Evaluating Obama's Address to Congress on Health Care

Editorial that I was largely responsible for writing for the Washington Times starts this way:

In his Sept. 9 address to Congress on health care, President Obama assured the nation, "These are the facts. Nobody disputes them." The brazenness of the president's claim that nobody disputes his policy spin is over the top. Such a hardened position means that anybody raising objections against such a consensus is either a liar or an idiot.

Ironically, with all the outrage over South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's yelling "You lie" during the president's speech, there has been precious little said about Mr. Obama constantly claiming that Republicans are lying. The president pointedly went after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her assertions about rationing when he fumed to Congress, "It is a lie, plain and simple." Despite all the theatrics, his statement is false. The Democratic bills before Congress do involve rationing.

In fact, we have a hard time even finding almost anything in the president's talk that is correct. Take his basic claims about the insurance industry. "In 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies," Mr. Obama said. "In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company." As Fox News Channel demonstrated on Wednesday, the share of the largest five insurance companies in the 34 states is not 75 percent but merely 32 percent. For Alabama, the number is not almost 90 percent but 36 percent, which sounds a lot less threatening than what the president said. . . .