Obama Health Care Press Conference Disappoints

By Don White

Even Bill O’Reilly of Fox News said he still doesn’t know what the president’s health care is all about. Frankly, O’Reilly said he had a $30,000 education including a journalism degree at Harvard and he still doesn’t understand a thing Obama was trying to say.

One interesting comment from Obama was that “the stars are right for health reform.” Since when do presidents dabble in astrology?

You can bet the average American learned even less that me and O’Reilly, both graduates of journalism schools.

This has to be the most unsuccessful press conference of the Obama six-month career as president. He has had five press conferences in less than six months, four in prime time.

A lot of people were very disappointed.

Dick Morris on Fox said he understands. You’ve got to read into his vocabulary, but O’Reilly said most people won’t understand.

“Obama’s plan will kill him,” says Morris, “because it will make middle-class people lose control over what procedures they can have so that their health insurance premiums don’t go down, they go up."

The Employer either has to pay your premiums – which now will be counted as income and will be taxable and you might not get a raise.

Can I go to any doctor I want to go to? Yes, but the doctor can’t make that decision. The Federal government will make decisions based on your health records located on a computer disc in Washington. All of your health records will be in Washington, not kept privately by a doctor. There will be a privacy issue.

Morris said they will put your medical conditions in a model with the other 300 million Americans and a model will be created to decide which procedures will be covered.

Obama says the health care plan will pay for itself. Morris says it won’t. Charlie Rangle’s bill has $550 billion in costs he can’t account for – can’t pay for. Doctors and nurses will leave the profession. It happened in Canada.

Two ways to cut medical costs: cut amount doctors and hospitals make or cut the daily number of appointments that the doctors will hold. Those are the only two ways Obama can save Americans money, and both ruin health care in America.

Of the 47 million who are uninsured, it includes 10 million illegal aliens. And this takes money from the elderly because the older peoples’ care will be rationed and they may not get the hip replacement and other procedures they currently need and get.

The press conference was “performed” by the president with use of a teleprompter in the East Room of the White House. In his audience were specially selected press representatives.

Steve Hayes from the Weekly standard, part of the Fox panel, said Obama called this press conference for a chance for the president to be the party’s “explainer.” It didn’t work out too well because everything was in generalities.

Juan Williams of National Public Radio said the President would explain some of the specifics of the bill to build public support for his health plan. This did not happen. In fact, in this way the conference was a total failure and may cause the president’s falling approval ratings to fall even further after tonight.

Charles Krauthammer: The president is doing this to build strength, while his popularity has dropped considerably in the past two months. He promised Obama would attack Republicans and Obama didn’t disappoint.

This was his fifth formal news conference since January 20^th, when he took office and his fourth prime time news conference.

What did the President actually do:

He spoke of progress he was making about health reform. He started by saying “our financial system was on the verge of collapse. But due to his actions, he has saved the economy, extended health and unemployment insurance to those laid off. The recovery act will stimulate jobs for the next two years. He claimed that new jobs are the last things that happen in a recession. It was an economy that wasn’t ready to compete in the 21^st century because we spend more on health care than any other nation and we didn’t have any “green” initiatives.

He claimed it wasn’t just about the 47 million Americans that don’t have health insurance. It’s about people who had insurance, but not good enough insurance. “If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our economy.” Health care makes up 17 percent of total U.S. government spending.

The mistakes and deficits we are having now are due to inaction of the past, said Obama.

Of course, he blames past administrations for all the problems and takes no blame on himself when in reality he has quadrupled the national debt and this is generally accepted by experts as one of the reasons we have not come out of this recession when countries in Europe are coming out of theirs – that, together with the fact that he hasn’t focused the TARP and stimulous money on job creation and helping small businesses which make up 3/4 of all jobs in America.

Pre-existing medical conditions, says Obama, will not be reason for a denial of coverage.

He says he inherited a $3 trillion deficit ( which is not true), when in reality it was only about $600 billion.

He continues to say health care should not be instituted on the backs of middle class people but any way you slice it, that’s what will happen.

