RUSH: Press conference, White House Rose Garden briefing. A reporter, unidentified, had this exchange with Gibbs.
REPORTER: Earlier this week both Rush Limbaugh and, uh, Michael Moore point out that the, umm, preexisting condition provision of the legislation doesn’t take effect, uh, for another four years, and I’m wondering if you can tell us, umm, was that a concession and — and — and if so who fought for that and what did he get in return?
GIBBS: There are certain things that — that cannot be instituted until you have everyone in the system. Obviously this is a piece of legislation that phases in over the course of many years those changes and as a result of that phasing in, when that’s done, uhhh, preexisting conditions for adults will be outlawed. But understand this. When this becomes law an insurance company will no longer be able to discriminate against a child that has — that they believe, uhh, or says it — has a preexisting condition.
RUSH: (sigh) Where to start? That’s total lie about why the benefits don’t start for four years. The reason the benefits don’t start for four years is so they can get this fraudulent CBO number under $1 trillion. Remember, the number really is $900 trillion because that’s what Obama said was ‘wasted’ on the Iraq war and, ‘If we just get out of Iraq, we can save that money and buy health care reform with it.’ So the reason why the tax increases start immediately and all of the coverage doesn’t begin for four years is simply to get a ten-year cost under $1 trillion. It’s not because it takes that long to get people in the system. They’re going to do everything they can to wipe out the private insurance industry right off the bat, and he just said so.
‘[A]s a result of that phasing in, when that’s done preexisting conditions for adults will be outlawed. But understand this. When this becomes law an insurance company will no longer be able to discriminate against a child that has — that they believe or says it — has a preexisting condition,’ in other words, everybody, which is no longer insurance. This is smoke and mirrors. We all know what’s in this bill. What’s in this bill is the fact that you either have to buy insurance or you pay a fine, and the fine is much less than having insurance. Also in the bill is that if you have an accident or have a heart attack, you can buy insurance that day! That’s not insurance. No insurance company can stay in business doing that, especially competing with a so-called public option with the government in the business as well. So it’s more literal lies coming out of the White House, this time from Baghdad Robert Gibbs.