Did President Obama Lie About Health Care in His non-SOTU Tuesday Night?

Red State ^ | 02/26/2009 | Jeff Emanuel

[BreeLee]

In his non-State of the Union speech Tuesday night, President Obama claimed that health care “is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds,” and that, “in the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages.”

Further, he claimed that “one million more Americans…lost their health insurance” in “each” of the eight years of the Bush administration.

Each of these statements is so demonstrably false that the only two conclusions one can reach about their inclusion in Tuesday’s speech are (1) President Obama was willingly lying, and was counting on the American people to be too stupid to fact-check him or too apathetic to do anything about his untruths, or (2) President Obama and his researchers and speechwriters are either too ignorant or too intellectually lazy (or both) to get their factstalking points remotely straight.

My money’s on a combination of the two. I don’t think the researchers and writers care all that much about accuracy (it’s not like a Democratic president is going to get hit with a make-believe controversy over, say, sixteen words that are actually true); likewise, I don’t think President Obama particularly cares whether he’s telling the truth or lying to the great unwashed in this country, just so long as his talking points are getting out and his agenda enacted.

Courtesy of some research help from Greg Scandlen, director of Consumers for Health Care Choices at The Heartland Institute, here’s the real info on the health care stats Mr. Obama just couldn’t help but fudge:

Health care “is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.”

“By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.”

“In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages.”

“And in each of these years, one million more Americans have lost their health insurance.”

Go to the article for the details of the lies.

[BreeLee]

You know how to tell when BO is lying right right?

[Natural Law]

"Did Obama lie"

I'm certain he did because I saw his lips moving.

[SteamShovel]

“in the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages.”

The most ignored part of this is Lawyers and frivolous law suits diving up health care and prescription costs.

The RAT Lawyers will never touch this, meaning the costs will never be contained.

[allmost]

Our health care system is superior to any in existence. He doesn’t like that.

[Williams]

The incredible thing here is that Obama is lying so much and on such a massive scale and these budgets are the massive taxing and redistribution of wealth he denied planning, and all of these plans are hugely left wing and irresponsible to such a degree -

I think people are just starting to grasp how horrible this is and the depth of dishonesty and robbery going on, and it’s a task just to pick items to expose, that’s how bad it is!

[odin2008]

[M. Dodge Thomas]

The author of that article is fudging his numbers a bit as well, for example to make his argument he cites a year with an unusually low number of filings due to the revised bankruptcy laws:

[353FMG]

I beg your pardon—Obama never, never lies. He is totally incapable of deceit.

[lowbridge]

bump

[Natural Law]

"Health care “is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.”"

Let's do the maff....365 days in a year, times 24 hours in a day, and 120 medical related bankruptcies in an hour equals over a million per year. Does that seem right?