On Health Care: Another Obama "Trust Me" Moment?

Maybe, just maybe, before we rush headlong into Obama's healthcare plan, we should first judge how accurately he has been with his other plans thus far. Certainly, if he was spot-on with his past promises, there should be no reason "not" to believe that his current promise on healthcare reform would come true. Right?

Well, let's see. Let's first look backwards at the Obama Stimulus Package.

He told us that if we wasted any time in not passing his package, we would see 8.7% unemployment by the end of the year. With the quick passage of the stimulus, unemployment will be held in check to 8%. So, the Congress passed it in haste. Now, four months later, unemployment not only passed his 8% promise; but, we are now at 9.4% with half a year left. In addition, he said that everything in his Stimulus Bill is "shovel ready" so that this economy would get back on it's feet quickly. Now, with over four months past the passage of that bill, only 4% of the money intended to stimulate the economy has actually been spent. All those "shovel ready" projects are being stalled by the typical red tape of state and local bureaucracies. Nothing about the Obama stimulus package has come to fruition thus far; and probably won't in the future. In fact, Obama and team Obama were also wrong on how much debt his plan would incur. He projected a $1.7 billion deficit. Today, it is estimated to be at least $1.84 trillion. When calculated next month, it will probably be over $1.9 trillion and still climbing. So... You've got to ask yourself. Won't we be getting the same kind of lousy accounting with his healthcare program?

On February 23, Obama announced his "31 percent" solution to help 9 million homeowners avoid foreclosure. Unfortunately, foreclosure rates have since accelerated. So, much for that prediction!

Then there was the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) that this President, in conjunction with his Treasury head Tim Geithner, said was needed to relieve banks from toxic assets like foreclosed-on homes contained in mortgage-backed securities. Recently, little Treasury Timmy said that the demand has fallen for the program (See Full Story). He said it was because the banking system has stabilized. Oh, really? With foreclosures rising, I find "that" a bit hard to believe. Most people believe that the banks and other funding businesses, find the Geithner/Obama program toxic. No private business entity is interested in partnering with this government in that PPIP -- knowing full well that this partnership could result in salary and bonus dictates, firing of their CEO's and other execs and imposed restrictions on everything from travel to advertising. Obama can't go to war with business and, then, expect them to work with him to save the country.

Then, there were all those transparency promises. Every dime of stimulus money that was being spent was going to be displayed and tracked on the Recovery.gov website. Now, it looks like, maybe -- just maybe -- we might see some numbers start to show up by the middle of next year. While Obama promised no waste in the Stimulus Package, we are already seeing that waste confirmed by his own V.P., Joe Biden (See Full Story). By then, the program will be half over.

Obama had also promised that every bill that would come before the President's desk for signature would be posted five days before signing. None so far! On top of that... Just recently, he has decided to block access by the press to the White House guest log. Makes you wonder what this most-transparent President is trying to hide! And, does anyone think by just meeting with Republicans and, then, ignoring what they have to say is some kind of "bipartisanship" move as promised in his campaign? Not hardly!

AS to the war on terror and Iraq, he's busted several of those promises as well. He said he would abandon military tribunals for Gitmo detainees. Instead, he has decided to continue the policy of Bush and keep the tribunals. While he has promised to close Gitmo, it appears now that it will come at a hefty cost to the American tax payers. Apparently, we will be paying as much as $13 million a head to foreign governments to have them take these bad guys. On Iraq, in the campaign, he said he was going to get out of town as quickly as possible. He chided John McCain for saying that we could remain in Iraq for years. Now, Obama is sticking with an 18 month timetable and leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq on an indefinite basis. This comes from a guy who tried to float a resolution in the Senate in January of 2008 to immediately remove all the troops in Iraq.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, many would say he's a joke. Since Obama's taking office, both North Korea and Iran have gotten even more emboldened in their nuke efforts. In view of his commitment of strength to our allies around the world, he has managed to earn negative comments from Gordon Brown in the U.K., Sarkozy in France, Putin/Medeved in Russa, and Angela Merkel in Germany. However, on the other hand, he has done well to align himself with those who might be considered our enemies; like Hamas.

The broken promises go on forever. Even the gay voting block is disenchanted with his lack of fulfilling promises to them. Bill Maher, as staunch a liberal as can be, has even criticized Obama and is beginning to waiver on support for this President. He did so in a very public opinion piece that was published nationally (See Followup Story).

So, I ask you again: Why should anyone take his potentially flawed plans for healthcare seriously? Are we all just gluttons for false promises and bad projections and accounting that could ultimately result in bringing this great country to its knees by this rookie President? Let's put our foot down on this massive healthcare system that won't help our economy; that will give us less care in the future; that doesn't include tort reform; and that is really intended to kill off the elderly so they aren 't a financial burden to medicare and social security systems in future years!