POTUS: Govt 'Will Go Bankrupt' if Health Care Costs Not Reduced

[Paslode]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/12/president-obama-federal-government-will-go-bankrupt-if-health-care-costs-are-not-reigned-in.html

ABC's Karen Travers reports from Washington:

President Obama told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”

The president laid out a dire scenario of what will happen if his health care reform effort fails.

Gibson Obama “If we don't pass it, here's the guarantee….your premiums will go up, your employers are going to load up more costs on you,” he said. “Potentially they're going to drop your coverage, because they just can't afford an increase of 25 percent, 30 percent in terms of the costs of providing health care to employees each and every year. “

The president said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, “the federal government will go bankrupt.”

“This actually provides us the best chance of starting to bend the cost curve on the government expenditures in Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama said.

Watch Charlie Gibson’s interview with President Obama tonight on World News and check back on ABCNews.com for the full interview.

Obama told Gibson that anybody who says they are concerned about the rising deficit or worried about tax increases in the future has to support this health care bill.

“Because if we don't do this, nobody argues with the fact that health care costs are going to consume the entire federal budget,” the president said.

Obama is facing an increasingly skeptical American public when it comes to his push for health care reform.

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that support for the health care reform package, while never robust, is now at a low ebb and opposition has been steadily growing stronger in intensity.

For the first time, a majority of those surveyed disapproved of the president’s work on health care (53 percent) and oppose the health care reform package making its way through Congress (51 percent, compared to 44 percent approval).

That seven-point margin for opposition is its most to date -- indeed statistically significant for the first time -- and the differential in intensity of sentiment has grown since September.


Answer me this, as it stands if my insurance premiums increase it cost 'ME' not the Federal Government.....I don't see a correlation between my insurance premiums and 'bankrupting' the Federal Government?

Sounds more like the .GOV needs a new Cash Cow (aka: influx of cash) and if we don't get Health Care Reform passed well.........that scam is up.

[Utah Bob]

BS

[Sigaba]

Answer me this, as it stands if my insurance premiums increase it cost 'ME' not the Federal Government....I don't see a correlation between my insurance premiums and 'bankrupting' the Federal Government?

Sounds more like the .GOV needs a new Cash Cow (aka: influx of cash) and if we don't get Health Care Reform passed well...that scam is up.By my reading of the article, the president was referring specifically to Medicare and to Medicaid. The headline of the article positions the reader to draw the conclusion you reached.

It seems increasingly evident that the president should have heeded the advice Newt Gingrich gave last summer: to break down the health care reform agenda into eight or nine smaller pieces. As things stand today, the president has lost control of the narrative of health care reform to the point where it is difficult to notice when he's talking about specific elements of the reform package or the whole shebang.

Incidentally, the notion that Medicare and Medicaid will bankrupt America is not new. In his 2007 state of the union address (source is here (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/23/sotu.bush.transcript/index.html#1)), Bush the Younger said:Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience -- and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. Yet we are failing in that duty -- and this failure will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits. Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true -- yet somehow we have not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it now. With enough good sense and good will, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid -- and save Social Security.

[JAGO]

They are finding it harder and harder to get their 60 votes. I suspect several senators are holding out for a load of earmarks. Public opposition has risen to over 50% against the healthcare bill aw written.

I expect there will be a lot more dire consequence stories in the MSM. Scare tactics will work on those who don't stay informed. They got to get this done before the Christmas recess because if they don't, they are going to get another earful when they return to their home states.

v/r
phil

[Paslode]

By my reading of the article, the president was referring specifically to Medicare and to Medicaid. The headline of the article positions the reader to draw the conclusion you reached.

It seems increasingly evident that the president should have heeded the advice Newt Gingrich gave last summer: to break down the health care reform agenda into eight or nine smaller pieces. As things stand today, the president has lost control of the narrative of health care reform to the point where it is difficult to notice when he's talking about specific elements of the reform package or the whole shebang.

Incidentally, the notion that Medicare and Medicaid will bankrupt America is not new. In his 2007 state of the union address (source is here (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/23/sotu.bush.transcript/index.html#1)), Bush the Younger said:

I agree with you on all points. As you pointed out with Gingrich, they have lumped it all into one big package of 2000 plus pages instead of smaller, easier to digest packages. Considering that 'O' has lost lost his way in this quagmire of paper work, just imagine the nightmare we're all going to live every time we make a visit to the doctor!

As for the headline, my response was a preexisting condition. I have health care insurance and it serves my family well. At present rate the Federal Government is going bankrupt with or without health care reform, I don't want my insurance diluted for a scheme to keep something considered too big too fail on life support.