Town Bull By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Health Care: To combat this summer's "town hells," President Obama is holding his own gatherings. But his "town halls" consist of long speeches, falsifications and no questions from the skeptical. "I have not said that I was a 'single payer' supporter," the president claimed in answer to a question at Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire on Tuesday. That's kind of like Ronald Reagan claiming he was never a movie star. Or Richard Nixon claiming he never installed a tape-recording system in the White House. Americans have seen the YouTube clip of the president telling the AFL-CIO in 2003 that he was "a proponent of single-payer universal health care coverage . . . that's what I'd like to see." So why can't the president admit publicly that he was once enthusiastically for a government-run system excluding private plans? Could it be, as many suspect, that he still is "a proponent of single-payer"? But since Americans won't swallow socialized medicine whole, is he settling for a big first step, including a "public option," that will lead, down the road, to a second wave of radical reform next time there's a panic? Skyrocketing costs from tens of millions of people added to the rolls — compounded by costly new regulations for private insurers — could itself cause panic. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., thinks so, remarking last month, "I think if we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer, and that's the best way to reach single-payer." But the only reason the president gave for opposing single-payer pertained to transition: It would be "too disruptive" to have people "go into an entirely new system that had not been fully set up yet." It's not assuring. The president's response to the fears of independent health experts like the Lewin Group about a public option destroying the private health insurance industry didn't inspire confidence, either. Before a packed New Hampshire venue, he said: "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems." The U.S. Postal Service would have gone the way of the pterodactyl long ago if UPS, FedEx and other private firms were allowed to compete on a level playing field, in their case with access to residential mailboxes for letter delivery. The obvious lesson: Government never plays fair when it competes with private industry. But that was never discussed with frankness. After a supporter introduced him with quivering voice, the president began his "town hall" with a long speech. Some 35 minutes into the gathering — filled with thousands of chanting supporters — he had taken just two questions, one from a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who accused Republicans of being "unreasonable," and another from a little girl asking about "a lot of signs outside saying mean things." If the president's health care revolution scheme was not running into some serious trouble, and if he thought what he has up his sleeve could withstand public scrutiny, he would have taken some questions from those outside Tuesday's lovefest who were holding up those signs. He didn't. http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=334882369728643 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
