This is an excerpt from Ralph Reed's commentary on Sept. 13, 2009. Although shouting out in the middle of a speech is poor manners, our Congress is still fantastically proper relative to legislatures such as those in South Korea or Great Britain. Joe Wilson did, however, make a correct statement.
"[...] Consider just a few of the dishonest statements in Obama's speech:
First: He said "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits - either now or in the future." If so, then the President should have announced his public opposition to the Senate leadership bill and HB3200 months ago [the democrat health care plan]. In June the Congressional Budget Office found that the legislation would increase the budget deficit by $240,000,000,000 over the next 10 years. That's just the beginning. A new study by the Lewin Group finds that in the second 10 years, it will increase the deficit by $1,000,000,000,000. The White House has publicly praised and supported both [democrat] bills. So Obama stated a whopping $1,240,000,000,000 falsehood.
Second: [President] Obama said he would not cut Medicare and affect basic care for seniors. But the Obama plan includes $600,000,000,000 in UNSPECIFIED Medicare cuts. It destroys Medicare Advantage with $250,000,000,000 in cuts, decimating a pro-consumer option that 25% of seniors [use] and allows them to choose the best insurance and doctor for them. Even the Associated Press [dominated by democrat reporters] has called Obama on this lie. AP reported that "although wasteful spending in Medicare is widely acknowledged, many experts believe some seniors almost certainly would see reduced benefits from the cuts. That's particularly true for the 25% of Medicare users covered through Medicare Advantage.
Third: [President] Obama said that Sarah Palin and others have claimed that "we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens." [...] What critics have pointed out is that seniors will be required to submit regularly to "end of life" counseling sessions (page 425 of HB3200) that, combined with cost controls and rationing of care, could lead to them being denied life-saving treatment. As healthcare expert Betsy McCaughy, chairwoman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, has pointed out, the bill includes "substantial funding for "comparative effectiveness research" which is generally code for limiting care based on a patient's age. Economists are familiar with the formula, where the cost of treatment is divided by the number of years (called QUALYs, or quality adjusted life years) that the patient is likely to benefit.
Fourth: [President] Obama claimed that the bill does not use taxpayer funds for abortion. This is also false. The Democrats rejected amendments in the House committee that would have specifically excluded abortion from coverage under the so-called government option. In its place, Democrats took the private portion of the premium (not the public subsidy) and specified that only those funds could be used for abortion services. This is an accounting gimmick. The fact is that abortion will be massively subsidized with billions of dollars in taxpayer funds for the first time in US history.
Fifth: [President] Obama claimed that his plan did not provide care for illegal immigrants. Here again, false. By rejecting a Republican amendment requiring proof of legal residence prior to receiving care under the government-run plan, the Democrats have opened the door for non-citizens and non-legal residents to receive care for which they have not paid into the system. If one refuses to require proof of citizenship or legal residence, one cannot claim to limit benefits to only USA citizens. [wait times and costs increase with increses in demand from illegals].
Healthcare services and industries should not be managed by the federal government. This is a mistake that our kids and grandkids will pay for if this democrat plan goes through and is not sunset by the next republican Congress.
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