FACT CHECK: Obama's health care claims adrift?

Now even the MSM is piling on Obama.

This via the Associated Press at Yahoo News:

FACT CHECK: Obama's health care claims adrift?

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's assertion Wednesday that government will stay out of health care decisions in an overhauled system is hard to square with the proposals coming out of Congress and with his own rhetoric.
Even now, nearly half the costs of health care in the U.S. are paid for by government at all levels. Federal authority would only grow under any proposal in play.
A look at some of Obama's claims in his prime-time news conference:
OBAMA: "We already have rough agreement" on some aspects of what a health care overhaul should involve, and one is: "It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it."
THE FACTS: In House legislation, a commission appointed by the government would determine what is and isn't covered by insurance plans offered in a new purchasing pool, including a plan sponsored by the government. The bill also holds out the possibility that, over time, those standards could be imposed on all private insurance plans, not just the ones in the pool.
Indeed, Obama went on to lay out other principles of reform that plainly show the government making key decisions in health care. He said insurance companies would be barred from dropping coverage when someone gets too sick, limits would be set on out-of-pocket expenses, and preventive care such as checkups and mammograms would be covered.
It's true that people would not be forced to give up a private plan and go with a public one. The question is whether all of those private plans would still be in place if the government entered the marketplace in a bigger way.
He addressed some of the nuances under questioning. "Can I guarantee that there are going to be no changes in the health care delivery system?" he said. "No. The whole point of this is to try to encourage changes that work for the American people and make them healthier."
He acknowledged then that the "government already is making some of these decisions."
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OBAMA: "I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it."
THE FACTS: The president has said repeatedly that he wants "deficit-neutral" health care legislation, meaning that every dollar increase in cost is met with a dollar of new revenue or a dollar of savings. But some things are more neutral than others. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag told reporters this week that the promise does not apply to proposed spending of about $245 billion over the next decade to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients. Democrats and the Obama administration argue that the extra payment, designed to prevent a scheduled cut of about 21 percent in doctor fees, already was part of the administration's policy, with or without a health care overhaul.
Beyond that, budget experts have warned about various accounting gimmicks that can mask true burdens on the deficit. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget lists a variety of them, including back-loading the heaviest costs at the end of the 10-year period and beyond.
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OBAMA: "You haven't seen me out there blaming the Republicans."
THE FACTS: Obama did so in his opening statement, saying, "I've heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it's better politics to 'go for the kill.' Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about 'breaking' me."
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OBAMA: "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home, and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."
THE FACTS: The facts are in dispute between black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the white police sergeant who arrested him at his Cambridge, Mass., home when officers went there to investigate a reported break-in. But this much is clear: Gates wasn't arrested for being in his own home, as Obama implies, but for allegedly being belligerent when the sergeant demanded his identification. The president did mention that the professor was charged with disorderly conduct. Charges were dropped.
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OBAMA: "If we had done nothing, if you had the same old budget as opposed to the changes we made in our budget, you'd have a $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Because of the changes we've made, it's going to be $7.1 trillion."
THE FACTS: Obama's numbers are based on figures compiled by his own budget office. But they rely on assumptions about economic growth that some economists find too optimistic. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, in its own analysis of the president's budget numbers, concluded that the cumulative deficit over the next decade would be $9.1 trillion.

As Jammie Wearing Fool put it today:

'You're Going To Destroy My Presidency'

Recall Barack Obama whining the other day how "this isn't about me"?

Well, that's nonsense. Of course it's all about him.

A telling episode recounted by Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley reveals the Obama administration might be more worried than they are letting on that a Republican senator's comparison of the healthcare overhaul to Waterloo might be dangerously close to the truth.

Grassley said he spoke with a Democratic House member last week who shared Obama's bleak reaction during a private meeting to reports that some factions of House Democrats were lining up to stall or even take down the overhaul unless leaders made major changes.

"Let's just lay everything on the table," Grassley said. "A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn't going to pass if there weren't some changes made ... and the president says, 'You're going to destroy my presidency.' "

Somebody please send Baracky a waaaahmbulance.

Oh wait, are they covered by his plan?

Grassley should soon expect a withering personal assault by Obama's persons of hench in the far left blogosphere.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Update: Thanks also to Ace, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and Allahpunditfor the links. Great point from AP:

Consider this a complete vindication of DeMint’s point, which Obama pretended to take such offense at, that if the GOP defeats ObamaCare “it will be his Waterloo, it will break him…” Evidently The One couldn’t agree more, and with good reason. If he can’t deliver on his centerpiece policy goal with bulletproof majorities in Congress, not only will it haunt him in 2012 but he’ll have to reconsider the public’s appetite for the whole Hopenchange/Great Society agenda.

Tonight's press conference should be interesting, unless, of course, it becomes the usual twinkie-munch lovefest we're accustomed to. Obama has a glass jaw, he's on the ropes and it might not take that tough a question to floor him.

Update: Thanks to everyone who's linked the past 11 hours. This is probably the most visited post ever in our two-plus years here. Check out the comments. The Obamatons are out in force. With it today came plenty of hatemail from the angry left, best summarized by this deep thinker, no doubt a product of the Chicago public schools.

Your so call opinion about President Obama
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:52 PM
From: "xxxxxxxxx@aol.com" 
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To: undisclosed-recipients
So Jammie,

Regarding your blog in regards to you thinking that President Obama is "whinning" about it not being about him, well...let me remind you that it was all about George Bush and no one else. He could care less about anyone but himself or the cronies that he calls his friends. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's not about President Obama, it is all about all of us and I find that quite ineterestin that you chose the word "whinning" when referring to him. I doubt that you did the same when Bush LIED about so many things for 8 years straight. It's amazing how people like you think and hide behind the computer to express it.