Facts Can Be A Tricky Thing
May 13, 2015 Obamacare
And they can, of course, be spun to mean whatever result is wanted.
In a recent piece in The Hill Marko (Kos) Moulitsas paints a picture of a wonderful world under Obamacare and how Republicans were so wrong about the outcome that it is funny. He points to a number of quotes from the past and then tells his readers that the person who made them is wrong. He does not say exactly why they are wrong so the impression is that what was claimed did not happen. He does not back his claims up, he only says the original claim is wrong.
He discusses John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh and their claim that Obamacare would destroy over 2 million jobs. Jobs numbers are difficult to pin down because the BLS uses many metrics and the government spins those in a number of different ways in order to paint the picture it wants. The population was 3 million more in March 2015 than in March 2010 (I selected March to give a 5 year timeframe from when the law was passed).
The number of jobs gained or lost is always tricky but the reality is while there are more being created now they are not offsetting the numbers lost in any meaningful way. The reports are nearly always lower than expected and in a few weeks get readjusted down.
But looking at the labor participation rate the rate in 2010 was 65% and in 2015 63%. This means there are 4.2 million fewer people participating in the labor force than there were when the law was passed. 58.06 MILLION people have stopped looking and are no longer counted. Certainly if there would be so many jobs the numbers of people participating would go up, not down. Once again though, labor numbers are tricky things.
It is also true that there are no accurate ways to measure how many people decided not to open a business or expand one because of Obamacare. There are anecdotal stories but no real data that I can find.
While there is merit to Kos’s claim that Sen. Tom Coburn was way off when he predicted there would be no insurance industry left in three years it is also true that insurance companies are taking big hits and if it were not for government taxpayer dollars being sent to cover losses the insurance industry might well be a shell of what it once was. It is pretty easy to go along when big government tells you it will cover your losses.
It is also true that many insurance companies have had to raise rates because the participation is not what was expected. The cost to consumers is going up even though Obamacare was supposed to stop that.
Kos went after Glenn Beck for his 2009 claim that this would be the end of prosperity in America and the end of America as we know it. Well the reality is the rise of Obama to power was the end of America as we knew it. That aside, Kos claims, as evidence that Beck is wrong, he (Kos) can still buy an apple pie from a cashier wearing a flag pin. This is not an accurate indication of the state of the nation. I can buy an apple pie from a guy wearing a turban who reads the Koran but that does not mean the nation is now a Muslim nation. There are many stores where Kos can no longer buy a pie because they have shut down.
And when he buys that pie it costs a lot more than it did 5 years ago.
Then Kos goes on to discuss Rand Paul’s 2013 assertion that Obamacare will lead to bankruptcy in states that fully embrace it. He made the claim in 2013 so time will tell but Kos decided that the only states in trouble are those that did not embrace Obamacare and its expansions. He cites Florida and Gov. Rick Scott. Kos claims Scott is begging DC to close his billion dollar budget hole that Kos claims was brought about by refusal to expand Medicaid.
The deficit is in place because the federal government, in an effort to coerce states (in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling) to expand Medicaid, has cut an existing program. The federal government decided to end or cut back the money spent on the Low Income Pool. This is a federal program that has been in place for some time and is different than the Medicaid program. Folks in LIP are not necessarily in Medicaid (and might not even qualify). That program was to continue but the federal government decided to end or scale it back to force states like Florida to expand Medicaid. Scott is not begging for money to close a budget gap he caused. He is asking the feds not to end the program they started and they funded. He claims, rightly so, that there has been no reduction in the taxes Florida pays to the feds but they are taking away the program those taxes paid for and they are doing it just to force compliance.
Once again, Kos misses the mark.
[note]If Kos is concerned about those who were wrong why not go after those who were wrong about keeping doctors, keeping insurance and saving $2500 a year? Maybe because those lies are OK with him so long as they support the progressive agenda.[/note]
Millions of people lost coverage because of Obamacare an then when they were forced to sign up under the law they were touted as people helped by it. They were harmed and forced to join.
As for how wonderful Obamacare is and how those states that adopted it are doing great, how about Hawaii? It is a liberal haven and it went all in on Obamacare. It had over 205 MILLION dollars in federal funding to set up the exchange but it became financially unviable and after the state refused to spend 28 MILLION to bail it out, it will close. Everything will be shifted to the federal exchange and people will likely have to sign up all over again.
