Correcting Obama’s Health Care Speech (2)

In his Big Speech last night, the President expressed his contempt  for the tens of thousands of citizens who have made the effort to show up at town halls to question Senators and Congressmen.

But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government.  Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics.

The House version of ObamaCare, the 1,026 page HR 3200, has been available on the Internet for all to read since July. The specifics in HR 3200 sharply contradict Obama’s promises, making him look either uninformed or dishonest, undermining his credibility.

HR 3200 motivated the town hall backlash that flummoxed those stupefied Senators and Congressmen we saw in those amateur, YouTube videos.  Politicians were exposed as lazy and arrogant.   Having made no effort to read the massive  bill, they were unprepared to respond to probing questions from constituents.

What scared voters most was the realization that  the same bunch who enacted the failed “stimulus” without reading it were prepared to enact ObamaCare without knowing what it contained or what the consequence would be.

The President continued:

Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge.  And out of this blizzard of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.

Many of the town hall tormentors were indeed unyielding.  They pointed out that the U.S. Constitution does not permit the massive government intervention advocated by President Obama and described in HR 3200 and other versions pending in the House and Senate.  They demanded that Congress obey the Constitution by voting against any version of ObamaCare.

Others were not at all ideological.  They simply asked why every American and every insurance company and every health care provider had to submit to massive changes decreed by Washington just to help the 10% of the population who aren’t covered by insurance or government programs.  Their questions were not answered.

At the same time The Left, demanding that the legislation lead to a so-called single payer system, where government runs health care like a public utility, has hardened it’s unyielding position since summer began.

There is a lot of confusion, but not among the town hall attendees who had done their homework and came to the meetings with printed excerpts of HR 3200 on clipboards.  The confusion was exhibited by Senators and Congressmen who apparently are unaccustomed to actually studying and comprehending the legislation they support.