December 19, 2009
Some more nuggets from barry’s August 20th, 2009 speech “Organization for America National Health Care Forum” when he was pushing the public option saying it was important and yet when it comes time to act – the actions do not correlate with his words. Which is the only constant with barry’s behavior.
He talks about truth and says he is “honest to a fault”. Thoroughly shameless. But what’s worse is people still believe him when he says it. Still.
What promise has he followed through on?
Mostly it’s working Americans who don’t have health insurance on the job, or it’s self-employed Americans, or it’s small business owners, or people who work for small businesses who don’t have health insurance. And what we want to do is to give them a menu of options that they can choose from, and then a little bit of help in terms of making their premiums more affordable. So that is absolutely critical.
Here he’s gung ho on the public option.
Now, one of the options we want to provide them is a public option, and there’s been — this has been a confusion around this — there’s been a lot of confusion about this, so let me just clarify.
I think a public option is important.
We’re going to have a marketplace where people can select the options that work best for them, the insurance plan that works best for them. A lot of those choices, the overwhelming majority of those choices, will be private insurance options…
Why a public option was important in August:
But what we do think is if we have a public option in there, that can help keep insurers honest; it can provide a benchmark for what an affordable basic plan should look like. And so even though we’ve got a whole bunch of insurance regulations that ensure that any private insurer that’s participating in the exchange is giving you a fair deal, this is sort of like the belt-and-suspenders concept -- it means that not only do they have to abide by these regulations, but they also have to compete with somebody whose interest is not just profit but instead is interested in making sure that the American people get decent care.
And here is the famous barry obamanation.
Now, having said that — having said that, I want everybody to be clear that the public option is just one option. It will be voluntary. Nobody is talking about you having to be in the public option. Only — the only thing that we’re talking about is this being available to you as a choice, expanding consumer choice.
And we think that’s a good idea.
So what happened to that good idea?
Again, his words are just words. When it’s time for action his truth become politically expedient and public opinion driven. But this time the polls are not behind him and he wants to jam it through – contrary to his usual MO – but for sure in line with his legacy and need to have another “first”.
And here he is beyond shameless. He’s talking about truth – his truth – the truth d’jour. Talking about it and never quite matching up. And y’all buy it each and every time.
I said during the campaign that the best offense against lies is the truth. And so all we can do is just keep on pushing the truth.
I mean, there’s never any — I just — you know, it’s fine to have a debate back and forth — he said, she said – except when somebody else is just not even telling remotely the truth. Then you should say in your reports, oh, and by the way, that’s just not true.
Was what he said here ever remotely the truth?
But that doesn’t happen often enough. And that’s why it’s so important that all of you deliver that message, and you’ve got to be able to back it up. And all of you are receiving materials where it’s not just us saying this. I mean, these are third-party validators who are out there and can set the facts straight. And when people get the facts and you show them, then most people will end up being persuaded.
And when all else fails have politifact and factcheck cover you. Exhibit A that digital image passed off as his birth certificate.
…And I think if the majority of the people have the facts, then in fact they will be on our side.
Which set of facts for which plan according to what poll?
Nothing in this speech is remotely truthful. It’s built around one big lie. A lie people wanted to hear in order to go out and do his bidding. Just like Iraq…just like FISA…just like healthcare…just like FISA…just like the Patriot Act…
How much more evidence do y’all need?
Here he estimates the cost of healthcare at $108 billion dollars.
How is that not going to affect the deficit or raise taxes?
First of all, it’s important to remind people that when they say “trillion dollars,” they’re talking about over 10 years. So this — we’re talking about $100 billion a year -- which is still a significant amount of money — but just to give you a sense of perspective, I mean, the amount of money that we’re spending in Iraq and Afghanistan is — what’s the latest figure, Debbie? You figure nine — $8 billion to $9 billion a month, right? So for about the same cost per year as we’ve been spending over the last five to six years, we could have funded this health care reform proposal — just to give you a sense of perspective.
Here he says he’ll only have to pay for a third of it. And to cover that the folks making over #250K are going to pay…In other words – it’s free.
So a third of it we’re going to have to pay for. And what I’ve proposed was that we would pay for it by having people over $250,000 a year have their itemized deductions go to the same rate as everybody else’s -- 28 percent. Right now they get more because their marginal tax rates are a little bit higher. And if we just went back to their deductions that existed under Ronald Reagan, that radical — then we could pay for all of the health care reform that we’re talking about.
Here’s a promise not yet broken. He talks about himself in the third person.
Now, there are other ideas that are being floated out there both in the House and the Senate. But the bottom line is what we’re really talking about is about $30 billion to $40 billion a year that we’ve got to come up with. And I am absolutely committed — and you can say this to people — the President is absolutely committed to making sure that that is not funded on the backs of middle-class families.
Q …I believe, that the only way to do this is to guarantee a public option available to anybody who wants one. And my question is, if that’s the solution that you believe in, why aren’t we pushing it harder? And if that’s not the solution, what other solutions out there would accomplish all three goals that you have?
So let me just be clear: I continue to support a public option, I think it is important, and I think it will help drive down costs and give consumers choices.
Here he says he’s honest to a fault. A look at Politifact’s proving of barry’s lies says otherwise. And then goes right into his lie about public option and making it part of broader plan, giving himself anout. Continues to be the truth is a rather odd phrase.
The only thing that we have said — and this continues to be the truth — and I mean, sometimes you can fault me maybe for being honest to a fault — is that the public option is just one component of a broader plan.
Honest to a fault. Were these words really honest? Why didn’t the truth continue?
Now, alongside that, if there’s a public option that is also offering a good deal to consumers, then the insurance companies have to look over their shoulder and they say, gosh, you know, if the public option is providing that good deal to consumers, then maybe we can’t just charge exorbitant rates and then mistreat our consumers.
And if it isn’t? He’s missing the boat.
Now, my point is, this is sort of like the belt-and-suspenders concept, to keep up your pants. You know, the insurance reforms are the belt. The public option can be the suspenders. And what we’re trying to just suggest to people is, is that all these things are important, and that if the debate ends up being focused on just one aspect of it, then we’re missing the boat.
If all we’re talking about is the public option, then the 80 percent of the American people who already have health insurance in the private insurance market, they say to themselves, well, what’s in it for me? Their attitude will be, this is not relevant to me, and in fact they start getting scared thinking, maybe what the public option means is that you’re going to force me to give up my current private insurer and go into a public option.
And what happens when you’re not longer talking about a public option?
Here’s a paragraph from Greg Sargent on Sept 30th:
Should Obama jettison the public option, progressives will come under tremendous pressure to back the plan anyway. White House advisers will likely insist that liberals mustn’t deny the president a historic victory and enable a defeat that could cripple the first African-American presidency.
Who was the one who jettisoned it?
The House is already on the record as saying they will not pass a bill that doesn’t have a public option – so what is the point other than to say they got something signed – whatever it is.
A letter from the House to barry:
A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs.
We cannot vote for anything less.
