Published in The New York Post on July 22, 2008.
In yesterday’s Post, we criticized Barack Obama’s plan to “give health insurance to 47 million Americans who are now without coverage.” We raised the question: “Are they Americans?” - noting that the 47 million statistic includes those who’ve come here illegally and are subject to deportation.
The Obama campaign complains that the senator has no such plan. Indeed, he’s said his plan “does not” cover illegals: “We’ve got limited resources. And it is important for us that, when we’ve got millions of US citizens that aren’t yet covered, it’s important for us to make sure that they are provided coverage.”
Yet the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the 47 million figure includes illegal immigrants. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal criticized Obama’s use of that figure, noting that his plan would fall short of it because it allegedly excludes illegal immigrants.
Obama can’t have it both ways. He can’t say he will cover 47 million Americans - as he has again and again in speeches and even in a national TV ad as recently as last month - and then turn around and deny that he’ll cover the illegal immigrants who are included in that count.
The fact remains that the single most prominent aspect of Obama’s domestic-policy proposals is his pledge to cover 47 million uninsured people who live in the United States. The fact that the fine print of one of his speeches may indicate that he’s not being truthful and doesn’t plan to cover the illegal immigrants among them is far from compelling.
The senator is either misrepresenting when he says he’ll cover 47 million or when he denies that he’ll cover illegal immigrants. We choose, given his liberal pedigree, to believe that his denial is inaccurate and his original statement, repeated again and again, is controlling.
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Comments
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Read my post to yesterdays article.
Dick this sort of analysis is unproductive. We don’t need ideology and nitpicking we need solutions. So who has the best chance of working with congress and moving ahead on the issue, McCain or Obama.
A- We need congress and the administration to get their collective heads out of their butts and get immigration under control before we have 20 million illegals.
B- We need to decide how to integrate the 12-14 million “illegals” that are here into our society. There is no practical or reasonable way to deport them all. Sort out the true criminals and keep the rest.
C- Lets get into at least the 20th century (21st would likely be over-reaching) and get everyone covered. It costs us all to have people miss work, leave disease untreated and eventually clog emergency rooms.
I don’t care if it is 47 million or 4.7 million. It is too many.
For those who think I am a lefty let me tell you. I am conservative from head to toe but this is an issue in need of a solution NOT ideology and mindless rhetoric.
When we start deceiving ourselves into thinking not that we want something or need something, not that it is a pragmatic necessity for us to have it, but that it is a moral imperative that we have it, that is when we join the fashionable madmen, and than is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard, and that is when we are in bad trouble. Obama needs to pay more attention on doing the right thing rather than doing things right.
It does not surprise me one bit Obama’s words and numbers don’t match up. Wait five minutes and he’ll change them again. The larger issue here is whether we can trust Obama when he tells us ANYTHING. To me, the case is closed. I don’t trust the guy.
David Silverman
Smyrna, GA
It does not surprise me in the least that Obama’s words and numbers don’t match up. Wait five minutes and he’ll change them again. The larger issue is whether or not we can trust anything Obama tells us. The case is closed as far as I am concerned. I don’t trust the guy.
At times, Senator Obama does not appear to be concerned about the truth. He uses a large figure like 47 million for the emotional impact it will create. Then, in another reality, he states he is not covering illegal aliens — again because that creates the right emotional reaction. When your primary concern is creating impressions and emotional reactions, then truth is the first casualty.
Much like his current foreign tours, where he relies upon the impressions of the images of meeting with generals and world leaders to overcome his illogical statements about how he was right to oppose the surge.
Senator Obama is definitely benefiting from postmodernism, where there is no objective reality, and the only reality is that which you create for yourself …