Thursday, March 18, 2010

A Lie by Any Other Name

By the time you read this, they might have passed that monstrosity they call the Senate Bill. I hope not. But, I don’t have to tell you that our president is hot and heavy on the campaign trail for health care just like he was for the first primaries. The only difference is that the majority of Americans believed him when he was on the primary trail.

Today? Well there might have been a president who distorted the truth more than our current one. No, that isn’t a fair remark. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, among many, many others, were no slouches when it came to verbal distortion.

Sure, we’re all jaded by politics. We know many of them lie and mislead us, telling us what we want to hear while doing just the opposite.

As much as I dislike saying it, our president is no better. And somehow, the fact he is President makes it even more reprehensible. Representatives or senators might lie, but not the President. Of course, I’m not so naïve to believe they have all been paragons of truth and virtue. Most of them can’t spell those two words. They’ve all lied, all except perhaps for good old Harry Truman.

And in the last few weeks, President Obama has been distorting the truth in almost every breath.

Don’t believe me?

Remember his last talk about health care? According to The Heritage Foundation, the President claimed the plan would lower health care costs. It doesn’t because it does nothing to solve the inefficiencies in the system that drives prices upward. He knows that, and the bill does nothing to address the problem.

Then he claimed his plan would not give government bureaucrats or insurance companies more control over health care. It does. According to the plan, spending increases in proportion to lessening controls, giving government and insurance what they want.

Obama again claimed “if you like your plan, you can keep it. If you like your doctor, you can keep him.” That, according to the Heritage Foundation, is simply not true. Not true, meaning ‘a lie’.

How? Read on. The much acclaimed Senate Bill gave federal regulators the power to define minimum benefit packages; specify the minimum amount that health plans must spend on medical claims; and impose new taxes that will not count toward minimums.
Stop and think. How many private health plans will meet all of the bill’s requirements, thereby allowing appointed officials, by accident or intention, to create a regulatory ‘squeeze’ that could eliminate current individual health plans?

Hey, don’t run off. We’re not finished.

Then the President had the gall to say his plan gives the same health care plan to citizens as those of Congress. It does not!

Two departments will administer health care. The OPM, Office of Personnel Management, which is an agency of the White House, will administer to federal employees, and HHS, Human Services, will administer to everyone else.
When questions or differences arise between the two, who gets the shaft, the White House, or the rest of us?

And finally, he says the plan is paid for. And again, it is not.

According to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, Obama’s 950 billion cost is actually one trillion, and in ten years, would add up to 2.5 trillion.

Now whom do we believe, the CBO, or the community organizer from Chicago?

You see what I mean about lies? I’m fed up with them.

Now, the President claims he has a new plan that he will reveal as soon as the House passes the Senate Bill, but he refuses to say what is in the plan. He’s asking them to trust him.

Trust him, the guy who promised to end income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000.; close Gitmo; toughen rules for lobbyists; allow bankruptcy judges to modify terms of a home mortgage; double after school funding; and on and on and on?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I told you before, folks. I’m scared about what’s going on.

You best be too.

No comments: