Here’s Steny Hoyer on Obama’s oft-repeated promise that if you like your health insurance plan you could keep it:
“We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would be required to get more extensive coverage,” Hoyer said in response to a question from National Review.
Asked by another reporter how repeated statements by Obama to the contrary weren’t “misleading,” Hoyer said “I don’t think the message was wrong. I think the message was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with – ‘assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.’”
If there were a prize for creativity in making excuses for such a central lie, the current crop of explanations for Obama’s promise should win, hands down.
To refresh your memory:
Why didn’t Obama and other Democrats make a more accurate and complete statement in the first place? Because it would have contradicted the lying message they wanted to broadcast, which is that if you liked your policy you could keep it. Adding the caveat Hoyer has belatedly suggested would have essentially changed the message into something like this: “Obamacare’s requirements may cause changes in your health insurance plan if it’s not in compliance with the law.” And that was most assuredly not what Obama or the other Democrats wanted to tell the American people.
If Hoyer or any of those defending the lies were actually interested in truth, it might make sense to draw their attention to the unequivocal nature of Obama’s statement, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan, PERIOD.” That “period” in there actually means that the statement is complete and precise as is; no qualifications. Not that the “period” was necessary to make the statement definitive, but Obama added it to make it even more so, the better to emphasize the “no ifs, ands, or buts” nature of his promise.
But Hoyer et al are most assuredly not interested in truth. They are interested in spin and butt-covering for one of the most egregious and definitely one of the most important lies ever told the American people by a president.
The real problem, though, is not their spin, which would and should be laughable to any thinking person. It’s that some people accept and/or parrot it, and some of those people are members of the still-influential MSM. And if the majority of Americans either nod in accord or shrug in disinterest, than we as a people have become profoundly stupid and/or profoundly corrupted.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Reality just ain’t what it used to be.
He was just misquoted. What he actually said was:
“If I like your health plan you can keep it.”
Obama rejects our reality and replaces it with his own. Actually, no he doesn’t. He simply lies when the truth doesn’t serve or suit him.
This lie by Obama is shocking. Not shocking that he lies, we knew that, but this was a blatant, repeated lie that he had to know would be exposed. He just doesn’t care. He is, in effect, saying, “Yes, I’m lying to you. What are you going to do about it?”
1-800-F**CK-YOU!
Whattaya gonna do about it?
But, we only meant you could keep the ‘good’ policies that we agreed with.
How Many Obama Navigators does it take to Change a Light Bulb?
None. They don’t change light bulbs. They just redefine Darkness as the new standard of care.
NOOOOOooooo amount of “caveating” could have lip-sticked that pig.
And note how many careful caveats there are in the record here. Count them with me…
(crickets)
EVERY flucking Deemocrat is complicit in this lie…THESE lies, because they are legion.
And they knew them and told them, because the greatest power-grab in American history would be impossible without them. And POWER is the goal.
The Democratic Party has turned into a gang of vile creatures…..and we need to send the slimy RINOS over to the Demmunist side of the aisle ASAP, so they can be with their own kind…….smhid
There is a special level of hell reserved for lying liars.
Liberal word games…
My Favorite Game Show!!
Chuck Todd : ‘termination’ is not the same as ‘cancellation’
I know…gees. They don’t even sound the same, and are spelled waaay differently; don’t you right-wing teabaggers even know how to spell already!
There’s also this: “It isn’t a cancellation. It’s an upgrade!” Which is blatantly false if your insurance carrier has pulled out of your market, and cruelly cynical when “upgrade” means you’re required to pay twice as much for the mandatory privilege of getting “benefits” you don’t want and cannot possibly need.
The cynicism of the Democrats’ claim that it’s really better for you is stunning.
The callousness of the Democrats is what’s most shocking. We’ve known for a long time that they’re lying crooks, but for the party of “compassion” to be so openly indifferent to the hardship they’re imposing on people of modest means is morally revolting.
