Just as a refresher, here is a
Transcipt of Obama's speech from a bit ago, in which we had a lively debate in
this thread and a more pointed discussion about the claims of the speech in
this thread, before it devolved into an argument about the definition of torture.
I have not yet been able to find a copy of the "final" Senate Finance bill, as it was just completed last night and won't be released for another few weeks if I had to guess, since they want some more member review time, and to allow the CBO to perform cost analysis. However, we do know some of the amendments that were proposed and voted upon in regards to the bill, as highlighted in
this article on WSJ.
Obama has just praised the Sentate bill as a milestone.
In Obama's speech, he clearly outlined what he wants should (required?) be in the bill he is going to sign (I of course believe it to be nothing to rhetoric bullshit, and he will sign anything that crosses his desk regardless of his statements), such as:
Quote:
Now, there are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
Yet, when a specific amendment was proposed that would require proof of citizenship via ID, it was voted down by the Democrats with one commenting it wasn't needed because fraud is more pervasive from the doctors than the patients.
Quote:
And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up: under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.
Yet another amendment was proposed to specifically outline in the bill what is and isn't allowed to clarify the language to match the President's statement, it was voted down by the Democrats.
Quote:
I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promise don't materialize.
I have not yet seen any indication that such a trigger exists in any of the bills, nor do any of the impact estimates on the deficit demonstrate that any of the bills will actually meet this promise.
There are also his general "promises" about raising taxes on certain segments of the population, yet , from the WSJ article:
Quote:
Earlier, the panel voted 12-11 to reject an amendment from Sen. Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) that would block any tax or fee from hitting individuals who earn less than $200,000 a year and families earning less than $250,000.
and
Quote:
Democrats countered that the change would gut the health bill
At least they are admitting that promise was smoke and mirrors.
Of course, one of the amendment that was passed...
Quote:
Voting 14-8, the committee approved an amendment that would limit the tax deductibility of compensation for insurance executives to $500,000 a year. The limit would apply to executives at companies that get significant business generated by the bill's mandate that nearly all Americans must have insurance. Under current law, businesses can deduct up to $1 million a year in compensation for executives.
So one industry is specifically targeted.
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