Not impressed

Watched the President’s health care speech last night. I wasn’t impressed, he seemed angry and full of half truths. I was at a friends (very liberal) and even he noticed it. One of the first things he said was about 30,000,000 uninsured. My friend looked at me and said I thought it was 42,000,000 so we ran the TIVO back and listened again and it was 30,000,000 citizens. I told my friend that means they are going to exclude illegal aliens and he was, to put it politely, livid. A close quote “That stupid fuck, If they aren’t insured then the entire idea (of universal health care) won’t work. They will still be driving up costs in emergency rooms.” While I had him in a weakened state I tried to point out that the cost neutrality is disputed too. I don’t think he picked up on it but I will keep trying.

Instapundit points out that other people picked up on the discrepancy. Don’t word games like this call into question basic honesty? And didn’t the president undercut his own sense of urgency by suddenly decreasing the number being presented by a third? A lot of people will probably look at that number and think “well hell it’s getting better no big hurry”.

Update – The AP has a different take on the 30,000,000 number

OBAMA: “There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.”

THE FACTS: Obama time and again has referred to the number of uninsured as 46 million, a figure based on year-old Census data. The new number is based on an analysis by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, which concluded that about two-thirds of Americans without insurance are poor or near poor. “These individuals are less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage,” the report said. By using the new figure, Obama avoids criticism that he is including individuals, particularly healthy young people, who choose not to obtain health insurance.

some other interesting stuff there too.

(h/t)

Apparently I was one of the few who was unimpressed CNN is reporting a double digit jump in support for the plan after Obama’s speech.

(h/t)