Hyperventilating Jack*sses on the Left have dialed up their apoplexy to Force 10 (granted, that is only up 2 notches from their usual seethe-o-meter level) and are writing furiously about Wilson.

    Obama's speech and any content are virtually being ignored.

    Way to go Joe! Good job! Meant in all seriousness. He took over Barry's Big Adventure.

  • canddmf

    The AP reported the outburst as:

    "but a little-known South Carolina Republican may have done more than the president’s combative speech to unify besieged Democrats around health care reform"

    I don't recall that kind of reporting whenever the Democrats boo'd President Bush.

  • http://Kingfisher Kingfisher

    Number one alone forced the issue onto open discussion. Whenever the left floods the blogs (like RWN) with intentional lies, you know they're scared. I didn't watch the speech but I know all about it now, thanks to the news media. The last thing the libs want is attention focused on this.

    Obama claimed that his new system would pay for itself by simply getting rid of fraud and abuse. Since Medicaid is the official US socialized medicine program, then why is a new bill necessary? Simply fix the fraud and abuse in Medicaid and it will no longer head for bankruptcy. This is why the left avoids the topic.

    Let's not forget that even if this program was passed as-is it can be changed later.

    The “do it for Ted Kennedy” pitch near the end was pretty nauseating.

    I'm curious if the libs remember that it was Ted Kennedy who created the legislature for HMO's.
    http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/tedvsted.htm

  • Sammy

    In order for Wilson's outburst to really hit home, there needs to be some reporter somewhere that can ask the relevant follow up question that will expose Obama's deceitfulness on this issue. That question needs to go something along the lines of… If there is no system in place to qualify the legal status for those attempting to use the government option, how are you going to prevent the illegal immigrants from accessing the system?

  • bob_the_great

    If you'd like to see what a competing state run insurance plan looks like, all you need to do is look at Florida's Citizens Insurance – the "Insurer of Last Resort". I don't know the latest numbers, but it is probably the largest insurer in Florida and in many cases the only one available. Florida thought only a few people would need it (ie 5%) and that it would simply back up the private guys. Turns out the private insurers decided they didn't have to take risky policies and would let Citizens take them instead.

    When I lived in Tampa, State Farm (at one point the largest insurer in Florida) was not writing policies west of I-75 in the Tampa Bay area (this started in about 2004). State Farm has since pulled out of the state.

    At one point, Citizens had to raise its rates (up to triple) to cover claims and it was already artifically high to discourage people from using it. It was threatening to bankrupt the state at a couple points if rates weren't raised and something (hurricane) happened.

  • http://guardian.blogdrive.com/ CavalierX

    how are you going to prevent the illegal immigrants from accessing the system?

    Liberals obviously believe it will work the same as gun laws — illegals will simply stop at the entrance to a hospital and say "Oh, damn — we aren't allowed to get treatment in there. Let's just go home and die." Only it won't sound so sad, cause they'll be saying it in a foreign gibberish and Liberals will just tell themselves the illegals are saying something happy.

  • Sammy

    Some other good questions to the Messiah to reaffirm Wilson's charge during the speech…

    How are you going to prevent some federal judge from declaring that illegal immigrants have to receive access to the public option after the fact, much as these judges have in the past also required other benefits and rights accorded to this group?

    Since you are on the record as supporting legalization for the majority of illegal immigrants, doesn't that essentially mean that these people will in fact get access to Obamacare once you are able to secure Comprehensive Immigration Reform?

  • D-Vega

    Illegals will receive the care anyways, as they do now. Emergency rooms cover illegals, and that's where illegals go. It's red herring to phrase it as if they don't receive it now.

    The question is whether as a part of this reform will illegals be barred from receiving the public option.

    According the bill, they won't. As Cav pointed out, how will you know or verify? That is the question.

    But the bill as it stands now, illegals are barred from the public option.

    Regarding the comment as to whether its a plus or minus depends. Does this give the Dems unity & strength? Because whether it gives Republicans unity & strength is irrelevant.

