Post by gski on Jun 24, 2009 7:08:51 GMT -5
Dick Morris: Obama's Healthcare Plan Will Lead America To 'Catastrophe'
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 7:11 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Political analyst and best-selling author Dick Morris tells Newsmax it's vital that Americans stop President Barack Obama's programs from "destroying our country."
He also says Obama has "dismantled" the war on terror — and warns that he's taking the U.S. toward a healthcare system where "healthcare is not delivered to anybody."
Former White House adviser Morris is one of America's most astute political observers, the person Time magazine called the most influential man in America.
Morris and co-author Eileen McGann reveal that Obama's policies and clear shift toward socialism will actually lead the country toward a 1930s-style Great Depression.
Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella cited a chapter in the book titled "Obama's Healthcare Catastrophe," and asked Morris for the worst parts of the package the Democrats are proposing.
Morris pointed out that the U.S. healthcare system now offers adequate care to 252 million Americans and the Democrats want to "expand it to 300 million Americans without expanding the number of doctors and nurses.
"The problem is, by covering everybody Obama is really going to end up covering nobody. It's going to cause rationing of healthcare, because you simply don't have enough doctors to go around. You can't just write a check and expand healthcare. You have to have people actually delivering the service.
"One of the big things we talk about in 'Catastrophe' is the experience of the Canadian system. Candidates [there] did the same thing — they said we'll cover everybody. Then they said, wow these costs are getting crazy. We have to cut the costs. So they cut the income for doctors
"More doctors retired. Fewer people went into the profession. Fewer and fewer doctors. More and more patients. Longer and longer waits, and worse and worse outcome. "
The cancer death rate in Canada is 16 percent higher than in the United States . . . If you get colon cancer in Canada you have a 42 percent chance of dying. If you get it in the U.S., you have a 31 percent chance. Why? Because the top two medicines that we use in chemotherapy to treat colon cancer are not available in Canada — not because of any health restriction, but because they're too expensive.
"And the incidence of colon cancer in Canada is 25 percent higher. Why? Because there's a 4-month wait for a colonoscopy. And when you get the colonoscopy, it's not read by a [gastrointestinal specialist] but by an internist or sometimes by a nurse practitioner, and they miss about a fifth of the polyps that ultimately become cancer.
"So you get a system where really healthcare is not delivered to anybody. And that's what we're headed for in the United States."
Martella cited another chapter in "Catastrophe" titled "The War on Terror Is Over," and asked Morris if he thinks Obama is waving a "white flag."
"It's worse than a white flag," Morris declared.
"A white flag would just mean surrender. What he's in fact doing is aggressively and vigorously investigating, interrogating, and prosecuting not the terrorists but the investigators who have kept us safe since 9/11.
"And the people he's hired at the Justice Department are experts at controlling the investigation rather than controlling the terrorists.
"We have a whole long list of all the ways he has dismantled the war on terror, and it's absolutely shocking."
Martella said: "Your book notes that Obama could not have accomplished his liberal socialist agenda without complicity of key members of Congress. Who are they and what are they doing?"
Morris said Congress is filled with Democrats who got elected with conservative values and then voted as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told them to.
"And it's those votes that are giving Obama the votes that he needs to impose his program," he observed.
"In 'Catastrophe' we outline very specific measures that we think we should take to defeat very specific congressmen to stop that process from going on, because it's absolutely vital that we stop his programs from really destroying our country.
"One of the most important and immediate things is the federal deficit. Obama knew when he passed that program of stimulus spending that people wouldn't spend that money. He wasn't an idiot. If you're worried about losing your job and your house, you're not going to run out and buy a new car or a flat-screen television set. You're going to take whatever money you get and pay down your debt and save for a rainy day.
"And sure enough, in the month of April Americans' household income rose by $121 billion but our savings rose by $131 billion. We saved all of the extra money we got, including the $45 billion that we got as a government stimulus check. So it didn't stimulate anything because there's been no spending.
"On the other hand Obama has to then go out and borrow the money to pay for the extra spending, and to do that he has to pay higher interest rates. That forces up rates for everybody. And the higher rates [negate] any stimulus effect of the spending.
"Then on top of it he's got a huge deficit and he wants to pass his healthcare program, so he's going to raise taxes. He's going to take money with taxes to offset the money he's giving in stimulus spending."
Morris concluded: "The question is, is he stupid? Doesn’t he understand what he's doing? The answer we come to in 'Catastrophe' is that Obama is not stupid — that the spending was not a means to end a recession, the recession was an excuse for the government spending."
