Posted by
Kevin W. on Thursday, September 24, 2009 11:20:00 AM
I looked at President Obama’s speech on healthcare, which was delivered on the 2nd of September. As usual, he tried to sell a “good product,” but it was not enough for me to accept. There are many aspects of the speech that can be criticized, but I have only chosen a few comments to respond to as follows with him in italic red and me in black:
But thanks to the bold and decisive action we've taken since January, I can stand here with confidence and say that we have pulled this economy back from the brink.
In the first five minutes of the speech, he blew it because I found this statement inaccurate. The current unemployment rate is still 9.7%. We spent 700 billion dollars with the tarp. We spent 410 billion dollars on the Omnibus Spending Bill. We spent 3 billion dollars on Cash for Clunkers. We are halfway through cap and trade, which will be very expensive if passed. The banks are still not lending as much as they should. The housing market, while better, is still behind. I ask my fellow Americans does this sound like coming back from the brink?
Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or too expensive to cover. We are the only democracy -- the only advanced democracy on Earth -- the only wealthy nation -- that allows such hardship for millions of its people.
I applaud President Obama for wanting to do something about the insurance companies, which do not cover people with illnesses and disabilities, of which I am one. To assert, however, that somehow we are creating a “hardship” on our people, making it sound like we are no better than North Korea or many countries in Africa, or South America, because they lack the technology, or have a government, which does not care, should be insulting to every American. We have some of the best medical people in the world and President Obama sounds like he is apologizing again for the horrible deeds we have put people here and across the globe. When he alludes to “other democracies” he is referring to Europe and Canada, which have socialized medicine, which often has long waits for attention, and in some cases, people receive inferior or no care. Do people want a system like those or a systems such as what we have now only with a few improvements?
But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
Sorry Mr. President. Starting over is actually what you are doing. When you propose a public option, to establish a centralized board in Washington D.C., putting together numerous new regulations, proposing a 900 billion dollar program over 10 years, which is likely to be under estimated, you are starting over again. It will be a brand new system. This is is no small adjustment to a few problems. It will be a totally new system controlled by the federal government.
But what we've also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have towards their own government. Instead of honest debate, we've seen scare tactics. Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.
Oh really! Who is the party shutting down the debate? Which side keeps threatening to use the nuclear option? What party has more radical groups behind it pushing for a government solution? What party is in charge of Congress? Which party has offered suggestions, but has been turned down almost everytime? The Democrats and the liberals own Congress. This is the President’s party. They have shut down more debate, refused to listen to people at townhalls, in some cases , and have thought they have supreme rule over this issue.
There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. AUDIENCE MEMBER: You lie! THE PRESIDENT: It's not true. And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up -- under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.
Congressman Wilson was wrong to do what he did. It was an impulsive move that should never happen in the Well of the House and it is inexcusable to interrupt the President of the United States. Having said this, I also think the Democrats have gone too far in censuring Congressman Wilson because he directed that comment to the President, so it is between the Congressman and the President. It makes no difference where it was said, it is still between two men – not the whole House. I heard it from Carl Rove on Fox News the soon after the speech that there is a rule against illegal ailiens being covered, but the Democrates rejected any language that would include a varification process in order to reinforce such a rule. Isn’t that wonderful! This is a case where two opposite positions can be paradoxically true. This makes this part of the law self-contridictory; ergo, illegal ailiens have to be covered. Therefore, Congressman Wilson was probably more correct than Obama, but it was not a lie to say the Bill would be against illegals being covered. As for abortion, I will only say there is still a dispute whether the Bill would allow abortion by omiting language, which would prohibit the practice.
These are my observations of the speech by President Obama on healthcare reform on the 2nd of this month. There are many other comments I left out of the analysis. President Obama clearly wants to do something about healthcare or how you insure people and that is another problem in the debate. What is the President trying to change – is it healthcare itself or how you provide insurance?
As we go into Fall, conservatives need to keep the pressure on the government and demand that the politicians obey the Constitution. Getting healthcare right is not a matter or expediency, but it is a matter of providing the people to obtain as a good a system as we can make it whether it takes a few months or a few years. If our government does the wrong thing and people suffer it will be difficult to change those bigger problems once they begin. That is my take and I encourage people to keep doing what they can to ensure greater health prosperity in the future. Thank you.