“Were you lying then, or are you lying now?” is a question which weighs heavily in the balance of Americans’ perceptions of Barack Obama.  The acrimonious debate over President Obama’s proposed health care plan highlights a problem of trust.  Openly, or just below the surface, many voters simply don’t trust the President and perceive correctly that this year’s legislative agenda has been a series of steps in the left direction.

Polling results released today by Ramussen show that confidence in President Obama has seriously declined, see 45% Rate Obama Good or Excellent As A Leader, Down 19 Points From January, while public opposition to the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has risen to a new high; see Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low.

The Obamacare conflict is troubling.  Senator Obama stated plainly that he favored a “single-payer” healthcare system.  “Single-payer” is a code word for “government-run.”  Candidate Obama said he didn’t expect to achieve that goal immediately but that taking control of the Congress and the White House would be steps eventually leading to that end. President Obama has a different litany, claiming that the “public option” he proposes is there to promote competition, that those of us who are happy with our private health insurance will be able to keep it, that his proposal now before Congress is not a government-run “single-payer” system. Yet the establishment of a public option is the step Obama promised his supporters when he was campaigning; it means that, in the not-very-long run, government will push out private insurance and the next “crisis” can be used to establish a nationalized healthcare system.

So . . . were you lying then, or are you lying now?

The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill is similarly troubling.  Candidate Obama clearly and unambiguously stated that energy prices would “soar” and coal-based power producers would go “bankrupt” under his administration. President Obama claims that Waxman-Markey is all about “green jobs” and won’t cause immediate financial hardship to American citizens. Yet the establishment of an Obama-style cap-and-trade system is a step in the leftward direction Candidate Obama promised his supporters; it means that, in the not-very-long run, energy prices will go much higher and the resulting “crisis” can be used to bankrupt coal producers.

So . . . were you lying then, or are you lying now?

Even the so-called Stimulus Bill was a step in the left direction.  Candidate Obama excoriated the Bush Administration for deficit spending, claiming that he and his Democratic Party allies knew best how to deal with the economy and bring down those deficits.  That was then.  Now, obviously, neither the President nor the Congressional Democrats have the least bit of interest in taming deficits.  The Federal deficit and the national debt have both soared and the so-called “Stimulus” stands revealed as a little bit of economic stimulus larded up with political payoffs, pet projects and pork-barrel spending. To excuse this excess, President Obama blames the Bush Administration for the “economic mess” which he “inherited.” Oh, really? Inherited? Mr. President, I thought you ran for the job, and recall that you promised that you knew what the real problems were and knew how to fix them.

Returning to the Obamacare bill, the President and Congress have promised that something will pass this year that looks like a health care reform bill. You can be sure that only one item really matters: the “public option.”  That is the whole point; that is the step in the left direction.

What is now motivating many citizens to show up at town hall meetings and protest has very little to do with the Republican Party or health care insurers and a lot to do with the troubling, growing lack of trust in the President. In meeting after meeting, opponents of Obamacare are questioning the good faith of the Democratic supporters of the bill and are refusing to buy the representations being made about it. The Democrats and their left-wing cohorts have responded foolishly with accusations of a Republican conspiracy, ignorance of the “facts,” and un-American intentions. This will compound, not solve, Obama’s problem.

For the record, I am not a Republican; I am not in the pay of any health care insurance company; and no one asked me to oppose the health care reform bill.  I am seriously skeptical of the good faith of the Democrats pushing this measure and I make no secret of my belief that Barack Obama is an habitual, if not pathological, liar.  The reasons for the deteriorating public confidence in Obama and the growing opposition to the Obamacare bill include this very important consideration: there is no good answer to the question, “Were you lying then, or are you lying now?”