Obamateurism of the Day

Barack Obama tried to do some mythbusting two weeks ago in his weekly radio address, but two months earlier, the President himself used numbers that at the very least lent credence to what he called a myth:

August 22, 2009:

But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.

So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country.

Let’s start with the false claim that illegal immigrants will get health insurance under reform. That’s not true. Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has never even been on the table.

June 11, 2009, at Southwest High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin:

Now, how this debate is evolving in Washington, unfortunately sometimes kind of falls into the usual politic. So what you’ve heard is some folks on the other side saying, “I’m opposed to a public option because that’s going to lead to government running your health care system.” Now, I don’t know how clearly I can say this, but let me try to repeat it: If you’ve got health insurance that you’re happy with through the private sector, then we’re not going to force you to do anything. All we’re saying is for the 46 million people who don’t have health insurance, or for people who’ve got health insurance, like you, who are self-employed but the premiums and the deductibles are so high that you almost never get prevention services — you’ve put off going to a doctor until you’re really sick because of the out-of-pocket expenses — let’s change some of those incentives so that we get more people getting prevention, more people getting health care to keep them healthy, as opposed to just treating them when they get sick.

August 15th, 2009, in Grand Junction, Colorado (not in the videotape):

So just to recap here, if you’re one of nearly 46 million people who don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options. If you do have health insurance, we will help make that insurance more affordable and more secure.

46 million without insurance? Hot Air readers already know this, but just to remind everyone, that number includes illegal immigrants:

For the record, according to the latest figures from the Census Bureau, 45.6 million Americans currently lack health insurance. This is actually down slightly from the 47 million that were uninsured in 2006. However, those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

For example, roughly one quarter of those counted as uninsured — 12 million people — are eligible for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), but haven’t enrolled. This includes 64 percent of all uninsured children, and 29 percent of parents with children. Since these people would be enrolled in those programs automatically if they went to the hospital for care, calling them uninsured is really a smokescreen.

Another 10 million uninsured “Americans” are, at least technically, not Americans. Approximately 5.6 million are illegal immigrants, and another 4.4 million are legal immigrants but not citizens.

The actual bottom line number of people who cannot afford to buy insurance amounts to 14 million, not 46 million. Without immigrants, including almost 6 million illegal immigrants, it’s no higher than 36 million. If Obama wants to reassure us that he has no intention of covering illegal immigrants, he should stop using them to inflate the numbers of uninsured Americans to stoke a sense of crisis that doesn’t exist. (h/t Bob S)

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!