Liberals congenitally cannot think anything through to the consequences, so they lazily make everything they touch a “one size fits all” program/regulation/law. It’s easier that way…and less complicated…because they cannot think past their noses……..and they’re just plainly evil and destructive anyway.
“And if the majority of Americans either nod in accord or shrug in disinterest, than we as a people have become profoundly stupid and/or profoundly corrupted.”
If? Is there any doubt that the liberals have made Americans stupid, through the “education” system, and that our stupidity is being used to fundamentally transform our once great society into a socialist nightmare?
My greatest fear – in all seriousness – is that the disinterest is what has happened. I believe Henry Hawkins, below, put his finger on it, Obamacare is a spirit killer.
The results of the last general election may have been the most dispiriting event of my, now fairly long, life. That ANYONE, particularly an American or someone who lives here, illigally or not, would continue to support these people indicates a craveness and moral hollowing out of the citizenry that we have no reason to expect to survive.
There was then nothing we did not know about these people and we reelected them anyway. If anything, that election seems to have made them more brazen. The Dick Durbins, Steny Hoyers, and Chuck Schumers of the world are vain, useful stooges; their constituencies in Chicago, Baltimore, Broklyn and the Bronx are the problem, it’s not clear how anyone gets to them.
Ace has been on fire at the Ace of Spades about this issue this week, and both he and the Professor are absolutely right. We were told time and again by Champ himself that if we liked our insurance, we could keep it. We weren’t ever once told that if the insurance we liked was somehow deemed by a regulator deep in the bowels of DHHS to be ‘sub-standard’ that we’d have to give up that insurance and buy more expensive insurance with less coverage and higher deductibles.
Yet that’s what we have, and the insurance policies that are “grandfathered” in lose that distinction if anything at all about them changes. If the rate goes up from $400 to $401 a month, that’s enough for that policy now to be non-grandfathered.
It’s unfortunate that we have an MSM that is essentially the media wing of the DNC and Obama himself, but even they aren’t going to be able to smooth this one over.
Now of course if the Republican party had a brain and a clue (they aren’t called the “Stupid Party” for nothing, you know), they’d be buying ads on TV and websites to mention this, and to explain to people that indeed they’re losing their insurance because Champ doesn’t want to honor his promise and also doesn’t want his fingerprints on it.
Seen any of those ads lately? Me neither.
This isn’t the sort of issue one can lie low about until say September of 2014 and then hope to have it resonate in the fall election. It’s an issue that has to be confronted now, and outside of the few dependable commentators in the blogosphere I don’t see it happening. The Pubs sure aren’t getting it done.
Yeah, that’s it Steny! And if all those greedy doctors hadn’t decided to drop out of these proggie reimbursement programs you could keep your doctor just like Barry promised too!!
Now, about that $2,500 reduction in your premiums….
Huh????
What do liars do when caught lying?
They lie more!
Ha! I like that. “If you like your policy you can keep it, unless we force you to change it.”
If only GHWB had been so clever: “When I said ‘no new taxes,’ I meant, ‘No new taxes except for the new taxes.'”
For goodness sakes people, it’s been weeks since Obama last told these lies. Move on, already! It’s old news! Move on. What next, pick on the guy for stealing someone’s Cheerios in kindergarten? You never scrutinized Bush like this, nor ever held Reagan to such lofty standards of ‘honesty’, but since it’s Obama all of a sudden a couple dozen blatant lies hiding the fact he was about to rape the entire middle class for taxes in the form of health care insurance is a big deal to you racist bastards. If you hadn’t figured out the lies they would still be truth, so it’s YOU guys who are creating the lies. HE WON and now he is our king. Get over it!
———————————–
Someone with a national media footprint needs to start collecting and publishing a very specific set of data, obtained from readers & viewers stuck with Obamacare plans. Nothing but entries of wha tpeople have had to do to stay insured. Sample:
Name: Joe T. Pardee
Location: SC
Previous Policy: $269/mo with $1500 deductible
Obamacare Policy: $581/mo with $4500 deductible
Given Up to Pay For it: Netflix, eBook Club, Movies/Theaters, back to Basic Cable, softball league, billiards league, guitar lessons, charity.