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 7:11 PM
By: Jim Meyers
Political analyst and best-selling author Dick Morris tells Newsmax it's vital that Americans stop President Barack Obama's programs from "destroying our country."
He also says Obama has "dismantled" the war on terror — and warns that he's taking the U.S. toward a healthcare system where "healthcare is not delivered to anybody."
Former White House adviser Morris is one of America's most astute political observers, the person Time magazine called the most influential man in America.
Morris and co-author Eileen McGann reveal that Obama's policies and clear shift toward socialism will actually lead the country toward a 1930s-style Great Depression.
Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella cited a chapter in the book titled "Obama's Healthcare Catastrophe," and asked Morris for the worst parts of the package the Democrats are proposing.
Morris pointed out that the U.S. healthcare system now offers adequate care to 252 million Americans and the Democrats want to "expand it to 300 million Americans without expanding the number of doctors and nurses.
"The problem is, by covering everybody Obama is really going to end up covering nobody. It's going to cause rationing of healthcare, because you simply don't have enough doctors to go around. You can't just write a check and expand healthcare. You have to have people actually delivering the service.
"One of the big things we talk about in 'Catastrophe' is the experience of the Canadian system. Candidates [there] did the same thing — they said we'll cover everybody. Then they said, wow these costs are getting crazy. We have to cut the costs. So they cut the income for doctors
"More doctors retired. Fewer people went into the profession. Fewer and fewer doctors. More and more patients. Longer and longer waits, and worse and worse outcome. "
The cancer death rate in Canada is 16 percent higher than in the United States . . . If you get colon cancer in Canada you have a 42 percent chance of dying. If you get it in the U.S., you have a 31 percent chance. Why? Because the top two medicines that we use in chemotherapy to treat colon cancer are not available in Canada — not because of any health restriction, but because they're too expensive.
"And the incidence of colon cancer in Canada is 25 percent higher. Why? Because there's a 4-month wait for a colonoscopy. And when you get the colonoscopy, it's not read by a [gastrointestinal specialist] but by an internist or sometimes by a nurse practitioner, and they miss about a fifth of the polyps that ultimately become cancer.
"So you get a system where really healthcare is not delivered to anybody. And that's what we're headed for in the United States."
Martella cited another chapter in "Catastrophe" titled "The War on Terror Is Over," and asked Morris if he thinks Obama is waving a "white flag."
"It's worse than a white flag," Morris declared.
"A white flag would just mean surrender. What he's in fact doing is aggressively and vigorously investigating, interrogating, and prosecuting not the terrorists but the investigators who have kept us safe since 9/11.
"And the people he's hired at the Justice Department are experts at controlling the investigation rather than controlling the terrorists.
"We have a whole long list of all the ways he has dismantled the war on terror, and it's absolutely shocking."
Martella said: "Your book notes that Obama could not have accomplished his liberal socialist agenda without complicity of key members of Congress. Who are they and what are they doing?"
Morris said Congress is filled with Democrats who got elected with conservative values and then voted as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told them to.
"And it's those votes that are giving Obama the votes that he needs to impose his program," he observed.
"In 'Catastrophe' we outline very specific measures that we think we should take to defeat very specific congressmen to stop that process from going on, because it's absolutely vital that we stop his programs from really destroying our country.
"One of the most important and immediate things is the federal deficit. Obama knew when he passed that program of stimulus spending that people wouldn't spend that money. He wasn't an idiot. If you're worried about losing your job and your house, you're not going to run out and buy a new car or a flat-screen television set. You're going to take whatever money you get and pay down your debt and save for a rainy day.
"And sure enough, in the month of April Americans' household income rose by $121 billion but our savings rose by $131 billion. We saved all of the extra money we got, including the $45 billion that we got as a government stimulus check. So it didn't stimulate anything because there's been no spending.
"On the other hand Obama has to then go out and borrow the money to pay for the extra spending, and to do that he has to pay higher interest rates. That forces up rates for everybody. And the higher rates [negate] any stimulus effect of the spending.
"Then on top of it he's got a huge deficit and he wants to pass his healthcare program, so he's going to raise taxes. He's going to take money with taxes to offset the money he's giving in stimulus spending."
Morris concluded: "The question is, is he stupid? Doesn’t he understand what he's doing? The answer we come to in 'Catastrophe' is that Obama is not stupid — that the spending was not a means to end a recession, the recession was an excuse for the government spending."
