"I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work," he told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview to air Sunday night.
Heading to a rally Saturday in Minneapolis, the president used his weekly radio and Internet address to focus on government figures showing that nearly half of all Americans live without health insurance in a 10-year period. He said the situation will worsen without the changes he wants and that losing coverage can happen to anyone.
"I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around.' I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right," he said in an excerpt of the CBS interview released Saturday.
While the president cleared out of town, thousands of people marched along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to protest Obama's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control federal spending.
The President is making promises he can't keep. In fact, many of the proposals aren't even going to become effective until 2013 - after he's out of office. That includes changes to Medicaid to expand coverage. Other provisions take effect in 2011, but the physical effect and the costs will not be ascertained until after President Obama is out of office.
He'd like us to think that his statements today are a sign that he's responsible and taking responsibility for the health care proposals, but it's anything but.
Who takes responsibility for the fact that Social Security is deeply in debt?
Who takes responsibility for the fact that Medicare is in debt?
Who takes responsibility for the fact that Medicaid is in debt?
Who takes responsibility for the fact that the prescription drug plan is in the red, and it's only been in operation for a few short years?
The politicians who saw those massive programs through to passage into law are largely out of office and cannot be held accountable except by historians. Taxpayers have to pay the tab for their math mistakes and misplaced assumptions.
The CBO has already shown that the President's math doesn't add up - to the tune of billions. It would add $239 billion to the deficit over the first 10 years following enactment.
Other reports show that his plan will result in millions of people losing their existing health insurance in the transition.
This is all about the Democrats attempting to increase the percentage of Americans insured from 85-90% to 90-95%. This is a trillion dollar gamble to get an assumed 30 million people covered by health insurance (and that's using the President's inflated numbers), even though there are cheaper alternatives that will not break the federal budget.
Chief among them is portability so that anyone in the country can buy insurance plans approved by any other state, regardless of where you live. One reason that people don't buy insurance is that they don't want to pay for items they don't need, but which are mandated by states. Increasing competition will drive down prices. Improving transparency in the pricing of medical services would also improve competitive pricing and reduce costs.
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