As Raleigh recovers from the latest presidential visit, you might enjoy Robert J. Samuleson‘s latest assessment of the president’s pronouncements on health care:

If you listen to President Obama, his reform will satisfy almost
everyone. It will insure the uninsured, control runaway health
spending, subdue future budget deficits, preserve choice for patients,
and improve quality of care. These claims are self-serving
exaggerations and political fantasies. They have destroyed what should
be a serious national discussion of health care.
The
health-care conundrum involves a contradiction that the administration
steadfastly obscures: in the short run?meaning four to eight
years?government cannot both insure the uninsured and rein in health
spending.

Judged objectively, reform may do exactly the opposite of what Obama
says. It would bloat spending, not restrain it. But because the
president is so well spoken, he has the ability to make misleading
statements sound reasonable or sophisticated. Still, they’re misleading.