Michael Wolfe

SOURCE: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/Story?id=7919991&page=1

“They’re wrong,” the president said, arguing that in a Health Insurance Exchange the public plan would be “one option among multiple options.”

The concern, Gibson articulated, is that such a plan wouldn’t be offered on a level playing field.

The president rebuffed that, arguing that “we can set up a public option where they’re collecting premiums just like any private insurer and doctors can collect rates,” but because the public plan will have lower administrative costs “we can keep them [private insurance companies] honest.”

Obama said he didn’t understand those advocates of the free market who constantly say the private sector can do things better and are yet worried about this plan.

“If that’s the case, no one will chose the public option,” the president said. He also suggested, however, that the private sector might not necessarily be better, point out that users of Medicare and Veterans Administration hospitals constantly rate “pretty high satisfaction.”

First problem: unlike private companies, the federal government has no incentive for efficiency. They can do nasty little things, like taxing employer provided healthcare, raising taxes in general, printing off more money. It is impossible to compete with the referee when he controls the rules of the game AND participates in the game itself. When is he ever going to call himself out?

Second problem: When the government is the healthcare provider, who do you go to when you have problems, or lawsuits? Keeping services separate from government allows for a course of action for grievances.

Third problem: The government will have lower administrative costs? LOL LOL LOL LOL. I am surprised he was able to keep a straight face while spouting that whopper! What government program runs with low overhead? And how can the government “keep them honest” when the government lies just as much, (if not much more!) as any private company?

The president criticized the Congressional Budget Office, which recently analyzed the cost of two Democratic Senate draft bills as costing between $1 and $1.6 trillion.

Yeah, he did, because it made people realize how much more insolvent it will make this country!- and he whined because they didn’t include all of his “maybes” that would make the system (in theory) less expensive. I guess the CBO is now on Obama’s Domestic Terrorist Watch List.

About a third of the costs will come from new revenue,” the president said, pushing his proposal to raise taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year through a change in the itemized deduction in the tax code.

New revenue is a code word for your money. This is a prime example of redistributing wealth, taking more money from the people. And you know that the promise used to be 250,000. Watch it go down…down…down… like almost every promise he’s made to date.

Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project HOPE who ran Medicare during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, pushed the president for more specifics on how he expects to pay for the plan.

“This is not an easy problem,” the president acknowledged. “And it’s especially not an easy problem when the economy is going through a difficult phase.”

But the president suggested the stars were aligning for reform, citing efforts being made such as the pharmaceutical industry’s recent pledge to help defray the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, and argued that now was the time for reform.

The stars are aligning for reform? Ooh, so now astrology is determining the direction the government will take? I suppose 3.99 a minute is less expensive than the typical Washington way. So much for specifics. Like the stimulus plan, we won’t find out how miserable and messy it is until he rams it through in the cover of some crises or another. Because you never let a good crises go to waste, right?

In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that aired today on “Good Morning America,” Obama indicated that there was a breaking point in the balance sheets where he would say that the cost of reforming the system is too great for the federal government to handle, but he did not put a price tag on it.

The breaking point would be riots in the streets, the uptick in unemployment as the employees of private insurance companies are added to health care professionals from closed hospitals and other private sector employers. But really the only breaking point is how much money he can get the Federal Reserve to loan him. I would estimate the actual breaking point would be once the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of America has been spent to the 10^th or 11^th generation.

Here’s a nice one, either we tax your healthcare benefits, or we tax charities by killing deductions. Mr. President, you think that’s a good alternative, you’re sick!

One option being considered on Capitol Hill is taxing health care benefits, which are currently tax exempt.

Today, a key Democratic senator indicated that may be inevitable.

“It is hard for me to see how you have a package that is paid for that doesn’t include reducing the tax subsidy for health care,” said Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who is regarded among Democrats as something of a deficit hawk.

Conrad sees the potential for a significant source of revenue.

“Tax subsidies for health care. They’re huge. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year,” he said.

Obama said he opposes that approach, instead wanting to pay for the bill partly by reducing the tax deductions wealthier people can take when donating to charity.

Isn’t that reassuring. Tax donations, and you hurt charities, which means you hurt the poor, old and young. Tax health care, and you hurt middle America. Sick and twisted. He can call them tax subsidies, since of course the government’s right to tax everything is the supreme Law. What about foodstuffs?

Warning: Another flip-flop ahead, (Just like his “outrage” about McCain suggesting taxing health care benefits, which now the president has suggested).

As a candidate, then-Sen. Obama bashed his rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, for proposing that Americans be mandated to have health insurance.

“She’d have the government force you to buy health insurance,” he said Feb. 23, 2008. “I disagree with that approach. I believe that the reason Americans don’t have health care isn’t because no one’s forced them to buy it, it’s because no one’s made it affordable.”

But now the president is acknowledging that his thinking on the issue has “evolved” and he could support a law mandating that individuals purchase health care coverage, with fines for those who do not.

Obama stressed that there must be some kind of waiver for those who are simply unable to afford it.

“People have made some pretty compelling arguments to me that if we want to have a system that drives down costs for everybody, then we’ve got to have healthier people not opt out of the system,” the president told ABC News.

If they can’t opt out of it, then you are forcing them into something they do not want!  (You just want them in because they won’t use it). Hypocrite! Whatever happened to being “pro-choice”? The only choice you like is the one allowing people to slaughter babies for fun and profit, as your 100% NARAL rating attests too. Bet you wait awhile for the “Freedom of Choice” Act though.

With the health care debate ramping up, with Republicans assailing Democrats for the high price tag and a public option plan, Obama’s ratings on the subject slipped slightly in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Only 53 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of health care while 39 percent disapprove of it, up from 29 percent who disapproved in April, according to the poll.

Concluding the health care forum, Obama expressed optimism that reform is possible.

“If the American people get behind this, this is going to happen,” the president said.

And here we are, blaming republicans for Americans’ disapproval of Obamacare. No rational thinking person could honestly believe the government will “lower costs” and provide “quality care” and preserve “freedom of choice” while taxing private plans and charities and herding people onto Uncle Sam’s healthcare plantation. It doesn’t matter if the American peopple aren’t behind him. As he said to some congressman earlier:

“I won, I’ll trump you on that.”