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Comments from an AP history
and government teacher in Raleigh, NC.
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Commissions earned from selling items through Amazon will go towards buying materials for my classes. Thank you.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Fact-checking the President
The Associated Press looks at some of the bolder claims in the President's speech and finds some whoppers. Most importantly, they acknowledge that the President is using what they call "iffy" arithmetic to say that his plans won't increase the deficit.President Barack Obama used only-in-Washington accounting Wednesday when he promised to overhaul the nation's health care system without adding "one dime" to the deficit. By conventional arithmetic, Democratic plans would drive up the deficit by billions of dollars.AP also checks some other claims from the President such as saying that we won't have to give up our present health care plans under his proposals.
The president's speech to Congress contained a variety of oversimplifications and omissions in laying out what he wants to do about health insurance.OBAMA: "Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have."AP also casts doubts on the promises that Medicare won't be cut. And the claim that preventative care will save money in the aggregate has been disproven in several studies.
THE FACTS: That's correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they'd be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it.
In the past Obama repeatedly said, "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period." Now he's stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan "requires" any change.
AP does explain the mysterious drop to 30 million uninsured. It wasn't, as I'd thought, dropping illegal immigrants from the total.OBAMA: "There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage."Does that mean that the number still includes illegal immigrants who don't have health insurance? I'd like to see more explanation of that number.
THE FACTS: Obama time and again has referred to the number of uninsured as 46 million, a figure based on year-old Census data. The new number is based on an analysis by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, which concluded that about two-thirds of Americans without insurance are poor or near poor. "These individuals are less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage," the report said. By using the new figure, Obama avoids criticism that he is including individuals, particularly healthy young people, who choose not to obtain health insurance.
While I heartily disapprove of a congressman shouting out "You lie!" in the middle of a speech to Congress, there were several statements that were not in alignment with the truth. And, as William Jacobsen points out, the House bill that Obama supported did, in fact, not exclude illegal immigrants from coverage. So it all depends which proposal out there Obama is claiming as his own - the one he supported before the August recess or the one that he hasn't put forth but has talked a lot about today.Labels: Health, President Obama
7 comments
The Associated Press looks at some of the bolder claims in the President's speech and finds some whoppers. Most importantly, they acknowledge that the President is using what they call "iffy" arithmetic to say that his plans won't increase the deficit.
President Barack Obama used only-in-Washington accounting Wednesday when he promised to overhaul the nation's health care system without adding "one dime" to the deficit. By conventional arithmetic, Democratic plans would drive up the deficit by billions of dollars.AP also checks some other claims from the President such as saying that we won't have to give up our present health care plans under his proposals.
The president's speech to Congress contained a variety of oversimplifications and omissions in laying out what he wants to do about health insurance.
OBAMA: "Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have."AP also casts doubts on the promises that Medicare won't be cut. And the claim that preventative care will save money in the aggregate has been disproven in several studies.
THE FACTS: That's correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they'd be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it.
In the past Obama repeatedly said, "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period." Now he's stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan "requires" any change.
AP does explain the mysterious drop to 30 million uninsured. It wasn't, as I'd thought, dropping illegal immigrants from the total.
OBAMA: "There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage."Does that mean that the number still includes illegal immigrants who don't have health insurance? I'd like to see more explanation of that number.
THE FACTS: Obama time and again has referred to the number of uninsured as 46 million, a figure based on year-old Census data. The new number is based on an analysis by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, which concluded that about two-thirds of Americans without insurance are poor or near poor. "These individuals are less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage," the report said. By using the new figure, Obama avoids criticism that he is including individuals, particularly healthy young people, who choose not to obtain health insurance.
While I heartily disapprove of a congressman shouting out "You lie!" in the middle of a speech to Congress, there were several statements that were not in alignment with the truth. And, as William Jacobsen points out, the House bill that Obama supported did, in fact, not exclude illegal immigrants from coverage. So it all depends which proposal out there Obama is claiming as his own - the one he supported before the August recess or the one that he hasn't put forth but has talked a lot about today.
Labels: Health, President Obama
Otherwise--he misrepresented(lied) the truth. It is in the House bill that was passed. Guess he has not read it.
Yeah, uh, that is one of the twenty six big lies from the GOP about health care.
Get the truth here:
http://factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200/
Illegal immigrants are excluded from the health care reform for Americans.
Things are looking pretty ragged for rightwingers - first the birther lies, then the "death panel" lie (still being pushed by Palin), now the "illegals" lie. Don't you get ever get sick of it? Mainstream Americans do.
Technically, yes. But there is no verification process in place to screen them out. Those evil Republicans introduced an amendment to remedy this, but it was voted down along party lines. This doesn't instill a lot of confidence.
Your assertion that "mainstream Americans" are sick of things is certainly accurate. A Sept. 7, 2009 Rasmussen Poll showed 83% of voters nationally said "...people should be required to show they are a citizen of the United States before receiving health care subsidies." Those identifying with a political affiliation and agreeing were 95% Republican, 70% Democrat and 87% had no political affiliation. It appears House Democrats are not, to use your term, "mainstream Americans," right? They don't even agree with the majority of Democrats on this matter.
You'll also note in the report that, "...others note that there is no enforcement mechanism or requirement to check for citizenship." And the "others" refers to the previous sentence's "Advocates of the congressional plan..." So, even some House Democrats are concerned about this matter.
When Congressman Conyers jokes that it makes no difference whether or not he's read the Bill, because he can't understand it, anyhow, it's time to shred it and start over with crayons.
It usually indicates someone who can't think independently, as in your case.
Sounds like bb.
I think Backbone threw you a bone Jaw and you jumped.
You said:
"I always get a good laugh when someone uneducated tosses around terms like 'socialist' or 'commie'."
Does that include Van Jones, founder and leader of the communist revolutionary organization Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), and recently fired "Green Job Czar"?
Van Jones, in his own words:
"But in jail, he said, 'I met all these young radical people of color - I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of'. 'I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.... I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist'."
http://www.truthout.org/article/eliza-strickland-the-new-face-environmentalism#comment-110959
A friend of Barack Obama, the world's smartest man, Van Jones was educated at Yale. I'd say that kind of trumps your complaints of "uneducated" condemnation when Jones calls himself a communist. It also doesn't reflect well on an "elite" school though the path he took was his own choice.
I have no idea what Bachbone's educational background is and neither do you. I find it offensive that you would attempt to smear him for simply citing an established fact but this is not the first time you've demonstrated your appalling lack of intellectually honesty and zeal for character assassination.
Anyway, chalk up another big "FAIL" next to your last effort. Bachbone and others here have correctly reflected on Jones' self-proclaimed status as a communist but you don't see it? You cannot even acknowledge it. Wow. Love really is blind, huh?
It's funny that "progressives" have such a love affair with lunatics still clinging to the anachronistic philosophies of Marx and Lenin. It's sad too because you seem to be unable or unwilling to admit the attraction is based on those elements of Marxism and Leninism that "Progressivism" is too cowardly to admit in the open. You seem to be suffering in your closest, Biddle.
