-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama has repeatedly been heard to say that Congress agrees on “about 80% of what needs to be done” on healthcare. And many Democratic congressmen have been echoing this since Obama’s Sept. speech. The meme has been used to present their case as if Obamacare is somehow mostly acceptable by all concerned. Even some Republican congressmen have used the meme. But what does this 89% catch phrase mean? Is it true?
It would appear that the truth is murkier than the meme.
Immediately after Obama’s Sept. 10th speech where he uttered the “80%” claim, the Heritage Foundation disputed the stat saying this it is “probably not true because about 80 percent of what is in the current legislation is not needed in order to achieve the three basic goals outlined in the speech.”
Recently, others have been raising doubts about this 80% claim.
“I don’t know what that number means. I have no idea how you’d calculate something like that,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee. On Wednesday that panel labored through another round of bill drafting. It hopes to finish its work later this week, but final congressional action on the legislation is still probably months _and lots of tense votes and debates — away.
“I don’t see it,” said Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a centrist Republican whom Democrats often woo.
“Most of the 80 percent doesn’t involve money,” quipped Finance Committee member Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
The recent votes we’ve seen on the public option and other aspects of the various bills running through Congress casts doubt on that purported 80% agreement.
McClatchy reports that recent committee votes have “rarely reflected an 80 percent majority on anything major” where healthcare is concerned.
What we have here is the Democratic Party using an arguably false rhetorical cue to sell Obamacare as if only a few mean Republicans are standing in its way. The truth seems to be that agreement is much farther off than the 80% mark.
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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, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, 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. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
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
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