- Home
- About Us
- Contributors
- Departments
- Back Issues
- Weekly Archives
- AmSpecBlog
- Subscribe
- Newsletter
- Advertise
- Donate
- Contact Us
- Daily Digest
- Templeton Essays
AmSpecBlog
Don't Believe The Hype
The media has been promoting Obama's Wednesday speech to a joint session of Congress as a major event that could shift the momentum in the health care debate, but I think it's important not to get too carried away. I have no doubt that Obama has the ability to make a great speech that could momentarily boost support for health care legislation just as Bill Clinton's speech did in September 1993, but no amount of rhetoric can change the fundamentals of the debate. The reason is that Americans may favor action on health care in the abstract, but get cold feet when they learn more about the details.
Once the pageantry of a major presidential address fades, lawmakers will still be stuck with the same set of problems that have plagued health care over the past few months. Liberals say that a bill can't get through the House without a government plan, while moderate Democrats say a bill can't get through the Senate with one. Any bill is likely to cost in the neighborhood of $1 trillion or more at a time of already unprecedented long-term debt, meaning paying for it will require a combination of tax increases and cuts to existing government programs. The major cost saving measures -- electronic medical records, preventive care, a Medicare advisory commission -- will not put a dent in health care spending, and in some instances, may exacerbate the problem. If you expand Medicaid, the governors will be up in arms about the cost to states unless the federal government picks up the tab -- but either way we'd be adding to our massive entitlement burden. As much as Obama says people can keep their health care if they like it, there's no way he can offer that guarantee, and some of the proposals actually would encourage businesses to change the coverage they currently offer. And all of this is playing out with the economy still weak and unemployment up to 9.7 percent despite Obama's promises during the stimulus debate. I can go on and on, but the point is that whatever Obama says tomorrow night, and no matter how grand it is, it won't change the big picture.
Comments
Leave a Comment
TennesseeVolunteer| 9.8.09 @ 10:56AM
What the leftist elite don't understand is 'we don't trust what he says anymore'.
A lot of good hearted Americans decided to give this President the benefit of the doubt. After the stimulus, the budget etc..most Americans have learned the unfortunate truth that, at best, the President will say anything to get his way. after he gets his way, what he said disappears or gets changed.
Americans don't like being lied to. He has lost the trust of at least half of America and one good speech won't change that.
Pingback| 9.8.09 @ 10:56AM
Listen Up, Congress: American Majority (83%) Says ‘NO’ to Illegal Aliens Getting Fre links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ncatty| 9.8.09 @ 12:02PM
The President has such faith in the power of his own words. Just keeps repeating the same slogans, as if they are spells being cast by a sorceror. He is a strange guy.
martin j smith| 9.8.09 @ 12:39PM
Obama will lie,obfuscate or in any way he can try to fool the people No matter what he says in the end he wants a government run plan no matter what. He is a dictatorial type and does not care what we think. Keep that in mind as you go along listening to his BS
S.L. Toddard| 9.8.09 @ 3:35PM
"A lot of good hearted Americans decided to give this President the benefit of the doubt"
Really, TenneseeVoter. Could you link us to any of your posts urging people to give Obama the benefit of the doubt?
It was plain - always - that he would enact a left-wing agenda. There was never any question on that. The man also promised to return accountability in gov't under the law, restore the Rule of Law in general (after it was renounced by the Bush administration), and reject the extreme secrecy under which his predecessor operated and he has reneged on all of these promises. Hell, he folded on FISA before he was even elected.
So the only areas in which true Conservatives had any reason to be optimistic at least vis a vis Obama's campaign promises - resurrection of civil liberties, gov't accountability, restoration of the Rule of Law and a return to open gov't - we have been let down in the extreme. Still, though, none of us puts much stock in campaign promises anyhow.
David. T.| 9.8.09 @ 3:58PM
So, S.L., you think it was always plain that Obama would enact a left-wing agenda? Then you obviously saw through his promises of bipartisanship and centrism and realized that the Kenyan Svengali-wolf was a liar from the beginning. I assume that didn't deter you from voting for him.
Roy| 9.8.09 @ 4:06PM
Regarding at least one of those proposals, EMRs, I do not believe it is being marketed as a way to lower costs.
It will increase quality. Ideally, somewhere down the road, it will mean an end to having to fill out those idiot clipboards, sometimes writing the same thing down three different times, every time you go to the doctor's office. It will mean an end to the doctor asking you what lab results you've had and other questions way above the head of the average layman, which should translate into better treatment. But reduce costs? Only if the government and its politically motivated inefficiencies are kept far, far, far away, which, of course they will not be.
As a programmer of health care related software, the amount of deadweight cost imposed by regulo-blather is immense. You're paying for that through your premiums. As the government gets more involved, that cost is only going to go up.
Hal Wilder| 9.8.09 @ 5:41PM
Forget promises to lower cost of healthcare. It is the most labor intensive activity in our society. Whose wages would be cut ? Doctors, nurses ? Accountants ? Promises ? Worthless. Only thing left is tto reduce amount of care given