Obama's Healthcare Speech, Watercooler Edition

If you didn't see the President's address to Congress last night, here are the highlights. It was the most disgustingly partisan and personally offensive speech Obama has ever given.

He started by insulting everyone who raised a legitimate concern during the month of August:

Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action.

This is another pathetic attempt to shut people up. Concerned Americans gathering to share their worries about Obamacare: bickering. Lay people reading the healthcare bills because their congressmen couldn't be bothered: games.

Early in the speech he chastised listeners:

But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government. Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics.

Late in the speech, like a hypocrite, he used some scare tactics of his own:

Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing. Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it most. And more will die as a result.

It was shameful, but this President is without shame. The rules he wants to impose on others apparently do not apply to him.

He took a shot at Sarah Palin—not by name, but everyone watching knew who he meant:

Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.

It's not a lie. The Democrats' public option will require some government bureaucrat, somewhere to decide just what level of care is appropriate. This will include consideration of the costs and it will include—just like it does in every socialized medicine scheme—rationing. So, yes, a government bureaucrat is going to decide whether or not grandma is going to get costly end-of-life care.

In the next breath Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelled back, "You lie!", when the President did, in fact, lie about whether illegal aliens are covered under Obamacare. The President said:

There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

The president is misleading us at best. HR 3200, the House version of Obamacare, mandates that all individuals in the United States—including illegal aliens—be covered by health insurance. Although it does not provide subsidies for illegal aliens, it does allow them to participate in the "healthcare exchanges." It also contains a provision which prevents anyone from checking on the citizenship status of any person seeking healthcare.

BTW, notice how low Obama has brought himself and the Office of the President by attacking a private citizen in the course of a congressional address. He is not a man confident in his own positions. He is thin-skinned and reckless in his need to disrespect people who disagree with him.

The President used the same old savings canard:

Government will find cost savings through greater efficiencies.

If there were savings to be had, why have we not found those savings with Medicare and Medicaid? Similarly, if there was money left on the table, why haven't the evil, profit-driven private insurers found it?

Finally, the President of the United States turned into a concern troll right before our eyes:

Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90% is controlled by just one company. Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down.

If he truly cared about competition and didn't just want to pass his Trojan horse for single-payer, there is a simple solution: de-regulate. Make it legal to compete for health insurance across state lines. Make individual plans tax-deductible, just like employer-bought plans.

So, there it is in the watercooler edition. Don't let the know-nothings and drooling imbeciles in your office get away with pretending this was a great speech. Lord knows the media is trying to call it that. It was not a great speech. It was an insult to us and a disgrace to the Office of the President.

The full text of the speech is here.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:35 AM

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