Fox interview

Before anyone kills me, yes I know it's FoxNews, but with one of there most Mild mannered personalities, Brett Baier, it seems Obama gets pretty annoyed at having to answer tough questions on HC. In addition I find it strange that BO can't definitively say what's in the bill, and did Hawaii have an earthquake that I'm not aware of?

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4113350/fox-news-exclusive-president-obama/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r5:c0.037577:b31982604:z6

I hesitate to say this, but I'm beginning to think that Obama is one element shy of a Petzval, if you catch my meaning. First there's his recent remark that his health reform bill will reduce employers' premiums by three thousand percent, and now this reference to an apparently non-existant recent devastating earthquake in Hawaii. I believe what he is trying to say is that the "Louisiana Purchase" is a provision that provides extra health care funding for states that have suffered a natural disaster. He is either so inept that he cannot comprehend what he reads, or he is lying. I've read the language of the bill myself of the "Purchase." It is specific to Louisiana and applies to no other state either now or in the future. It is clearly a buy-off and the American people understand this.

BTW this is not the first time Medicaid kickbacks have taken place. Back in 1997 the state of Alaska received basically the same treatment:

"A similar experiment occurred for Alaska after the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. That act increased the rate at which the federal government matched Medicaid spending from $1 for each $1 spent by the state to $1.50 for each $1 spent. While the increase was nowhere near as bloated as what is being proposed for Louisiana, the effect was dramatic.

Alaskan legislators used the discretion allowed them to increase who was covered and the beneficiary payments per recipient. Per capita Medicaid spending went from growing at the national average to growing at more than three times the national rate. We can only assume that this increased Medicaid use increased overall demand for health care in the Last Frontier and thus raised health care costs for everyone else in the state.

If a 50 percent increase in matching payments had this effect for Alaska, it's hard to imagine what a 400 percent increase would do to Louisiana's Medicaid expenditures. Nearly 30 percent of Louisiana's residents are already enrolled in Medicaid. Even if the number of those eligible were somehow magically not to change, the potential cost of expanded benefits is huge. It boggles the mind that this legislation is being sold as a way to get costs under control."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/30/the-300-million-louisiana-purchase/

David E