RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you remember — and I’ve got the audio sound bites here to refresh your memory. Barack Obama lied, it’s been calculated, roughly 25 times over three years. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Obamacare is not gonna affect you! You like your doctor, you like your plan, you keep it.”

I will maintain to you that Barack Obama would not have been reelected had he not made that lie. If people had known they weren’t gonna be able to keep their doctor, and if people had known they would not be able to keep their health insurance plan that they like, he would not have been reelected. That lie — and all the other lies they told about the Republicans and what a bunch of rats they are — is what got Obama reelected.

I’m gonna play it for you. We’ve got a montage here of all his promising that f you like your insurance, you can keep it. In addition to that, we’ve got Obama promising you that your premium would come down by $2,500 a year. This takes a minute and 22 seconds to play. Here it is.

OBAMA: (June 23, 2009) If you have your plan and you like it, and you like your doctor, then you don’t have to change plans. The government is not going to make you change plans.

OBAMA: (June 5, 2008) (godlike echo) You’re going to have a plan that lowers premiums by $2,500!

OBAMA: (January 31, 2008) I am actually not interested in just capping premiums. I want to lower premiums by $2,500 per family!

OBAMA: (October 4, 2008) (outdoor noise) We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.

OBAMA: (October 15, 2008) You can keep your choice of doctor; keep your plan. The only thing we’re going to do is lower costs; cut the average family’s premium by about $2,500 per year.

OBAMA: (June 27, 2008) (outdoor noise) It’s time to bring down the typical family premium by $2,500, and to bring down the costs.

OBAMA: (October 29, 2009) The first thing I want to make clear is that if you are happy with the insurance plan, nobody will make you change it.

OBAMA: (August 6, 2008) …a system where we’re gonna work with your employers to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.

OBAMA: (October 4, 2008) We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.

OBAMA: (February 23, 2008) … and we will lower premiums for the typical family by $2,500 a year.

OBAMA: (August 17, 2008) A-a-and if you already have health care, then we’re gonna work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family.

OBAMA: (April 20, 2008) We’re gonna work with your employer to lower premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.

OBAMA: (April 1, 2010) (godlike echo) If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you!

RUSH: If he had not repeated that lie over and over again in 2008, 2009, 2010, he would not have been reelected. Those are blatant lies, because he knew. I don’t care how little he cared about the details of his plan, he knew. Everybody involved in it knew that the whole point of Obamacare was getting you out of what you had! That was the only way it could work as designed. Obamacare was a total upheaval.

It is a total upheaval.

Obamacare is a total overhaul, and you were lied to over and over again — and knowingly — when you were told you could keep your doctor and you could keep your health plan and that your premium was gonna come down $2,500. And they knew. Every Democrat that made this statement — Pelosi and every other Democrat that told you this — was knowingly lying to you. You know, I could sit here and say, “We tried to warn you,” and I’m sure you people in this audience knew full well.

You knew.

That’s the great thing about you.

You are up to speed.

But you try to reach the low-information crowd? I mean, it’s just near impossible. But I don’t know how you… I don’t know of a presidential lie more damaging, more powerful, and more brazenly blatant than this one. Because this was repeated, and this had a singular intention, and that was to deceive. This was a bad lie. This wasn’t one of those good lies they said that Clinton did that spared people’s feelings and all of that.

This was brazen deceit, and now what good does it do you that, okay, you know he lied? The thing to know going forward is they all do. If it’s a Democrat and they’re promising you some goody the government’s gonna do to make your life just magical, it’s a lie, folks! (interruption) Why would…? I don’t want to go there. “Why would anybody believe it?” That question’s gonna drive me insane, trying to answer that.

So we now know that you don’t get to keep your plan. Uh, uh, uh, uh! Yes, you do. Guess what? When it was discovered that Obama lied and when people started losing their plans they thought they could keep, why, there was outrage out there! So what did Obama do? (impression) “Well, you know what? Your plan’s still illegal, but, you know what? I’m not gonna enforce the law! I’m gonna let you keep your plan!

“I, King Barack, am decreeing that you can keep your plan. It’s illegal, but I’m gonna tell the insurance companies to make your plan available.” The insurance companies said, “Wait a minute! We already got rid of that plan. These plans are illegal by virtue of your own law. (stammering)” Obama: “I don’t care what you do; those plans are still good.” So, that’s where we are. What’s new is that Barack Obama went on to WebMD.

It’s a website, and do you know what Obama said? He said, “You might have to switch doctors now.” So we’re closing the loop. You don’t get to keep your plan, except you do — and you’re made to feel guilty about it. The only reason you can keep your plan is because there are elections coming up, and if you actually had that plan taken away from you and you couldn’t get it back, you might vote against Democrats.

We can’t have that, so you get to keep it. The other part, $2500 premium reductions? Ha! That was never gonna happen, and it didn’t happen. So now they’ve closed the loop, and now you might have to switch doctors — and, by the way, he’s still lecturing people, “Obamacare only costs as much as a cell phone or cable bill.” You know, it’s about priorities now.

And, by the way, by the way, I have something on that that I can’t wait to get to, but let’s stay in order here. Here’s Obama this morning on the website, WebMD.com. He’s being interviewed by health care reform expert and journalist Lisa Zamosky. Lisa Zamosky said, “What can you say to these people who believe that health insurance still isn’t affordable and their concern that if they don’t buy it, they’re gonna have to pay a penalty?”

OBAMA: I think a lot of people may end up being pleasantly surprised because for a large portion of, uh, those folks, health insurance may end up costing a hundred dollars or less. It may end up costing less than your cable bill or your cell phone bill. There are other countries that have, you know, government-run health care or have a single-payer plan, in which case, uh, the government really controls much more tightly, uh, how health care is distributed. There are pluses and minuses with having a private insurance system.

RUSH: So how many of you have found a health care policy that costs less than your cable bill? Hmm? Aside from you people who are having it given to you by virtue of subsidies. And, by the way, do you even know what that means? “Oh, I’m sitting fat, Rush! Oh, yeah, I qualified for a subsidy.” Who do you think is paying the subsidy? You may as well think of it as your neighbor because that’s who’s paying your subsidy.

You may as well walk down the street and knock on the door of everybody in the neighborhood and say, “Hey, would you buy my health care for me?” because that’s what’s happening if you’re being subsidized. I don’t mean to be making you feel guilty, but I just want you to understand what’s really happening here. If you’ve got a subsidized policy and you’re not paying anything for it, somebody is, and it’s probably the people in the neighborhood who are working.

But you didn’t go knock on their door and ask them, did you?

Nope!

Obama is just taking it from ’em, is what’s happening.

But you don’t have to pay anything. You got a subsidy.

But for those of you that don’t have subsidies, is your premium less than your cable bill? Is it less than your cell phone bill, hmm? I haven’t heard anybody. Where are these people that are only paying a hundred bucks? Why doesn’t the Democrat Party have a parade of people in a video singing the praises, “Hey, I got my policy at HealthCare.gov, and it only cost me $99.99.” Where is that video? I probably should shut up, giving them the idea to produce it. They’ve already demonstrated they lie through their teeth about anything, why not create a bunch of phony citizens.

Here’s the bite where he says you may lose your doctor. This is the health care reform expert and journalist Lisa Zamosky. Next question: “We also heard from individuals like Sandra, who lives in California, and Claire from Illinois,” and they both say hi, Mr. President, by the way. “They’re troubled by the limited number of doctors and hospitals that they’re finding take their insurance.” Oh, yeah, it’s the old network thing, folks.

Did you know your doctor and your hospital may not be in your network? (gasping) Do you even know what I’m talking about? You do if you have found out that your doctor’s not available to you. Ha. That’s how you found out about this stupid network thing. Some of you may not know what I’m talking about. “What do you mean, network?” Well, wait, you’ll find out. ‘Cause your doctor probably isn’t gonna be in yours. Any doctor worth his salt is gonna get out of this thing so fast, he’s not even gonna leave tracks. So, anyway, back to the question, Lisa Zamosky, “How do we get more doctors and hospitals participating in these plans?”

OBAMA: For the average person, many of the folks who don’t have health insurance initially, you know, they’re gonna have to make some choices, and they might end up having to switch doctors, in part because they’re saving money.

