We Will Call You Out!

Townhall.com ^ | september 10, 2009 | Hugh Hewitt

[Kaslin]

President Obama's very big, incredibly important, game changing speech-to-end-all-speeches on health care cam across as panicky, too high pitched, and schoolyard bullyish. The president's theme was obvious early on: Nothing that was said against his plan in August had merit and certainly nothing that came up at the townhalls was legitimate.

"Misinformation," "bogus claims," "scare tactics," "such a charge would be laughable,' "it is a lie plain and simple" --welcome to the civil discourse of the hope and change era.

The speech really ought not to have gone on as long as it did. The short form:

There is nothing to worry about seniors.

The plan will not cost a dime in increased deficits.

No one will be inconvenienced much less deeply disappointed much less on the receiving end of a rationing scheme.

Tort reform? We've got demonstration projects.

The public option? Necessary because of the situation in Alabama.

A few details remain to be worked out --but pay no attention to the nervous laughter in the chambers.

We can do this because I say we must. It is in our character to vastly expand the size and cost of government.

The problem with the president's speech, and it is a very, very big problem, is that to be believed it would require a huge amount of trust in the president. The sort of trust that could only have been earned by a fair accounting of the critics' many and serious objections.

And that accounting was exactly what wasn't in the president's speech.

President Obama took a predictable whack at "death panels," but in so doing he dismissed every other objection raised by every other critic.

We know our own minds. We know why we are objecting to the plan. We know how the Post Office works, how Amtrack works, how reliable are pledges from Democrats about cost controls.

We know the president cannot guarantee that we get to keep our insurance and our doctors because most of us get our insurance from our employers, and they will decide what we get after they consider what the new law dictates and demands.

We know what the Congressional Budget Office has said about the price tag, and we know what Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi really really want and what the president himself has endorsed in the past, which is a single payer system

And seniors know that you cannot drain $500 or more billion dollars from medicare and deliver the same benefits as are delivered today. You cannot make deep cuts in Medicare Advantage and not lower the standard of living for many seniors.

Seniors are afraid, and they are right to be afraid, and nothing the president said in his speech will make them less afraid because he did not discuss their fears --he dismissed them.

The president can promise that illegal aliens won't be covered, but how exactly are hospitals going to stop providing the care they are presently providing and which only heartless robots could deny? It simply isn't believable for the president to tell the country that illegal aliens won't be covered --and did you notice the stress among the Democrats on that point-- but not address one of the great unfunded current costs of the system which is the provision of health care to illegal immigrants via emergency room care.

The president can assure the audience that abortion won't be a covered procedure under his "reforms," but the country knows where his party is on that issue and there isn't the bold print guarantee pro-lifers want in any of the draft bills, nor will one be forthcoming.

Again and again the president trotted out the tired old talking points in defense of the tired old arguments. The usual cast of straw men made their appearance, and the president dispatched them all.

And we've all been warned, we radio and cable talkers, that the president will call us out.

And not a minb was changed, not a new argument advanced, not a single compromise put forward.

The only thing bipartisan about this debate is the opposition to much of the president's plan. That's the way it was on Wednesday morning.

And that's still the way it is late on Wednesday night.

[Always Right]

People who parody William Shatner's delivery but praise Barack Obama's speaking are either hypocrites or simply not paying attention.

The difference is, Shatner kind of has a clue and he plays up to that personality at times and even mocks himself. Obama has no clue he is an arrogant condescending bastard.

[burghguy]

You are absolutely right. John McCain needs to fade into the sunset. I don’t want to reach across the aisle. I don’t want to be the respectful opposition. It is time to get in their faces and give as good as we get. No more backing down. And no more apologies for calling the Dem’s out.

[leilani]

The problem with the president's speech, and it is a very, very big problem, is that to be believed it would require a huge amount of trust in the president. The sort of trust that could only have been earned by a fair accounting of the critics' many and serious objections.

And he still hasn't given us his brilliant plan. The WH actually had the gall to hand out talking points to the press last night instead!

His speech was just an extended rehash of the same vaguely drawn gimmelist we've all heard from him ad nauseum for two months straight now.

He still refuses to specifically articulate what exactly it is we all supposedly have the absolute moral imperative to pass in order to to save us from the doom he says is imminent if we don't pass whatever he can't seem to come right out & say.

If it's so damn important, and we're all gonna die if we don't do whatever it is he thinks we're supposed to do, then why the heck can't he just spit it out & say what specifically needs to be done, for pete's sake?

The only dang thing different between last night's speech & every other time this guy has harangued the nation with yet another grand proclamation announcing yet again his perpetually noncommittal response to a crisis he keeps saying exists, wherein he exhorts everybody else us to immediately do something which even he can't be bothered to decide himself, is that instead of delivering it in a drone, he decided to bark it last night.

Can you imagine if he had been a founding father? Instead of the Declaration of Independence, we'd have had the the "Declaration of I'll Get Back To You With The Details After Everybody Signs It".

So maybe Congress should take his cue & write a Health Care Bill which consists of one word: PRESENT. That does indeed seem to be the sum total of what he's willing to take a stand on, they should give it to him just to get him to shut the heck up.

America to Barky: ENOUGH WITH THE SPEECHES ABOUT NOTHING ALREADY!

LEAVE US ALONE!!!!!

[MrB]

That part just p1$$3$ me off to no end.

We’re supposed to let these bastards get up there and lie without being called on it out of a “sense of decorum”?

[Sparko]

What a rant!

I think Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was specifically addressing skeptical, questioning non-believers like you when he said this last night (LOL):

Barack: — “But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than to improve it. (Applause.)
I won’t stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out. (Applause.)
And I will not — and I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.”

FROM
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-a-Joint-Session-of-Congress-on-Health-Care/

[MrB]

Go ahead, Barry, “call us out” -

and while you’re at it,

please explain how you are going to repeal the laws of supply and demand.

Whips?

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[leilani]

But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than to improve it. (Applause.) I won’t stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out.

See what I mean?

What WH plan? Where? When people get up in arms about leaked specifics of the Congressional plan, Dem politicians tell their Town Hallers: not to worry, there is no plan yet. Then the Prez goes on national TV to tell us we have to absolutely positively must pass the plan immediately lest we all wake up dead tomorrow, a plan which they keep telling us doesn't exist. WTF?

[Osage Orange]

Gotta funny story....

I live near a very small town....

One dark early morning last winter...I was going to get coffee, before driving to work. I turned on to the main street in town...and saw a cop coming towards me a few blocks away. I glanced at my speed...I wasn't speeding, and he went past me.

But he whipped a U-turn...and got in right behind me...and "lit" me up.

I stop in a parking lot..I get out, and go to the back of my truck with my wallet in my hand. He has every light on his car on me...He and another cop get out. He say's, "You calling me out"? I said, "What?" He then says, "You getting ready to throw down on me?" I start laughing...I'm standing there in my scrubs with my wallet in my hand. Both my hands are visible...and I can't hardly see him...the lights are so bright. LOL!!

Oh you want to know why he pulled me over...? I had my fog lights on. Yep, I'm a bad man!!

Deputy Fife never even looked at my license.....and let me off with a warning. Ha!!

[Sparko]

WTF = We The Fools if we believe this clown.

[leilani]

Hey that’s a great graphic! The best thing is that when I shamelssly steal it from ya I only have to tweak one letter to make it look as though I created it myself! ;-) [j/k]

-lmd

[davidlachnicht]

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