RUSH: Now, the public won’t feel the mandate until four years from now, and until then, Obama will cynically argue that nobody’s complained yet about the mandates, when there aren’t any. In fact, do you remember when he ripped and criticized Hillary Clinton for health care mandates during the campaign? We have that. This happened in 2008, February 21st in Austin, and it was a debate, and this is Obama.
OBAMA: When Senator Clinton says a mandate, it’s not a mandate on government to provide health insurance. It’s a mandate on individuals to purchase it. Massachusetts has a mandate right now. They have exempted 20% of the uninsured because they’ve concluded that that 20% can’t afford it. In some cases, there are people who are paying fines and still can’t afford it so now they’re worse off than they were. They don’t have health insurance and they’re paying a fine. (applause) In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you’ve got to have a very harsh, stiff penalty.
RUSH: Here he is ripping Mrs. Clinton for exactly what is in his health care bill.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: There’s a guy on CNBC today that said the American empire is in decline. I’ll have the sound bites coming up for that in a minute, but his basic point is that we have now become a country where way too many of our people want to be taken care of by the government rather than taking care of themselves, and that is the beginning of the end. America: An empire in decline. The point here is, folks, any demagogue can make promises and any demagogue can make claims, but when Obama’s talk is put to the test — when we see the outcomes — we have nothing but failure. He has not made good on a single promise. Even now he still speaks about his promises since most of his health care bill phases in over four years. And the mandates don’t happen for four years. And the preexisting coverage for adults, that doesn’t happen for four years.
I hope so many people go into doctor’s offices and hospitals — today, tomorrow, all week — and expect everything free and are told, ‘Oh, no, no, no!’ ‘Well, I thought it passed,’ said the patient. ‘Well, it did, but we don’t know when this actually kicks in, and we don’t even know whether it’s going to be free anyway,’ which (hint, hint) it won’t be. He’s out there saying, ‘The sky hasn’t fallen since the health care bill was signed.’ This is a big deal. This administration is so demagogic that they’re out there, it’s been signed since Tuesday, yesterday. ‘Hey, nobody pulled the plug on granny. Uh, there isn’t anybody dying out there.’ Oh? There are: 123 people a day because they don’t have health insurance, and it’s not until 2019 that 32 million people are covered. Do you understand that? Thirty-two million people, that’s the current number, will not be fully insured until 2019.
That’s ten years, folks, nine-and-a-half years: 2019 for all 32 million to be covered. If you believe that. I don’t even believe that. In fact, the Senate bill doesn’t come close. No, it won’t cover all 32 million by 2019. It won’t even be close to it. There’s nothing in this that you can believe. So he’s out there saying the sky hasn’t fallen since the bill was signed. Well, the sky wasn’t falling when you said it was falling, Mr. President. We were not in a crisis of health care when you started all of this. The sky was not falling before it was signed, either. Your bill is designed to protect you because you are a coward, Mr. President. You didn’t want the mandates to kick in until you run for president a second time. Those mandates don’t kick in, the real punitive things don’t happen until after 2012. I think President Obama is such a coward that not until a second term (should he get reelected, God forbid, and thereafter) will all the horror really be felt by everybody.
And then he’ll say, ‘Well, it’s not my fault. The start up involved in these efforts takes time, some things to tweak, insurance companies didn’t fully cooperate.’ Oh, by the way, Pelosi is out. This is in the Washington Post. Pelosi is out threatening the insurance companies: If you raise premiums, we’re not going to let you in the exchanges. Vindication again, ladies and gentlemen. They’re going to have no choice but to raise premiums if they’re going to have to cover preexisting conditions, if they’re going to have to cover people from the moment they get sick and not before. So if they raise premiums, uhhhh, they’re not going to be allowed in the exchanges. That’s Nancy Pelosi. I don’t know if that’s in the legislation or not, but if it’s not in the legislation, they’ll pass it. Nobody can stop ’em. They will pass it.
So there you have it. If they’re kept out of the exchanges, guess what? Hello, single payer! Even sooner than we thought it would happen. I want to go back and play this sound bite again from 2008, because it needs a little setup. It’s a little confusing, and we didn’t get the very beginning of this up, so it might have been confusing for you. This is February 21st, it’s a presidential debate, and Obama here is ripping Senator Clinton for suggesting a mandate for people to have health insurance. He’s ripping her for that, which is what his health care legislation — what he just signed — does, although not ’til 2014, after the next presidential election. Why is that, Mr. President, by the way? Why is it that the mandate doesn’t kick in until two years after you, God forbid, are reelected? Here’s the sound bite again.
RUSH: He’s criticizing Hillary Clinton for having a mandate that everybody buy insurance, and he’s pointing to Massachusetts where it doesn’t work because 20% of the people can’t afford it and then he says, ‘In order to get people to do it you have to have a harsh, stiff penalty,’ and he’s criticizing Hillary for having that idea. That idea was signed into law yesterday.