Excerpts from Obama’s speech at a high school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on August 11, 2009

First Obama said,

“Our deficit will continue to grow because Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path. Medicare is slated to go into the red in about eight to 10 years. I don’t know if people are aware of that. If I was a senior citizen, the thing I’d be worried about right now is Medicare starts running out of money because we haven’t done anything to make sure that we’re getting a good bang for our buck when it comes to health care. And insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against people for the simple crime of being sick. Now, that’s not a future I want for my children. It’s not a future that I want for the United States of America.”

Obama starts out strong. He admits that both Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path. He mentions that in 8-10 years, Medicare will be in the red. It’s probably less than 8-10 years, but it’s close enough.

Obama then goes on to make an outrageous claim. He says that insurance companies are profiting by “discriminating” against the sick. That’s not discrimination, that’s called a market. It’s providing a service. Is my plumber “discriminating” against me because I have a broken toilet? Is Grimaldi’s “discriminating” against me because I’m hungry? The insurance companies are providing a service, not “discriminating”.

The key point of Obama’s first statement is that, “Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path”. Later during the Q&A session of the same speech, Obama gets the following question:

“My name is Peter Schmidt. I’m a state representative from Dover. I’m a senior citizen. I have a wonderful government-run health care plan called Medicare. I like it. It’s affordable, it’s reasonable, nobody tells me what I need to do. I just go to my doctor at the hospital, I get care.

Now, one of the things you’ve been doing in your campaign to change the situation is you’ve been striving for bipartisanship. I think it’s a wonderful idea, but my question is, if the Republicans actively refuse to participate in a reasonable way with reasonable proposals, isn’t it time to just say we’re going to pass what the American people need and what they want, without the Republicans?”

Now here is where Obama has to tell Mr. Schmidt the truth. He’s going to reiterate the point he made 20 minutes earlier about the unsustainable path of Medicare. He’ll talk about how the program is going to run out of money. Wait for it…

“Well, let me make a couple of points. First of all, you make a point about Medicare that’s very important. I’ve been getting a lot of letters, pro and con, for health care reform, and one of the letters I received recently, a woman was very exercised about what she had heard about my plan. She says, “I don’t want government-run health care. I don’t want you meddling in the private marketplace. And keep your hands off my Medicare.” (Laughter.) True story.

And so I do think it’s important for particularly seniors who currently receive Medicare to understand that if we’re able to get something right like Medicare, then there should be a little more confidence that maybe the government can have a role — not the dominant role, but a role — in making sure the people are treated fairly when it comes to insurance. (Applause.)”

What happened to the unsustainable, running out of money part? That was so 20 minutes ago. Now government is able to “get something right like Medicare”. I see what you did there. Make a joke, tell a lie. Hopefully, when you’re done talking, people will still be thinking about the joke and not notice the glaring contradiction you just made. It should be noted that the quote ends with “(Applause.)”. It looks like the plan worked.