Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Fact Checking Obama's Speech

Saw an interesting article that gives some non-biased information on a lot of Obama's points from tonight's speech.
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2 comments:

Eddie A said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
September 9, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Eddie A said...

I saw this exact article too, Ayush. Many of these questions in this article came to my mind while watching the speech. It's not like presidents-past have ever redacted their promises of not "adding to the deficit." It's pretty unfathomable how Obama is going to supposedly "save money" in the short-run or long-run with this plan.

Not only was the information in the speech misleading, it blatantly omitted true facts. While ideally, Obama wants to sell this bill as a way to avoid adding to the deficit, this article you posted outlines that the Congressional Budget Office said that it would add $220 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

Also, I like how this article points out one of the main concerns of most of the nearly two-thirds of Americans who oppose this bill (or are at least indecisive about it): the issue of current health care plans. While Obama guarantees that people already with coverage are not "required" to take any further action, what if in 1, 2, or 5 years from now, employers decide to drop health coverage for their employees. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that nearly 3 million people may fall victim to this change. (But wait, isn't this what we're trying to avoid --- people having their coverage cancelled on them??). And employers have every incentive, both politically and economically, to drop coverage and make the government pay for their employees' health care. Hey, if Uncle Sam's buying, why not?!

In a perfect world, we would be able to have preventative health care and pre-illness screenings for all individuals to prevent disease in the first place. However, these screening and preventative care methods cost money as well. The CBO also believes this will only add to the expenses.

I think this article does a very good job of outlining some of the questions many people have had during this entire process, even after watching the speech. Many people who already have coverage do not buy into the "perfect world" scenario where we can completely insure the 30-40 million uninsured Americans without spending a dime. The money is going to come from some where.

So basically, to put it simply, my input is that I can't understand how so many people are enthusiastically shaking pom-poms at this idea without asking the right questions and demanding the right answers. THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH!

September 10, 2009 at 12:05 AM

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