Sen. DeMint (R-SC) Has Questions for Obama’s Press Conference

Will reporters take the hint?

SC conservatives are justifiably proud of our junior Senator Jim DeMint (Jim’s Blog here). He’s out front on so many of these critical issues and not at all afraid to say what so many of us are thinking.

He drew direct fire from Obama by proclaiming that stopping Obama’s drive for government takeover of Health Care would be “Obama’s Waterloo.” He got asked about that and more today with Matt Lauer on the Today Show:

And Jim has a few questions for Obama in tonight’s news conference. Wouldn’t you love to hear a straight answer to these?

Below are the top five questions Sen. DeMint would like the president to address:

1. If the major provisions of the health care bills will not kick in until 2013, four years from now, why the rush to pass a thousand-page bill before the August recess, a bill you admit that you haven’t fully read yourself?

2. You have said your health care bill will cut costs and not increase the deficit. But, independent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office contradicts both claims, saying it will raise costs and increase the deficit by $240 billion in the first ten years. What independent analysis will you provide that supports your claims and refutes CBO’s?

3. You have repeatedly said that your health care bill allows any American who likes their current employer-based plan to keep it. But the most comprehensive independent analysis available, by the Lewin Group, contradicts your claim and found your bill will force over 80 million Americans to lose their current coverage. Will you provide independent analysis to refute this study?

4. Your own record in the Senate reveals you spent years voting against nearly every reform to make health care more affordable and accessible, but this week you said that opponents of your plan are “content to perpetuate the status quo, [and] are, in fact, fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests.” Which specific elected officials will you cite that have proposed to keep the status quo, and is that how you characterize the opposition of the 52 Blue Dog Democrats in the House and the moderate Democrats in the Senate?

5. Yes or no question: Will you guarantee pro-life Americans that, under your plan, they will not be forced to subsidize elective abortions?

Can’t you just hear Obama answering those? “Ah, well, I, ahhhh….”