At his town hall meeting in Portsmouth, NH yesterday, President Obama again bragged about the AARP’s support of his plan for government-run health care. The President proudly proclaimed to his hand-picked crowd of supporters:
We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors.
Obama added,
AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.
But hold the phone, folks. According to the Associated Press and Fox News, AARP’s chief operating officer Tom Nelson moved quickly to correct the record, saying, “indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate.” That forced White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to backtrack, claiming that the President didn’t mean to mislead the American people.
AARP has been under heavy fire for appearing with Obama on numerous occasions in the last several months seemingly in support of the President’s health care plan — and by extension, the various plans being pushed by Congressional Democrats. But with support among seniors dwindling, it is no surprise the AARP is now seemingly looking for an out.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey released yesterday shows that a whopping 56% of those over age 65 are opposed, and 46% of senior citizens are strongly opposed.
Proponenets of ObamaCare continue to claim that those of us opposed to a government takeover of health care have not introduced a viable alternative. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), however, has introduced The Patients’ Choice Act (S. 1099).
The bill would:
Equalize the tax treatment of health insurance and provides all Americans with a tax credit for the purchase of health coverage and care.
Incentivize States to establish Health Exchanges which would guarantee health coverage to any consumer, regardless of health status, age, or pre-existing condition.
Reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. The Patients Choice Act would change this by using existing data-matching technologies and intelligent payment structures to replace the current “pay and chase” culture with one of “prevent and control” to ensure timely, accurate, targeted payments of taxpayer dollars to providers.
Prevent Tax Increases and prevent higher deficits.
No government-run health care plan. Under the Patients’ Choice Act, if you like the health plan you have, you can really keep it.
The Obama Administration and so-called leaders in Congress have gone to great lengths to portray opponents of government-run health care in a negative light.
Taxpayers who have turned out in large numbers at town hall meetings across the country have been labeled AstroTurf. Senator Barbara Boxer has implied the protests are “staged” because the people doing the protesting are “well-dressed.” And in an op-ed in USA Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have gone so far as to call the hard-working Americans who have chosen to exercise their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and petition their government… “Un-American!”
So let’s get this straight, when Left of Center organizations and Big Labor Unions pay professional protesters to turn out and support their agenda, that’s the American way. But when hard-working Americans who are frustrated that their elected officials won’t listen to them speak up in opposition to a major piece of legislation, that’s un-American?
Well, here’s what the mother of government-run health care, Hillary Clinton, had have to say about such criticism of civic participation back in 2003?
To a cheering crowd in 2003, Hillary said: “I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. And, we should stand up and say we are Americans and we have the right to debate and disagree with any Administration.”
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