Doctors and nurses will be able give good care, just not the most expensive care.

He has a proposal to improve quality of care for seniors and save money on drugs. That, too, is a promise he can’t possible keep when you realize he will ration care for the elderly while giving better care to illegal aliens. Of course, a lot of this must be worked out. Thank God, Congress won't pass this bill as it stands before the August 7^th recess. If they have to come back in September to look at it again, after Congressmen have been taking complaints from their people back home, he may not pass any kind of health care. That’s what Obama was worried about, but now it appears he can’t do anything about that.

He said he was now receiving “broad agreement” on his bill, but that isn’t true. Even Democrats are not for this expensive bill. He continued to talk about himself, saying he and Congress have great insurance benefits, but that this isn’t about him. That doesn’t sit well with folks back home. Many Americans wonder why they, the government, has far better health insurance than the average American. We pay for both of them and the president and Congress don’t.

Ben Feller, AP, asked: Have you told Congressmen which of their ideas are acceptable by you? His answer should have been a flat no, because he has yet to get down to this part of the process. But still he’s pushing for passage of the bill this week? Doesn’t make sense.

Premiums have doubled for people who have had private insurance over past ten years, Obama says. More increase than the increase in their salaries.

Medicare and Medicaid will break the Federal budget. We spend six thousand dollars a year more for health care than in other countries for the same coverage. Really? Canada? I don’t think their care, and Britain’s and France’s care even compare with our health care benefits. If it were true, why are foreigners coming to America for health services?

To pay for health insurance:

He would eliminate itemized deductions for the wealthiest one third.

He doesn’t want the final one-third of health costs shouldered on the middle class families. He said that a couple times.

He says he hasn’t seen what the Senate Finance Committee is producing. The House has other ideas, he said.

He wants more effective info technology (get it on computers and away from paper files), and that people don’t have to go through five different tests, and doctors and nurses can reduce their costs. No one disagrees with that as a means of reducing costs, but why do we need to throw away the good care we have to take care of thirty-seven-million more Americans who don’t currently have health care, plus ten million illegal aliens who should be thrown out of this country?.

Many Americans don’t want health care coverage. Yet they are the ones who can afford a golf club membership, to drive two or three big autos, and to send their kids to private schools. This argues against a single payer system.

David Alexander (I don’t know what news service), why the rush to pass by August. Why the rush?

I’m rushed because I get letters every day who tell me If I don’t do something soon we either go bankrupt or they don’t get their health care

If you don’t set deadlines in this town nothing happens.

He believes “the stars are aligned and we need to take advantage of that.” What did he mean why that statement?

Now we have an idea to incorporate a panel of doctor and experts to lower costs. That change wouldn’t have surfaced had we not had deadlock.

Chuck Todd, NBC News: Can you explain how you will expand coverage. How will you cover all 47 or 50 states.

The truth is unless you have a single payor system because all are covered, you won’t cover everyone. There will be people who will think they don’t need health care. Overwhelming number of Aemricans want health care but many can’t afford it. My plan would cover 97 or 98 percent of all Americans. Despite a lot of subsidies, there are some who still can’t afford health care and we will have to give them some kind of hardship exemption.

He said the average American family is paying thousands of dollars more because there are those who have no coverage, and if eveyone has it, it will save us lots of money.

Someone asked, "Isn’t this a fight inside the Democratic party, not a problem with Republicans?"

The president referred to the South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint who said let’s not see how we can get workable bill, he wants to attack me so that it would make me more vulnerable. (Demint believes health care ill prove to be Obama's Waterloo.)

Obama claims Republicans have good Ideas. If they do he will consider them. Some Democrats believe that the doctor rates for their communities are too low, so this is part of the normal give and take part of the political process.

Jake Tapper, ABC News: There is going to have to be sacrifice, such as end-of- life care. You don’t talk about the sacrifices. Americans are going to have to give something up?

They’re going to have to give up things that don’t help you. He mentioned multiple tests where no one bothers to send the first and second test to the ultimate doctor, and that raises your premiums – and it comes out of your pocket and out of all taxpayer pockets. I want to change that. Every American wants change – why would we want to use things that don’t work. If there’s a blue pill and a red pill and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill, we need to use the blue pill. Those are the changes we need to make.