    Obama never said insurance companies must have limited rates, can’t refuse anyone, and can’t kick people off their plans for lying to them. Lying to them? Having a pre-existing condition (like acne) is not lying to them. Again, a disengenuous comment that is irrelevant to both the issue, and to what Obama said.

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    well, you according to the house bill you cannot ask about immigration status. So there is really no way to stop it.

    In fact you could get people flying here with visas, signing up for the plan, (remember you can't ask them where they come from) then getting some expensive procedure done at our expense, then fly home.

  • Mike_M

    The speech was a dud, that much is obvious. Why else would the media be so obsessed with Wilson?

    The coming Palin response will be the shotgun blast to the head of this shambling zombie plan, and Congress will bail as the poll numbers start to drop.

  • D-Vega

    You can hope, Mike.

    But it's far from over.

    And Palin I guess is reaching messianic status now, huh? She's the Palibama?

  • Sammy

    "But the bill as it stands now, illegals are barred from the public option."

    The bill could state in bold 24 point type that illegals are barred from the public option, but if there is no mechanism to verify one's status it is as effective as tit's on a boar. The Democrats, purposefully rejected any and all amendments that would have put any kind of enforcement mechanism in place which is amazing when you consider that it was over 1,000 pages and included details far less important.

    Make no mistake, the Democrats want the illegals to get coverage while making it look like they don't. If they can get a block of potentially 12 to 20 million hooked up to yet one more entitlement think how many votes that means in the years ahead. Of course they realize the political unpopularity of giving them these benefits now, so instead they just fail to include any effective means for preventing the illegals from getting the benefits.

    Barry telling us that illegals won't get Obamacare is like the chief of the Las Vegas police department telling us that there isn't any Prostitution in Las Vegas because it is specifically prohibited by law — the only difference is that the LVPD at least makes a few efforts at enforcement whereas out Federal government will make no attempt whatsoever to stop illegals from accessing Obamacare.

  • smelvertising

    The bill could state in bold 24 point type that illegals are barred from the public option, but if there is no mechanism to verify one's status it is as effective as tit's on a boar.

    Paper doesn't stop bullets. Liberals' inability to understand this shouldn't surprise; it's all about intent, not results. If it ever became about results… none of them would ever be allowed anywhere near a public office.

  • Mike_M

    "And Palin I guess is reaching messianic status now, huh? She's the Palibama?"

    No vega, we worship God, not liberalism and its icons. I know it must make you uncomfortable to think that Palin survived the liberal smear machine and wrested control of the health care debate from your messiah, but we're not going to deify her for it. Just give credit to one of the few people willing to put her butt on the line to speak out against runaway government and its cheerleaders in the servile media.

  • http://rightwingrocker.blogspot.com RightWingRocker

    Excellent information from Hawk here, but he left out one key issue, which happens to be the most important…

    The United States Constitution does not authorize the federal government to be doing any of this.

    Go read it. I gave you the link.

    RWR
    http://www.rightwingrocker.com

  • http://rightwingrocker.blogspot.com RightWingRocker
  • http://rightwingrocker.blogspot.com RightWingRocker

    Hawk really ought to get that fixed.

    RWR
    http://www.rightwingrocker.com

  • http://wastingtimewithalex.com/ AlexinCT

    But the bill as it stands now, illegals are barred from the public option.

    If you have people like the ones that already turn a blind eye to this now and often even run sanctuary cities, this provision is meaningless Vega. You are not telling me that the democrats that are hoping to get as many illegals as possible so they can vote both before and after they naturalize them won't do this. In fact, my guess is that the reason they are not covering illegals is that the next step is amnesty for the lot of them.

  • tblrk2006

    But the bill as it stands now, illegals are barred from the public option.

    Posted by D-Vega

    2009-09-10 17:06:08

    Except there is not mechanism in the bill that requires people to have their citizenship checked. Why do you have to lie about it?

  • tblrk2006

    Why does obama need to do this? I thought people wanted it.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/58233-

  • Pingback: The Blogometer: 9/11: Joe Wilson's War - The News Behind the Twittering - CelebrityTwitterGossip.com

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