Obama is having yet another “press conference” tonight in an effort to save ObamaCare, and even more importantly to him, his presidency. With his popularity fading and support for his plan dropping, there is little chance that tonight will be anything more than another scripted and staged performance of empty rhetoric attended by a drooling, adoring media.
But in the hope that meaningful questions might by asked of the president, Sen. Jim DeMint has put forward his Top Five:
1. If the major provisions of the health care bills will not kick in until 2013, four years from now, why the rush to pass a thousand-page bill before the August recess, a bill you admit that you haven’t fully read yourself?
2. You have said your health care bill will cut costs and not increase the deficit. But, independent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office contradicts both claims, saying it will raise costs and increase the deficit by $240 billion in the first ten years. What independent analysis will you provide that supports your claims and refutes CBO’s?
3. You have repeatedly said that your health care bill allows any American who likes their current employer-based plan to keep it. But the most comprehensive independent analysis available, by the Lewin Group, contradicts your claim and found your bill will force over 80 million Americans to lose their current coverage. Will you provide independent analysis to refute this study?
4. Your own record in the Senate reveals you spent years voting against nearly every reform to make health care more affordable and accessible, but this week you said that opponents of your plan are “content to perpetuate the status quo, [and] are, in fact, fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests.” Which specific elected officials will you cite that have proposed to keep the status quo, and is that how you characterize the opposition of the 52 Blue Dog Democrats in the House and the moderate Democrats in the Senate?
5. Yes or no question: Will you guarantee pro-life Americans that, under your plan, they will not be forced to subsidize elective abortions
The American people deserve real answers, not another presidential infomercial.
And if the mainstream media continues to prop up Obama and his policies with these silly T.V. shows, instead of asking tough, relevant questions, then he will become their Waterloo, just as surely as ObamaCare will be his.