It will make patients become more discriminating consumers because we just can’t afford what we are doing right now.

But when you examine this, such decisions will be totally out of the hands of the patient. We won’t be in as good a position as we are now in making discriminating decisions. Government will make those decisions for us. Is that what we want?

I don’t know who asked this question, Deficit versus Debt:

Americans are understandably queasy about huge deficits we’re facing now. We had the bank bailout; the recovery package; the supplemental. Legitimately, people say I’m cutting back but all I’m seeing is government spending more money. That argument is being used against health care change.

When I came in we had a 1.3 trillion annual deficit that I inherited. (not true).

Consumers had lost through home values, 401 Ks, and that was already happening when I was sworn in. So we felt it important to put into place a recovery bill.

We put in a budget. Had we not done anything, it would have been a 9.1 trillion deficit. Our deficit for ten years will be 7.2 trillion. (CBO disputes this) The debt and deficit are deep concerns of mine. I’m very concerned about Federal spending. But we are spending two trillion. We eliminated waste yesterday in our military budget (end of the F22 fighter plane, a larger plane than the F35 which the pentagon favors.

This is where he loses me. His deficit will not be 7.2 trillion over ten years. The Congressional Budget Office says it will be 9.1 trillion. Where did he get the lower figure? Someone manufactured it. It looks good to say he’s lowering a budget over ten years, but he isn’t.

Chip Reid, CBS

Medicare. What kinds of pain or sacrifices are you calling people to suffer. Why not take it out of politics and have a panel decide.

Obama says that’s actually what he will do, a panel of health care experts. But he quickly adds that this was a Republican idea, so he says now we’re giving that body some power. He’s requiring Congress to vote up or down on those suggestions.

It’s not going to reduce Medicare benefits, but change how the benefits are delivered to make savings. He said there is probably more than 80 billion dollars in pharmacies wasted, because Big Pharma has offered to give the government that amount of money toward cost savings. A hard commitment we already have. It means out of pocket savings for consumers. AARP endorsed it.

An unannounced woman asked about watch dog groups, that the Obama administration turned down their list from health care executives. Her question was about transparency.

The president said the negotiations were not on Cspan, but the kickoff was. Senate Finance committee could be on CSPan.

TARP: I think we have provided much better transparency than the previous administration.

Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg News:

Does your administration need to take a harder line on Wall Street.

Do you support a fee on traditional lending?

We took steps. It was originated by the Bush administration. Economists on the left and right said this situation could have deep repercussions – a deep depression. People are now no longer talking about people stepping off the cliff. There are a lot of people who can go to a bank and get money. Now that financial system has bounced back. Banks have now made profits. Some of them have paid back their TARP money.

But what we haven’t seen are the changes on Wall Street where we may have to bailout them again, those who took overly big risks and had to be bailed out.

If we don’t pass financial regulatory reform, we will go back to where we were before, because some in government believe some of them are too big to fail. He said they were taking bonuses not deserved. Shareholders should get to know what pay is being made. He now has some rules in place to discourage these big bonuses. FDIC is paid for by bank fees. That is not taxpayers who pay for those guarantees.

Steve Koff, Cleveland Plain Dealer. This turned out not to be the Steve Koff but only a reporter who stood up when Obama mentioned Koff’s name. In other words he spoke out of turn and spoofed his way onto national television:

Can you guarantee that government won’t deny any coverage and you and the Congress will abide by the same insurance options.

He says the benefits will match up with the Public Employee Fund coverage. Really? Then he changed his mind, admitting that he has a doctor checking him every other day, so, no, his health care can’t be made to match up with what the general citizenry will get. Why did he have to lie about it in the first place?

There will be improvements in the plan and payouts He suggested we incentivize private sector to do even better. But many of us believe there won’t be a private sector health insurance. The devil is in the details, and even he hasn’t read the bill. Insurance companies are making record profits, he says. I’d like to see the record on that. And he says health premiums are going up. How can we be sure that those costs are not being paid by taxpayers.

