Point Counter Point Weekly Addresses

President Obama once again talked about health care in his weekly address. Call this a summary of his speech. The president talked about how anyone can wind up with no insurance. He repeated his oft used numbers, 6 million people will lose their insurance this year and 17000 people will lose it each and every day.

Then, the president once again ran off what I call a fantasy. Under his plan, everyone will be covered. Those that already have coverage will know that a pre existing condition won't get them cut off. They'll know that their inusrance won't be changed when they get sick. They will know that all preventative procedures will be covered and that there won't be any high deductibles and co pays.

Of course, those that can't afford health care will now be able to afford it. We'll do this without adding one penny to the deficit. We'll get the costs of health care under control. There won't be any problems like rationing either. As Bill Murray once said, "cats and dogs living together". It is of course pure fantasy to think that all of this will happen all at once, and we'll see if the American people, and Congress specifically, are as gullible as the president appears to think they are.

Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas delivered the Republican response. His speech was split into two parts. The first part focused on 9/11. Specifically, Senator Cornyn focused on Afghanistan and the president's strategy there. Senator Cornyn gave the president the Republicans unwavering support for the mission and victory there. He called the president's actions there "leadership" and "bi partisan". Cornyn compared the new strategy there to the one that worked in Iraq.

Senator Cornyn spent the rest of the speech attacking the president's policies on health care and his speech specifically. Cornyn said the president "paid lip service to bi partisanship". Cornyn said that the president's plan would cut benefits to Medicare recipients. He said it would trillions to our debts. Finally, Cornyn called for the standard conservative reforms: mobile health care, health care that can be sold across state lines, and tort reform.