Is the President Mistaken, or Dishonest?

As a follow-up to my earlier claim that the President is actually being dishonest about the cost of Obamacare in order to get americans on board, check out this article by Caroline Baum.

Especially this part:

Everyone makes a mistake or flubs a line when asked questions on the spot, including the president of the United States...[but] the proliferation of Obama’s gaffes and non sequiturs on health care has exceeded the allowable limit.

He has failed repeatedly to explain how the government will provide more (health care) for less (money). He has failed to explain why increased demand for medical services without a concomitant increase in supply won’t lead to rationing by government bureaucrats as opposed to the market. And he has failed to explain why a Medicare-like model is desirable when Medicare itself is going broke.

The public is left with one of two unsettling conclusions: Either the president doesn’t understand the health-insurance reform plans working their way through Congress, or he understands both the plans and the implications and is being untruthful about the impact.

Neither option is good; ignorance is clearly preferable to the alternative.

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As I said earlier, I'm hesitant to accuse anyone - and especially the president - of lying. The accusation usually rings of desperation or vindictiveness (just think of all the "Bush lied!" nonsense from years past). But as the president's claims are so completely at odds with economic reality, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that dishonesty, rather than faulty intelligence, is at work in the current situation.