Another unknown asked if he could guarantee that there will be no changes in the health care delivery system. He runs the worst press conference of any modern-day president. Often, nobody, even the television persons, got the name of those asking the questions.

No, the whole idea is that we will improve the care. Decisions are changing as we go, and I want to make sure it’s the doctors who make the decision. Right now, if you have a bad throat, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say I make more money if I take out the kid's tonsils.

We want to free doctors and hospital to make better decisions. That’s how the Cleveland Clinic works so well, and the Mayo Clinic works. It is a system for the public, not for the clinic or insurers.

Finally, he had to reverse a previous answer where he had said his health care would be the same as everyone else: I’d be happy to have the same benefit package as everyone, but I have doctors calling on me every day.

Steve Koff, Cleveland plain Dealer: questioned about him flying around getting endorsements from various health clinics.

I’m going to be in Cleveland, but am not expecting an endorsement from your clinic. Mayo Clinic re his Med Pac idea, Mayo Clinic said this would make a difference.

Lynn Sweet, Chicgo Sun-Times;

This question was a planned diversion to end his press conference. The question wasn't anything about health care.

Reporter Sweet asked about Skip Gates, Obama's friend, getting arrested in his home. Gates, a black man, forgot his keys and had to break into his own house and was arrested by police. He jimmied his way into his own house. There was a report to the police because someone was breaking in. Police are doing what they should, said obama. A moment later he called them "stupid."

At that point Professor Gates is already in his house. Police come in. He shows an ID that this is his house. He gets arrested for disorderly conduct. Those charges were dropped. Cambridge Police acted stupidly, says Obama, because he had already proved he was in his own home. There is a long history of Blacks and Latinos being stopped disproportionately. And that is an example of how race remains a factor in the society, and that doesn’t lessen the progress that is being made. He referred to him getting elected president. But the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently casts a shadow. We need to improve police techniques so that we eliminate bias.

Now what exactly did that question and answer have to do with health insurance? It was only a ruse, a time waster, because Obama had run out of things to say about health care. Frankly, it doesn’t appear he is very well versed on his own bill. He isn’t, so how should he expect the public to know what is going on? And why the rush to pass something we don’t even understand?

He took 11 questions, and said that the Stars are now aligned to pass health care coverage.

Medicad and medicare are the biggest driving force behind our deficit.

I, Don White, type 70 words per minute. I sat there and wrote up 2121 words in notes of what he said. It is almost useless, because it is so hard to understand what he plans to do. I don’t think even he understands that.

He tried to sell what is considered the takeover of one-sixth of the economy.He tried to mask his broad proposals to make conservatives understand. He failed.

Juan Williams said he talked too much in general terms. He acted like he was in denial regarding Democrats, as if there is no large group of Blue Dog Democrats blocking health care. Charles Krauthammer said he spent an hour, said he was going to improve health care with no added costs except to a few millionaires. This is a ridiculous promise. It won’t happen.

The president filibusters and answered questions for 46 minutes and I still don’t know the specifics of what he’s going to do.

Marc Lamont Hill, PhD, of Fox News, said he didn’t try to answer specific questions and he thinks that’s okay. He should have been more specific. I wanted to know where the money was coming from. When he said two-thirds of the money is already in the system, he isn’t being honest. Dr. Hill didn’t think that our health history would go on a disc in Washington. And that that would be the way health care would be divided out.

Thus, a bureaucracy would decide if I get my operation. It’s a big concern of Bill O’Reilly and me. I’m an older guy. If those ten million young illegal aliens are going to take my place in line for health care which I’ve paid for the past fifty years. It’s not fair. Obama didn’t even talk about private accounts for health care, which would lead to efficiency.

I was quite disappointed about this press conference. Like all of his press conferences, they aren’t your typical question and answer conferences. He’s more concerned with talking – and this time he didn’t make sense – than answering questions. Bring back the old Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan days when the president actually devoted the entire press conference to answering real questions so that we could make sense of all of it.