Two Followups From Obama's Healthcare Speech

Powerline today ran two articles that I thought deserved a wider audience. The first one shows that Obama's healthcare speech Wednesday gained some added support, but that a majority of Americans still oppose Obamacare. The second article concerns an admission by the White House that Rep. Wilson was right - Obamacare will cover illegal aliens unless specific steps are taken to prevent that from happening. Only the most gullible will believe that liberal Democrats will not find a way through decisions by government regulators or by subsequent amendments to have Obamacare cover illegals and government-paid abortions.

A Bounce, But Is It Enough?

The Rasmussen Survey finds that President Obama's televised speech has given a boost to the Democrats' health care plan (whatever it is). A plurality, however, still opposes the plan. This chart shows how support among voters has shifted over the summer:

On balance, these data don't seem particularly favorable for supporters of government medicine. The balance of intensity still weighs heavily against the plan, as 39 percent are strongly opposed while only 31 percent are strongly in favor. The gains recorded by Rasmussen have come entirely among Democrats; Republicans and independents remain strongly opposed.

Michael Ramirez reminds us of one of the basic reasons why it would be folly to enact government health care; click to enlarge:

**************

White House Admits Wilson Was Right

Last night, as part of its now-traditional Friday night news dump, the White House put out a "clarification" of the Obama administration's position on participation in its proposed health care plan by illegal aliens. For the first time, the White House acknowledged that it will be necessary to implement a verification system so that illegals can't sign up for Obama's proposed insurance exchange:

Verification will be required when purchasing health insurance on the exchange. One option is the SAVE program (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) which states currently use to make sure that undocumented immigrants don't participate in safety-net programs for which they are ineligible.

President Obama has thus endorsed the Republican rather than the Democratic position on this issue. In the House Ways and Means Committee, the Republicans tried to amend the Democrats' health care bill to require use of the SAVE system or a similar safeguard, but their amendment was voted down on a straight party-line vote, confirming that the Democrats did indeed intend for illegal immigrants to obtain coverage under Obamacare:

The House bill, as currently structured, does not offer clear guidelines to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot access taxpayer-funded health care benefits. Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced an amendment that would use two citizenship status verification systems, the Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS) and Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) programs, to establish an individual's eligibility to obtain the bill's proposed affordability credits or enroll in the public insurance option. Both programs are currently used to determine citizenship status and eligibility for public assistance programs. Safeguards to guarantee that only citizens can access federal health care benefits are necessary, considering that the US Census Bureau currently estimates that 9.6 million of the uninsured are not US citizens. The first Heller amendment failed on a straight party-line vote.

In effect, President Obama has now admitted that Joe Wilson was right. That doesn't mean, of course, that any verification system will actually be included should Obamacare become law. If controversy over the issue has died down by the time legislation is actually enacted, Congressional Democrats likely will omit such safeguards from the final version of whatever bill eventually passes.