The Prince Of Deceit

10 years ago

By JEFFREY T. KUHNER

President Obama is losing the support of the American people. He is now facing the greatest crisis of his presidency — Obamacaregate. His repeated lies and deliberate distortions are leading many — including some liberal Democrats — to finally question Mr. Obama’s character. He has betrayed the public’s trust. Once that is lost, Mr. Obama’s credibility is finished. He is becoming a lame-duck president, distrusted, neutered, and increasingly irrelevant.

The central promise of Obamacare was that it would ensure universal health care without affecting the health plans of the vast majority of Americans who already possessed coverage. In fact, Mr. Obama vowed that his signature law would reduce the health-care costs of the average family by about $2,500. Instead, the truth has been revealed: Millions of people will lose their health insurance, while premiums and deductibles are skyrocketing. The average family will have their health-care costs rise by more than $7,500.

Moreover, the president knew this was going to happen. The administration had drafted rules that guaranteed millions would be forced to change their coverage and enroll into the Obamacare exchanges, especially those whose plans were not “grandfathered” prior to March 23, 2010. On numerous occasions, Mr. Obama brazenly and cynically lied. He repeatedly told Americans: “If you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctor, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan.”

His goal was simple: Deliberately deceive the public in order to establish government control over health care. Yet after being exposed, Mr. Obama refuses to be held accountable. He even refuses to apologize. Instead, he continues to lie and dissemble. On Monday, November 4, the president claimed, “What we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.”

This is utterly false — and he knows it. For example, previously he said, “You will be able to keep your doctor, period.” He also said, “You’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

Leftists, such as those at MSNBC and The New York Times, still defend Mr. Obama, arguing that all politicians engage in mendacity. For them, the ends justify the means. They’re wrong. The president didn’t just lie; he repeatedly misled the public for more than three years on the seminal issue of his presidency — one that affects the most intimate aspect of anyone’s life: their health. This calculated decision to deceive is greater than either President Nixon’s cover-up of Watergate or President Clinton’s perjury over Monica Lewinsky. It is the biggest, most destructive lie in modern American history.

If the public had known the truth, Obamacare would never have been passed. Mr. Obama would have never won re-election. We would be spared the ongoing national torment. Instead, it is estimated that as many as 93 million Americans will have to change their health insurance, millions will lose coverage, millions more will see their premiums dramatically increase, countless jobs will be lost or employee work hours slashed, and one-sixth of the U.S. economy will be revolutionized.

The finest health-care system in the world will be destroyed — and all of this will be done based on a pack of lies.

From the beginning, it was obvious that Obamacare was destined to fail. Its fatal flaw lay in its very design. Mr. Obama pledged that the United States could add more than 30 million citizens to the health-care rolls, and construct a massive bureaucracy to administer and enforce the new command-and-control system while simultaneously slashing health costs. That’s akin to claiming you can eat anything you want and still lose weight. It is snake oil masquerading as public policy.

Yet it is not just Obamacare. The president has a disturbing pattern of mendacity and deception. The Internal Revenue Service scandal, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the National Security Agency spying program, Solyndra, and the Justice Department’s targeting of journalists and whistleblowers — Mr. Obama seems incapable or unwilling to tell the truth. He is an incorrigible liar.

Mr. Obama’s strong suit — in fact, his greatest asset — is that Americans have generally viewed him as a likable, decent man. His mask, however, is coming off. To their increasing shock — and horror — they are discovering that he is willing to do and say anything to achieve his socialist revolution. He is the prince of deceit.

This is the real scandal engulfing his presidency.

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(Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a radio host on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.)

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