-By Warner Todd Huston
Once again President Obama sent out his meaningless rhetoric about how, in his benevolence, we will be “allowed” to “keep our doctors” if we like them. On June 19, the Associated Press promulgated the president’s “promises” as a “health plan guarantee.”
The AP duly reported the baseless claims issued daily from Obama and his advocates that he isn’t interested in a single payer plan and that we will be allowed to keep our current healthcare plan if we are happy with it. Further, Obama and his many mouthpieces claim they aren’t trying to destroy the insurance industry and don’t want it replaced with a socialist, government controlled, bureaucrat operated healthcare plan. But even the AP can’t paper over the singular fact that few with any real knowledge of what Obamacare will end up fostering can believe the president’s empty claims.
In the middle of the story is this:
Neutral observers are also skeptical. Dallas Salisbury, head of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, called Obama’s promise “an aspirational statement.”
“If he was a king, he would deliver that, but he’s not king,” said Salisbury. His group is a nonpartisan information clearinghouse on health and pension benefits.
And that isn’t all. Even the White House is cautioning people not to believe a word the president says on the matter.
White House officials suggest the president’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken literally: What Obama really means is that government isn’t about to barge in and force people to change insurance.
But even those carefully measured weasel words from the White House don’t tell the real story.
As MIT’s healthcare economist Jonathan Gruber warned, “His point is that the government is not going to force you to give up what you have, but that’s not to say other circumstances won’t make that happen.”
And what are those “other circumstances”? Why, it’s the plan itself. The plan will cause employers all across the country to drop their own healthcare plans like a hot potato once there is a government supported plan. This means that whether you like your insurance or not, you won’t get the option to keep it.
And Obama knows full well this is true. His claims are simply false and he knows it.
For info on the newly released Republican answer to the Democrat’s Obamacare plan, go to: http://healthcare.gopleader.gov/.
Or download a .pdf file of the GOP plan HERE.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.