Doncha love the image of President Obama, that well-known fiscal conservative, refusing to sign a healthcare bill because it might add to the deficit? Whoa, there Congress, I won’t sign this thing. It costs too much. I find this scenario improbable.
I hope I won’t be Joe Wilsonned, but I agree with Peter Wehner:
This is a case of what is known as projection. It is by now hard for one person to keep up with all the false, misleading, or fantastic claims President Obama has made about his efforts to nationalize our health-care system. They include, but are not limited to, Obama’s claim that the reforms he has endorsed would cut the cost of health care (they would increase them); that they would not add to the deficit (they would add hugely to it); that Medicare benefits would not be cut (they most certainly would); that eliminating “waste and fraud” is enough to cover their proposed reductions in future Medicare spending (the claim is risible); that under his reform, “if you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period” (millions would not); that his plan would not mean government funding for abortion (it would).
Even worse:
It is not enough for Obama to repeat his false claims, day after day, speech after speech. No, he must also portray himself as America’s Socrates, our voice of reason amidst the angry mob, an intrepid truth teller, a singularly unifying and visionary figure, and a man astonishingly free from the ideological baggage that defines his critics. He views himself as the adult in a world of children.
Yes, that is how he views those of us who flock to town hall meetings, write editorials, blog or generally just try to defeat something we know will have a ruinous impact on the country we love.