By now you've probably seen the video of Obama stating that he is "a proponent of single payer health care" and we're not "going to eliminate employer coverage immediately". If not, check out the post below. Or check out this video from the GOP:
In the video Obama says "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care system" in 2003. Then in 2007, he said "I don't think we're going to eliminate employer coverage immediately, there's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out or 20 years out where we've got a much more portable system." Now, Obama says "if you have insurance that you like then you will be able to keep it".
The distribution of videos like this prompted the White House to post a video response claiming that these clips of Obama were taken out of context or were "cherry-picked". The truth is that these quotes are taken out of context. To put them into context we need only look to one of Obama's idols, Saul Alinsky. In the introduction of his book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky writes:
Effective organization is thwarted by the desire for instant and dramatic
change…To build a powerful organization takes time. It is tedious, but that's
the way the game is played
So now take Obama's words in the context of his community organizing mentor. We're not going to get instant and dramatic change. We're not "going to eliminate employer coverage immediately". It takes time, "a decade … or 15 years … or 20 years".
Alinsky goes on to write:
Men don't like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience;
they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way.
And:
The fear of change is … one of our deepest fears, and a new idea must be at
the least couched in the language of past ideas; often it must be, at first,
diluted with vestiges of the past.
Alinsky puts Obama's words in context. "If you have insurance that you like then you will be able to keep it" – until your fear of change has been put to rest. Obama has also said:
I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive. So what would end up happening would be, a lot of people who currently have employer-based health care would suddenly find themselves dropped, and they would have to go into an entirely new system that had not been fully set up yet. And I would be concerned about the potential destructiveness of that kind of transition.What Obama is trying to sell you is that "bridge" to cross to a new way. He is diluting it with vestiges of the past, "we historically have had a employer-based system" so if you have employer-based insurance you can keep it. But if you change jobs, lose your job or move you're only choice will be the government option. If your employer decides it's cheaper to pay the 8% penalty than to keep your current insurance, then your only option will be the government option. This is that "transition process" Obama talked about in 2007. In order to sell you this health care atrocity, Obama will tell you that "you will be able to keep it" and hide his true intentions "in the language of past ideas".
Now the administration is saying that the public option is not a requirement but the liberal Democrats are saying that health care reform without the public option is not reform. Be assured that some form of this public option will be included in any bill. It may be hidden with language about co-ops or some other verbiage but it will be there.
Remember that words do matter. And for those that still want to believe what Obama says today versus what he has said in the past, here is what he said last week at a town hall meeting in Belgrade, Montana:
Everybody here who still has -- who has currently private insurance, you
would more than likely still be on your private insurance plan.
Is "more than likely" good enough for you?
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