RUSH: Oh, no.

OBAMA: But that’s true, you know, if — if your employer suddenly decides we think this network’s gonna give a better deal, we think this is gonna help keep premiums lower.

RUSH: Oh.

OBAMA: You gotta use this doctor as opposed to that one or this hospital as opposed to that one.

RUSH: There you have it. You might end up having to switch doctors. Why? Because you’re saving money! The lies just keep coming. And they just keep building on each other. So bye-bye plan that you liked, except it’s back for a while ’til after the next election. And bye-bye doctor, except that’ll be back, too. Once the excrement hits the fan over this, you’ll be able to keep your doctor until the next election, too. And forget the $2,500 premium, that’s never gonna happen no matter how hard you complain. There it is. You might have to end up switching doctors.

But we just played the sound bite, a minute 22 seconds, “You like your doctor; you can keep your doctor. You like your plan; you can keep your plan.” You might have to switch doctors, but that’s gonna be part of your saving money. Brazen, outright lies, designed to deceive. “You’re gonna have to make some choices now, folks.” That’s what we’re gonna be hearing a lot of.

You’re gonna have to make some choices. You’re gonna have to choose cable TV or health care. You’re gonna have to make some choices. You might have to choose cell phone coverage or health care. You’re gonna have to make some choices. Granny needs a new hip. You might have to do without for a while. You’re gonna have to make some choices, folks, but you were told that it was gonna be a panacea. You were led to believe that a health care utopia was on the other side of Obamacare, and now look.

Finally, after all of this, in speaking to Lisa Zamosky, she said, “We did have a number of people, like Jane from Washington state, she isn’t planning on purchasing a plan because of the issue of cost, which was a large percentage of the questions we got.” People can’t afford it, Mr. President. Jane says it’s cheaper to pay the penalty. She’s gonna pay the penalty. Now, if a lot of Americans follow Jane’s lead, I mean, other others want to know what impact is that gonna have on health care? If a lot of people pay the penalty and don’t buy insurance, what’s that gonna mean to the rest of us, Mr. President?

OBAMA: At this point enough people are signing up that the Affordable Care Act’s gonna work. The pool is already large enough. The number of people who’ve signed up is already large enough that I’m confident the program will be stable.

RUSH: This is just incredible.

OBAMA: We look forward to seeing more and more people take advantage of it as some of the politics– (crosstalk)

RUSH: They don’t even know how many people have signed up!

OBAMA: — feeling more confident about the website as folks like you, you know, spread the word in terms of giving people accurate information.

RUSH: They don’t even know how many people have signed up. They haven’t the slightest idea. The lies just continue. Oh, speaking of which, you know, have you heard that the Facebook guy called Obama, Mark Zuckerberg? Now, this is really, to me, a teachable moment. Mark Zuckerberg, you would have to say, in one way at least is a very bright guy, wouldn’t you? But when it comes to Obama and government policy he’s just a total naive waif.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Weekly Standard, December 23rd of 2013, so a little over three months ago. The administration conceded at that point that Obamacare was very expensive. This is an excerpt from the Weekly Standard story, December 23rd, 2013.

“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the other night issued a press release that outlines new options for the nearly 5 million Americans who have received cancellation notices from their health insurers. Not surprisingly, these Americans are ‘finding other coverage options to be more expensive than their cancelled plans or policies,’ CMS explains.”

What this story goes on to point out is that Obamacare is far more expensive than cell phone coverage and cable TV. Just last December, the Weekly Standard. And now Obama is out saying just the exact opposite. And do you remember Nancy Pelosi talking about free riders? Remember, we couldn’t have free riders. Free riders were going to sink Obamacare. Free riders were the villains of day. Free riders were screwing everything up. I call this the free rider provision. Call it what you will, but the fact is some people will not, even though they’re the younger and healthier and have some resources, decide their invincible and they’re not gonna pay into a system. Call it what you will, we are not gonna let people not get health insurance, and yet get coverage at the emergency room. Those are free riders, and now we have become a nation of free riders on Obamacare. This is such a disaster, folks.