WiR’s review of the president’s health care address.

Standing before a Congress suspicious of his proposals and addressing an public frustrated with and confused about his hitherto nonexistent plans for health care reform, President Obama laid out in clear terms his legislative wishlist while simultaneously taking to task the critics who have thrown their weights behind blocking any such reform.

Attempting to qualm fears driven by the uncertainty and ambiguity surrounding the debate, Obama’s speech was billed as a last-ditch effort by the White House to swing the tide of public opinion and assuage on-the-fence Congressmen and women leery of supporting a package largely opposed by their constituents.

Already, the Associated Press has fact-checked the president’s speech. But, we wish to investigate a step further.

What was the subtext of Obama’s context? What did he say and what should he have said? A deconstruction is in order.

We read through the lines:

• “When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on the verge of collapse.”

  With the first line of his speech, Obama, right off the bat, reminds the American people that it’s all Bush’s fault. (Perhaps he should co-opt the 9/11 memorial slogan: “Never forget!”?)

• “There are now more than thirty million American citizens who cannot get coverage.”

  Not exactly. Obama was careful to quote the number of “American citizens” without insurance, not just the generic 42 million in America without health care as that number includes illegals and resident aliens. But even the Census Bureau has admitted that its numbers are probably over-inflated. Ed Morrissey has more, but the short story is that “the number of Americans uninsured out of necessity and not economic choice is at most 14 million.” Perhaps only a minor inconsistency in Obama’s speech, but it’s certainly one worth nothing. Consider that piece of “misinformation” dispelled.

• “Then there’s the problem of rising costs… It’s why so many employers – especially small businesses – are forcing their employees to pay more for insurance, or are dropping their coverage entirely. It’s why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally – like our automakers – are at a huge disadvantage.”

  Health insurance is the reason American businesses are at at an international disadvantage? It’s couldn’t possibly be that the United States has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world, could it? Here’s where Obama is seen as forcing the issue, creating a false sense of urgency around a very serious problem that needs resolving but not necessarily immediate action. Common sense Americans read through that slight desperation and are repelled by it.

• “Finally, our health care system is placing an unsustainable burden on taxpayers. When health care costs grow at the rate they have, it puts greater pressure on programs like Medicare and Medicaid. If we do nothing to slow these skyrocketing costs, we will eventually be spending more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined. Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else even comes close.”

  Once again, Obama is making connections that don’t make themselves readily agreeable to the public-at-large. Our large deficits are due to our failure to reform health care? Not fighting two wars, a wasteful stimulus package, and a myriad of private-sector bailouts that have grown into a gaping black hole in the national budget? Hmmm.

• “These are the facts. Nobody disputes them.”
  “The time for bickering is over.”
  “The time for games has passed.”

  Obama’s phraseology of choice: Define the issue has closed. We’ve seen this classic Democratic tactic applied on many a controversial issue (global warming included), but the president would do well to remember that metaphorically plugging his ears and screaming “nahnahnahnah I can’t hear you” won’t get any Republican senators on board with his health plan.

• “Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do.”

  Later in the speech, Obama gives a petty wink/nudge to the right on medical malpractice reform, but that cannot gloss over the fact that Democrats in Congress have rejected every single one of the over 800 amendments Republicans have offered on health care.

• “It’s time to give every American the same opportunity that we’ve given ourselves.”

  Quite ironically, Democrats rejected a Republican bill that would have required them to sign up for the very same government health care that they seek to impose on their constituents.

• “Under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers. There will be a hardship waiver for those individuals who still cannot afford coverage, and 95% of all small businesses, because of their size and narrow profit margin, would be exempt from these requirements.”

  Here’s where Obama gets tricky with numbers. He’s right: 95% of small businesses will be exempt from his insurance mandates. But what he doesn’t say is that the largest 5% of small business employ somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80% of the small business employees in the U.S. So, in trying to make it sound like his changes won’t effect the majority of concerned Americans, Obama is simply misleading.

• “My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90% is controlled by just one company. Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down.”

  So why, then, do Democrats refuse to consider increasing competition by making insurance purchasable across state lines? Obama senior advisor David Axlerod says that’s because it’s a distraction.

• “It is only one part of my plan, and should not be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles. To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable for those without it. The public option is only a means to that end – and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.”

  Translation: “I’m willing to cave.” The president knows that he cannot go the route of Clinton and fail to deliver any bill before the year’s end, and with the public option option looking dimmer and bleaker everyday, he signals here that he’s willing to give up his signature crown jewel in order to eke out some semblance of reform. Obviously, this will be trumpeted by the White House spin machine as a triumph for the ages; that much is to be expected. What remains uncertain is what the “reform” will look like at its final stage.

• “By avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits, excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, [the public insurance option] could provide a good deal for consumers.”

  Obama has a hard sell to make here. How is the public-at-large to be convinced that by translating the primary burden for health care from the private sector to the government sector that “excessive costs” and “overhead” will actually be reduced? Government’s general inefficiency and notorious budget-blowing calls this line into immediate suspicion.

• “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future. Period.”
  “The plan will not add to our deficit… [I]t will actually reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the long term.”

  Fact check, please?

• “I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open.”

  That’s one open door all right: The president has not met with the Congressional Republican leadership in months. Bipartisanship?