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Andrew Malcolm wants to clear up what the meaning of “lie” is.
Let’s clear up some foggy prevarications polluting President Obama’s ongoing snow job for ObamaCare:
If you tell a spouse you’re going to Sam’s Club when you really mean Costco, that’s no big deal. Those membership stores are the same, except one peddles better hot dogs. That’s called misspeaking.
However, if you’re president of the United States peddling a legislative tumor like ObamaCare, one that you know will drastically change almost one-fifth of the nation’s economy, one that openly claims to help a few million uninsured Americans while secretly disrupting the lives, families, finances and medical care of more than 100 million Americans, and you say things like this:
“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” — Pres. Barack Obama to the American Medical Assn., June 15, 2009.
Or, if you say something like this:
“And if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn’t happened yet. It won’t happen in the future.” — Pres. Obama, April 1, 2010. …
… The president’s remarks on national TV were interrupted by a Republican representative, Joe Wilson of South Carolina. He shouted out, “You lie!” The breach of decorum raised quite a stir at the time.
Turns out, Rep. Wilson wasn’t just rude. He was prescient.
John Hinderaker on the apology.
Tonight’s headlines tell us that President Obama has apologized for the fact that Obamacare has caused millions of Americans to lose their health insurance. That is, of course, a striking headline, but if we read what Obama actually said, it is apparent that his objective was not to offer a sincere apology, but to continue the Obamacare cover-up. Here is the interview; I created a partial transcript which is commented on below:
Obama said:
“What happened? Well, first of all, I meant what I said, and we worked hard to try to make sure that we implemented it properly. But obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.”
This is Obama’s fundamental lie. Unless Obama never read the Obamacare statute and was never briefed on it by his aides or by Congressional Democrats, he knew perfectly well that most Americans were going to lose their existing health insurance under Obamacare. …
The larger lie packed into that apology is highlighted by Paul Mirengoff.
Moreover, this statement from the same interview may come back to haunt Obama:
“We are talking about 5% of the population who are in what’s called the individual market. They’re out there buying health insurance on their own. And even though it only affects a small amount of the population, it means a lot to them, obviously to get this letter canceled.”
But, as John says, this 5 percent is only the tip of the iceberg. Once employer plans begin to be cancelled en masse, Obama will be seen to have doubled-down on deception, rather than coming clean in an interview in which he purports to do so.
Voters probably will want to know why their president, when apologizing for not having explained in advance to folks in the individual market that they would lose their coverage, misled folks in employer plans into believing that the problem did not extend to them.
Most will conclude, or be reinforced in their belief, that Obama is an inveterate dissembler. …
Peter Wehner on the many deceptions.
… Mr. Obama is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill fabulist. It appears as if he’s in the process of becoming an inveterate one. He was, after all, building one untruth upon another. I say that because by now it’s obvious to nearly everyone, including liberals, that the president and his aides knew that when he made his initial claim that under the Affordable Care Act you will be able to keep your health-care plan “no matter what”–that you would keep it “period”–he knew the assertion was false. Yet he repeated it over and over again. (I’d urge you to watch this short video produced by New York magazine, which is a montage of Obama quotes claiming “you can keep your plan no matter what.”) …
Another routine lie from the administration. The president met for two hours Wednesday with Dem senators. Yet, the meeting wasn’t on the schedule. Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska let the cat out of the bag. Roll Call has the story.
President Barack Obama heard an earful at the White House Wednesday from Senate Democrats running for re-election next year who are fuming about the Affordable Care Act’s rocky rollout.
During a two-hour meeting that was not on the president’s public schedule, the president met with 15 Senate Democrats facing the voters next year, as well as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska issued a release after the meeting torching the administration.
“It is simply unacceptable for Alaskans to bear the brunt of the Administration’s mismanagement of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and that is the message U.S. Senator Mark Begich delivered to President Obama today,” his office said in a statement blasted to reporters.
The release went on to say that Begich complained about “an unworkable website, technical glitches and inaccurate information about peoples’ individual situations. Begich demanded the administration fix the problems immediately so Alaskans, including the 55,000 eligible for subsidies to lower monthly premiums, can realize the many benefits due to them as a result of the health reform law. …