Obama's Health Care Speech

It sounded great to me. I'm all for That Health Care Reform Plan. But much of what he said didn't seem to match many of the proposals I have seen coming from Congress. I'm hoping he means "the health care plan I support will...", and that Congress works to meet his goals.

The most contentious part was when President Obama said

"There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."

and Representative Joe Wilson rudely shouted "liar". (Rep. Wilson has quickly apologized)

The CNN truth check, after a bunch of hemming and hawing, concludes that Illegals will not get benefits. But, technically, President Obama's statement is false. He did not talk about benefits, but used the terms "insurance" and "apply to". Because the reforms force illegal immigrants to buy insurance, they clearly apply, and will end up insuring the illegals. A reasonable person would say the facts contradicts the strict text of his message.

Now, I think this was very poor, sloppy wording by his speechwriter, and I'll give Obama the benefit of the doubt that what he meant to say is something like illegals will not receive taxpayer dollars and benefits. Even so, if they buy from the Public Option, and that public option ever receives any government subsidies, then they would, technically, receive benefits. To my understanding, current plans for the Public Option do not call for government subsidies. A cynic may doubt this in the future, especially if the bill is as sloppily worded as the speech.

A Huffington Post blog, which calls Rep Wilson a liar, effectively supports him. Though the bills have text to exclude illegal immigrants, the Huffington Post piece admits that such text will be ineffective, saying, quite correctly, that

"this country doesn't have a feasible and comprehensive system for keeping track of who's who here".

So, in practice, many illegals would receive benefits. The piece than makes a very good argument that illegals should be covered. After all, we already pay for all uninsured, legal or illegal, for emergency visits etc.

Let me state unequivocally that nobody should shout "liar" at the President while he is giving a major policy speech. Very bad form, and deserving of censure and an apology, if not more. However, the exact words of the speech can reasonably be interpreted as untrue, and I hope that Obama or his staff will clarify their meaning and intent.