I’m betting you’d see a world of heartbreak in the final category with many people. It would be a graphic, concise, objective statement on the ripple effects of Obamacare, both good and bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and worse.
Obamacare is an economy killer, a job killer, and worst, a spirit killer. It must go.
This could be a good tool to open the eyes Obama-bots to their Dear Leader’s evil nature. The following is even better:
If you want to see the real Obama you should read Thomas Sowell’s opinion piece “Phony in Chief” at townhall.com.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/10/09/phony_in_chief/page/full
Mr. Sowell tells about how in 2007 while running for President Senator Obama gave a speech to a largely black audience in New Orleans after Katrina. He complained to them that they weren’t getting the waiver to the Stafford Act that was given to NY after 9/11 and FL after hurricane Andrew. He said that it was because the federal government didn’t care about blacks.
This was a lie and Senator Obama knew it. He knew it because he had voted against this waiver two weeks earlier and because it had been signed into law. He lied in order to make his audience angry with the government and to trick them into supporting him.
This is the worst kind of lie and the same technique that the worst tyrants use to win political power. Tyrants that murdered millions of their “enemies” and destroyed their countries. How long will it take for Tyrant Obama to take the next step and open up concentration camps for his enemies?
Don’t forget he lied about the insurance policy that “denied” his mother coverage. He always made it sound like it was health insurance when it was a disability policy she purchased after her cancer diagnosis. The company cancelled her for lying on her application. How many people are aware of that lie, the lie that was the basis for Obamacare?
So there it is. The opposition will do anything. Period. McConnell and Boehner should know they are in a brass knuckle fistfight that happens every single day.
Question: could a class action lawsuit be filed by the citizens of the US that lost their health insurance and voted for Obama against Obama based on “fraudulent inducement” to vote for him by claiming that Obamacare would not effect existing health plans. He had knowledge and knowingly lied to the American public who voted for him and then we forced to buy a product…
Then he and every democrat that voted for the ACA should be asked was it their intention for these policies to be cancelled and did they take into consideration how many of their voters would lose their policies. They can’t have it both ways; they can’t say they voted for the bill because it grandfathered existing policies and then say that those policies should be cancelled because they did not comply with the ACA. Since it is pretty obvious that an individual policy for an adult single male would not include maternity coverage and pediatric dentistry as required under the ACA, then they really did not intend to “grandfather” any policy. Of course, in their defense, they had to pass it to find out what was in it.
Don’t forget that group policy compliance was delayed one year; there will be millions more “grandfathered” policies cancelled next year.
“It’s not a lie if I didn’t know it was a lie!”
He, Obama and the rest of statists can pound sand. I reject their authority and substitute my own.
If you like your government, you can keep your government.
You legal types out here: If this is “plain old fraud”, albeit on a massive scale, why can’t We the People” file a class action lawsuit against the government? Seems like there would be several million takers. If a private insurer had lied to it’s customers to get their business, couldn’t they be sued?
“If you like your insurance, you can keep it.”
Turns out, 500 million people (hey, if they can make up numbers, so can I) didn’t “like” their insurance.
only seditious, un-patriotic criminals “like” illegal insurance
The depths of depravity of this administration and the cover the main stream media offers is just unbelievable.
My question is are we sure that if someone like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul is elected President will Barack Obama step down?
Can we be sure that he will?
ABC spun this by quoting Carney’s assurance that we’ll be grandfathered “forever” unless our insurer changes our policy. (He left out the part about government requirements to change policies.)
Then the helpful ABC script reader said that “many of those people many find that they can now get a better deal.” (He left out the part about “better” being defined on the government’s terms.)
So, ABC made people-losing-their-policies sound like nothing but a partisan complaint by Republicans – those meanies who want to prevent people from getting a “better” government-dictated plan.
Isn’t bait-and-switch a subject for the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection? Paging Sen. Lie-awatha!