The White House's claim this month that 46 million Americans lack health insurance is false because that number includes almost 10 million people who are not “Americans” but are in fact citizens of foreign countries who happen to be present in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Add to that, that 11 - 13 million (nobody knows for sure) of the alleged 46 million are illegal immigrants who shouldn't be provided health insurance anyway, and you are left with perhaps 23 - 25 million so-called uninsured.

Reduce that by the number of households making over $75,000 per year (about 22 million) who can afford health insurance, and you have a remaining "uninsured" of 1 - 3 million. With a current population of about 300 million, 3 million is  .01 percent of the population.

Furthermore, the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey found that there were 69,606,117 Americans in the 18 - 34-year-old demographic. If only half of this demographic chooses, wisely or unwisely, not to want health insurance because they are for the most part young and healthy, that's about another 35 million.

So, starting with a claim of 46 million, subtracting 10 million legal visitors equals 36 million; subtracting 12 million (average of 11 - 13 million) illegal immigrants equals 24 million; subtracting 22 million who can afford their own health insurance equals 2 million; subtracting 35 million who think they're too young and healthy to need health insurance equals........MINUS 33 million?! So, who's cooking the books, stretching the statistics, falsifying the figures, nullifying the numbers, altering the arithmetic, manipulating the math? And why?   

Now, there are doubtless Americans who, through no real fault of their own, cannot afford adequate health insurance and who should be helped. Undoubtedly, even .01 percent of the population who can't afford health insurance is still a lot of people. And undoubtedly, health care costs in general are too high and require moderating.

Then too, individual stories of the single, out-of-work mom or homeless person who suffers a catastrophic illness and can't afford medical treatment can be found and highlighted to make a point. But, as much as they tug at our heartstrings and anger us for the injustice, they are thankfully the exceptions rather than the rule, and no system as large as our health care system can ever be perfect. And it is often the involvement and control of local, state and/or HMO bureaucrats who only make things worse anyway. And now we want that on the federal level, administered by even more distant federal bureaucrats?

It's both ironic and hubristically hypocritical that President Obama and Congressional Democrats, as well as their liberal mainstream media handmaidens, so often say that Republicans and conservatives in general are "fearmongering" about this or that, while they "fearmonger" about hurrying to pass their massive nonstimulating stimulus plan, their massive "porky" budget, their massive automaker bailouts-bankruptcies-makeovers-takeovers, and now their massive hurry-up (again) health care reform.

So, instead of Obama and Congressional Democrats using false figures to "fearmonger" us into throwing at least another trillion dollars of our tax money (where DOES it stop?; WHEN does it stop?) into fixing what admittedly is a problem, perhaps we should first:

(a) determine what is the real number of uninsured who actually, legally and deservedly need help

(b) listen, debate and find out what's really wrong with the alternatives being offered by the so-called "Party of No" (or more accurately, the "Party of Not Listened To") Republicans

(c) attempt getting a handle on the runaway fraud and waste of millions of taxpayer dollars in the current, and already going bankrupt, MEDICARE and MEDICAID programs

(d) institute some realistic tort reform which will still allow victims of medical malpractice adequate but not exorbitant redress but without bankrupting doctors with medical malpractice insurance rates and career-ending lawsuits.

Oh, I know, I know, any, much less all, of that would be a lot of work and would take some time (something Obama and his Democrat Congress obviously don't like to do -- they don't even like taking the time to read what they vote on and sign). And it would cause deliberate and perhaps even deliberative action. And some favored special interest group supporters (like trial lawyers, for example) would have to be confronted, maybe even somewhat "disappointed."

Besides, gee-whiz, what a pain in the you-know-what to take the time and effort to do the job right, instead of just hurrying -- once again -- to simply throw still more taxpayer money at a complex set of problems and then claiming you've made it all better, huh? And done it all within your first 200 days, too! How ..... umm, ah ..... hmmm ..... "historic." Just remember, please, disasters can also be "historic."