A 'Sorry' Excuse for a President
President Obama is "sorry" that millions of Americans have had their health insurance plans cancelled despite his promises that ObamaCare would not cause this.
Is Obama sorry he's been caught in multiple material lies about his disastrous namesake, or is it the "godly sorrow" of Scripture that "brings repentance" and rights wrongs?
Obama repeatedly has professed to be a Christian. His "pastor in chief, Joshua DuBois, has a new book, The President's Devotional, a compilation of devotions that he sent daily to Obama's Blackberry since 2008. Obama said he searches Scripture "to help him be a better man as well as a better president." As campaign director of religious affairs during Obama's first presidential campaign, DuBois said of him:
"As a committed Christian, Senator Obama believes that the central teachings of Jesus in the Sermon [on] the Mount encourage us to treat one another with respect and to love our brothers and sisters of all backgrounds. He believes that the golden rule in Matthew 7:12 still applies in politics; it's the rule on which he bases his life."
That would be the same Sermon on the Mount that Obama mocked in a different speech.
Matthew 7:12 records Jesus saying:
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
Obama described his Christian conversion similarly in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:
"It was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead," Obama said. "Being my brother's and sister's keeper. Treating others as they would treat me."
It's the "Sermon" with an Obama twist.
Obama hasn't hesitated to use Scripture to push health care reform because it's "in line with biblical teachings." Obama told 1,000 rabbis on a conference call that he needed their help pushing health care reform. He said:
"We are partners with God in matters of life and death."
Life and death indeed.
Obama invoked the Ninth Commandment against some critics of ObamaCare on a conference call with the "Religious Left" in August 2009. Reuters quoted Obama referring to those who said ObamaCare would set up "death panels" and fund abortion:
"There has been a lot misinformation in this debate and there are some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness. This notion that somehow we are setting up death panels that would decide on whether elderly people get to live or die ... that is just an extraordinary lie. You've heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortions. Not true," he said.
Obama is the false witness. Employers must include coverage for abortifacients in their health insurance policies even if it violates their conscience. Death panels are real, according to Obama's health care advisor, Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, as is abortion funding for members of Congress and their staffs, according to a ruling by the Office of Personnel Management reported by Newsmax on Sept. 30.
The Washington Examiner has compiled video clips of Obama repeating his unconditional promises - "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period." -- on 36 different occasions, knowing it wasn't true. When Americans began receiving cancellation notices, their collective fit hit Obama's sham.
Obama added insult to injury when he implied that those who believed him didn't know that the "period" at the end of his promise was really a big "if" -- a pre-existing condition, as Tony Lee of Breitbart.com reported him saying on Nov. 4:
"Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you're grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we're saying is they've got to change it to a higher standard."
Obama also tried blaming insurance companies for changing their policies, knowing that his agents at HHS wrote the regulations making those policies illegal.
At long last, Chuck Todd of NBC News pulled an "apology" from Obama on Nov. 8:
"I'm sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me. We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."
Obama has known from at least July 2010 that his "assurances" were false:
"Guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services dating back to July 2010 estimated that "40 to 67 percent" of the 14 million consumers in that marketplace could lose their policies due to turnover in the individual insurance market, NBC News found."
Like vassals instead of free citizens, Americans are left with government-approved policies with increased deductibles and co-pays at much higher prices in a system that Obama and his congressional co-conspirators refuse to apply to themselves and their families.
Jesus gave a dire warning to self-proclaimed experts in the law who lay burdens on others:
Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too." But He said, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers." (Luke 11: 43)
Obama has failed the "Golden Rule" of "politics."
A godly sorrow should compel Obama to ask the CEOs of health insurance companies to reinstate policies that have been canceled for those who want them, which would garner those companies goodwill for years to come. He should ask Congress to send to him legislation fully repealing ObamaCare. He should sign and return it along with his letter of resignation.
Jan LaRue is senior legal analyst with the American Civil Rights Union.