PHIL KERPEN: Obama’s Top Three Health Care Campaign Lies

By Phil Kerpen

Lie Number 1: I Won’t Tax Your Health Benefits

What Obama said on the campaign trail (Newport News, Va., October 4, 2008):

“So here’s John McCain’s radical plan in a nutshell: he taxes
health care benefits for the first time in history… Well, I don’t think
that’s right.”

What Obama says now:

Obama ally Sen. Max Baucus told the Washington Post
that Obama is now willing to tax employer-provided health benefits.
Baucus said: “Yeah, it’s something that he might consider. That was
discussed. It’s on the table.”

Limiting or ending the tax-free status of health benefits makes
sense if it’s used to cut other taxes and put all health
insurance—employer-provided or not—on a level playing field. The
existing benefit is an artifact of World War II-era price controls and
creates a tax penalty for people who buy their own insurance.

But unlike the McCain plan, which would have taxed employer-provided
health benefits and used the money to pay for a new health care tax
credit, the plan now being considered by Democrats, including Obama,
would tax employer-health benefits to fund increased government health
care spending. For the 250 million-plus Americans who already have
health insurance, this is a raw deal—they pay more taxes and get
nothing in return.

Lie Number 2: I Won’t Force You to Buy Health Insurance

What Obama said on the campaign trail (Janesville, Wis., February 13, 2008):

“The main difference between my plan and Senator Clinton’s plan
is that she’d require the government to force you to buy health
insurance and she said she’d ‘go after’ your wages if you don’t.”

What Obama says now:

President Obama sent a letter to Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus yesterday that says—using the new code word “responsibility” to refer to the same kind of mandate he slammed in Hillary’s plan:

“I understand the Committees are moving towards a principle of
shared responsibility — making every American responsible for having
health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost.
I share the goal of ending lapses and gaps in coverage that make us
less healthy and drive up everyone’s costs, and I am open to your ideas
on shared responsibility.”

While President Obama did say he would like a waiver process in
hardship cases, there is no reason to have a mandate other than to
force people to buy insurance who don’t want to, mostly young people
who are healthy and want to spend their limited income on their young
careers and families. According to the Census Bureau, about 60 percent
of the uninsured are under age 35, with the highest rates in the 18-24
bracket (28.1 percent uninsured) and the 25-34 (25.7 percent uninsured)
bracket. This is about forcing some people who don’t want health
insurance to pay for other people through a new government program.
It’s more spreading the wealth around.

President Obama is poised to accept this provision for the same
reason Sen. Clinton proposed it—to buy off insurance companies.
Democrats learned a lesson from the 1993 HillaryCare fight when the
insurance companies stopped a Washington health care takeover. The
mandate is a giveaway to insurance companies to buy their support this
time by forcing healthy young people who use less health care to pay
insurance premiums.

Lie Number 3: If You Aren’t Rich, I Won’t Raise Your Taxes

What Obama said on the campaign trail (September 12, 2008, Dover, N.H.):

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less
than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income
tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of
your taxes.”

What Obama says now:

Well, it’s hard to keep up because new ideas are floated every day,
but they all would involve taxing people who make less than $250,000.
In fact, even his income tax hikes for the rich have now been dropped
down to start at $235,000. Then there’s the soft drink excise tax, the cap-and-trade energy taxes, and most recently the VAT, a form of national sales tax. And of course the tax on health benefits I mentioned above would also break the only-tax-the-rich pledge.

What all these proposals have in common: we all pay, big-time,
likely trillions of dollars in higher taxes for “free” government
health care. In fact, that’s probably the biggest lie of all—that
government health care is free.

Mr. Kerpen is director of policy for Americans for Prosperity. He can be contacted through www.philkerpen.com. He records a free daily Podcast available here.

of what is to come if this 'health care reform' goes national.

It may also be instructive to look at what happened when Florida got into the homeowner insurance business to ensure that everyone could get 'reasonably priced' isnurance against hurricane damage.

Sunshine State Clues for a Public Health Care Option:  http://www.rooseveltroom.net

As you might expect, the government priced insurance at a rate lower than private insurance companies could, and as a result rather than more competition, the government's action led to less competition for insurance, exactly the opposite of what was claimed. The government insurance rates did not cover the risk in an actuarial sense, so now the citizens of Florida are on the hook in the case of significant natural disasters.

Romney does not support Obama care

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Liberal judges are the high priests of redefined marriage.  Good men want freedom, Evil men want license 

  I wonder how soon what we see in Iran is going to happen here??

 Our Coverment officals are just as corupt. 

-Dave

Obama's health care "reform" plan is to blow up the building in order to fix a leak in the roof-Herman Cain

And yet many conservatives still support Romney?

Will we ever learn...

One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).