AARP TO OBAMA: WE DON'T SUPPORT YOUR PLAN Tell Congress to Oppose Obama Health Care Bill FaxDC.com wants to send this urgent and personalized Blast Fax message to all 535 members of the House and Senate for YOU. Alert: Time and again, President Obama portrayed himself as the voice of reason combating "myths" and "misinformation" during a town hall meeting on healthcare Tuesday — while he himself weaved a web of gaffes, errors, and misstatements that further muddled the facts on healthcare. The president's missteps during the meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., triggered a flurry of corrections and clarifications from the White House and other organizations. The flubs come at a critical time for Obama, who has launched a public relations offensive on his signature issue at a time when polls show plummeting support for his healthcare proposals, dropping 5 points in just two weeks, according to the latest Rasmussen survey. "Change of this major sort requires trust and a leap of faith," political science expert Larry J. Sabato told Newsmax, in reaction to Obama's performance. "Every misstatement is damaging to the president’s goal. People instinctively know that the current system is flawed and that the president’s proposed system will have a new set of flaws." Obama's most egregious error: claiming that the AARP has endorsed his plan, forcing the organization that represents older Americans to issue a correcting statement that it has done no such things. Indeed, AARP probably wishes the commander in chief had greater command of his facts, after clarifying that it has not endorsed anyone's proposals yet – Republican or Democrat. When a Maine voter asked Obama how his plan would affect Medicare, the president responded: "Well, first of all, another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay? So I just want seniors to be clear about this, because if you look at the polling, it turns out seniors are the ones who are most worried about health care reform." Obama went on to cite AARP throughout the town hall, at one point describing it as "so supportive." He also stated: "We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors." The clear message was that, if AARP is for Obama's plan, how could it be bad for seniors? Immediately following the meeting, AARP Chief Operating Officer Tom Nelson issued the following statement: “AARP has been working with Democrats and Republicans to fix our broken healthcare system. “While the president was correct that AARP will not endorse a healthcare reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major healthcare reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate. In fact, Nelson's statement included one remark that could be interpreted to mean that AARP actually opposes proposals on the table, which would reduce Medicare spending and try to make up for it in savings. Nelson stated: "Our members appreciate [Obama's] insistence that any final reform package will not reduce Medicare benefits for the millions of people that literally depend on that program as a lifeline." ABC senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper, writing on his Political Punch blog, quipped that Obama's misstatement might constitute a "senior moment." If so, it was one of several the president experienced during the town hall meeting. A few examples: Obama claimed he never supported a single-payer system, that he never supported a government-subsidized "public option," and that his plan would not increase the size of the deficit — all assertions that are at odds with previous statements from Obama, the published record, and the views of various experts. Sabato, of the University of Virginia and a veteran observer of the U.S. political scene, told Newsmax: "Every word from a president matters, and all of them learn this sooner or later. A misstatement of fact can cause major headaches in diplomatic relations or, in this case, for a key administration priority. Presidents have far fewer excuses for gaffes than other officeholders, since they have dozens of speechwriters and aides to help them get it right. "I had the time yesterday to watch Obama’s New Hampshire event, then I decided to watch all three national news broadcasts: ABC, CBS, NBC. Only Jake Tapper of ABC noted the president’s errors. The correct role of the press is to check the facts of all sides and to point out gaffes and exaggerations. "Obama has made the AARP error before," Sabato continued. "Did no one on his staff advise him of that?" Obama also ruffled feathers at the U.S. Postal Service with his remark that it is "always having problems." Ironically, Obama tried to defuse worries about the anti-competitive impact of public option healthcare by citing the Postal Service as evidence that government initiatives, which is what the public option would be, tend to be woefully inefficient. "I mean, if you think about," the president said, "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It's the post office that's always having problems." A Postal Service spokesman put on a brave face, saying officials there "don't doubt" the president still supports the debt-plagued organization. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, echoing the administration's refrain that the Bush administration is to blame, told reporters, "It’s been public for some time that the Postal Service’s fiscal path is unsustainable. It has been struggling due to unprecedented reductions in mail volume, and the effect of the economic crisis has made things worse." Other Obama misstatements Tuesday that could add to the public's confusion over healthcare reform: "I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter," the president said. Yet the Heritage Foundation Web site points out that his own campaign Web site quotes him stating at a 2008 Ames, Iowa, campaign rally: “If I were designing a system from scratch I would probably set up a single-payer system . . . So what I believe is we should set up a series of choices . . . Over time it may be that we end up transitioning to such a system.” The president implied that his proposed health exchange would be similar to that available to members of Congress: “That’s what the health exchange is all about, is that you — just like a member of Congress — can go and choose the plan that’s right for you.” But the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program does not have a "public option" government provider, a costly and controversial element of Obama's proposal. The president continues to insist that no one will have to change insurances providers if they like their current plan. He has acknowledged previously, however, that he can't control business owners' efforts to reduce their costs, and the public option plan could lead to more than 88 million Americans' losing their current coverage, according to a Lewin Group study the Heritage Foundation commissioned. It is hard to argue against the facts," Nina Owcharenko, deputy director of the Center for Health Policy Studies for the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax. "The Lewin Group estimates more than 88 million could lose their current employer-based coverage under the House bill. Other estimates, by the Congressional Budget Office and Urban Institute, although lower than Lewin, still find millions of Americans could lose their current coverage." Obama again tried to paint insurance companies as the bad guys: "But let's face it, now is the hard part – because the history is clear: Every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got." The problem with this characterization is that pharmaceutical companies and health insurance firms have tried hard to work with the administration to shape the proposals coming out of Congress. "In stark contrast to the healthcare reform debate in the 1990s," reports The Hill, "the health insurance industry has refrained from launching attacks on Obama or the plans working their way through Congress. Insurance lobbyists have been very active on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue trying to shape the legislations, but so far the industry has not used its considerable resources to stop the process, despite numerous Democratic proposals it opposes." Robert Zirkelbach, communications director for the America's Health Insurance Plans trade organization, told Newsmax: "The inconvenient fact is that our industry strongly supports healthcare reform and we actually proposed last year the insurance market reforms and consumer protections that people are talking about today." Obama touts his ability to obtain voluntary cuts in drug costs from pharmaceutical companies but doesn't tell the whole story. "Now, in terms of savings for you as a Medicare recipient, the biggest one is on prescription drugs, because the prescription drug companies have already said that they would be willing to put up $80 billion in rebates for prescription drugs as part of a healthcare reform package. Now, we may be able to get even more than that." The White House acknowledged last week that a New York Times report that the administration had cut a backroom deal with the pharmaceutical companies was accurate. This after the administration promised a new style of politics that would keep lobbying interests at arm's-length. Obama stated that more preventive care saves money, but the director of the Congressional Budget Office has already weighed in that it does not. "And finally," Obama said, "and this is important – we will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies – (applause) – because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer on the front end. That makes sense, it saves lives; it also saves money – and we need to save money in this healthcare system." Unfortunately for Obama, Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, recently addressed this point in a seven-page letter posted on CBO.gov. "Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall." That's because finding one disease in its early stages requires expensive screening procedures for countless others, which actually increases the costs of medicine. That's not to suggest preventative care isn't a good idea — but to say it will reduce healthcare costs is at variance with the facts. Obama promised reform would not increase the deficit, stating: "First of all, I said I won't sign a bill that adds to the deficit or the national debt. OK? So this will have to be paid for." Actually, the CBO estimates reform will increase the deficit by $239 billion during the next decade. Even if Obama and congressional Democrats find a way to bridge that gap, the real cost of the proposals comes after year 10. Based on CBO estimates, those costs of the program will increase by 8 percent a year, adding more than $188 billion to the deficit each year beyond 2020. The bottom line on presidential accuracy, Sabato advised: "It’s better to be honest so that the public can compare the two sets of flaws [in the current healthcare proposals] and make a judgment. Let me add that the opponents are also being dishonest, and some of the wild claims they are making are hurting their cause. It’s an old bromide but wise: Stick to the truth and you’ll come out OK." (NewsMax) DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!