The reality is Hawaii went all in and failed. There are several other states that have had problems with the exchanges and many issues deal with the fact that not enough people are signing up for insurance. The government is once again wasting billions of dollars on a failed program.
Markos Moulitsas is a far left wing hack who suckles at the teat of liberalism. His article was a puff piece to shower his liberal friends with fairy dust while he gets in his obligatory shots at Republicans with whom he disagrees.
I know Kos thinks Obamacare is great but if it is so wonderful why did they have to force people to get it? No one has to force people to buy an iPhone because it is a great product. The same would be true if Obamacare was so wonderful.
If it is so great why were there so many waivers granted?
It is not fully implemented and already it is costing a fortune. It is not covering everybody (a claim once made but backed off on) and it is stifling the economy.
It is not the only thing but it is one of them. Nearly every Obama policy stifles growth and Obamacare is no different.
Numbers on employment and particpation rates came from various parts of the BLS website.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: distortions, kos, markos moulitsas, obamacare, the hill
Another Obama Contradiction
Jul 1, 2010 Political
Back when Obama was running around giving hope and change speeches he said many things and now that he is in office he has discovered it is easy to say something but very hard to actually do it. If the solutions were as easy as he made them sound then anyone could have done them. Obama discovered this with regard to Gitmo. He signed a document the day after he took office saying it would close in one year. It is still open nearly 18 months later and it is all but forgotten. The same MSM (and other liberal groups) that bashed Bush about it nearly everyday and who hailed Obama as the next messiah when he signed his little document are pretty silent about this huge failure.
When Barack Obama was a wet behind the ears Senator (as opposed to a wet behind the ears Resident) he lambasted McCain saying we did not need a commission to study the economy. Barack, we were assured, knew the problem and would fix it:
“Folks, we don’t need a commission to spend a few years and a lot of taxpayer money to tell us what’s going on in our economy,” he continued. “We don’t need a commission to tell us gas prices are high or that you can’t pay your bills. We don’t need a commission to tell us you’re losing your jobs. We don’t need a commission to study this crisis, we need a President who will solve it – and that’s the kind of President I intend to be.” CBS
We do not need a commission, we need a president who will solve the problem. So now that Barack OweBama has stifled the economy, quadrupled the debt, and failed to produce jobs what does he do? He appoints a commission to solve the problem:
President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is meeting today as part of its efforts to craft recommendations by December on how best to address America’s red-ink problem.
Mr. Obama established the commission in February, saying debt and deficits can “hobble our economy” and “saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden.” [Same article]
What happened to “we don’t need a commission?” What happened to we need a president to solve the problem?
I bet John McCain is laughing about this.
The article tries to provide cover for Obama by indicating that he tried to get the Senate to pass legislation establishing a panel that would force up or down votes on deficit reduction measures [cited article]. Poor Barry tried but was forced to appoint a commission because he could not get legislation.
Let me translate:
Barack Obama tried to get legislation passed that would have bypassed Congressional procedures and allowed up or down votes thereby passing the checks and balances (legislation he could have bent to allow up or down votes on anything) and when he could not get this liberty killing legislation he was forced to appoint a commission.
Does it matter? We did not need the legislation and we do not need a commission.
According to Owebama, we need a president who can solve the problem.
First we need a real president (God already gave us a Messiah, we need a president).
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: commission, distortions, economy, lies, Obama
Silence The Opponents Now Reaches America
Mar 27, 2010 Political
The latest uproar over threats made to lawmakers is overshadowing the reality that most of the communication involved people who only cussed out lawmakers. The people who made the threats should be found and dealt with appropriately. We should also realize that whether they represent the left or the right (a distinction that has not been determined) they represent a small fraction of either side.
But a bigger thing is taking place. The left is using the recent comments as a method to shut down opposition and to marginalize those with legitimate concerns and complaints over the health care takeover that was signed into law.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times gets a laugh out of this and says that one can look but not find calls for violence from Democrat politicians. I have yet to see calls for violence from Republican politicians but Krugman has found them. He cites Sarah Palin’s map with rifle sights on targeted elections as proof of a call for violence. Her use of the word “reload” has also caused a stir among the left. How often have Democrats called political races “targeted”? Should we take that as a call for violence?
Krugman seems to have a short memory for it was Barack Obama who said that he was the only thing standing between AIG employees and pitchforks. It was the Democrat wing at ACORN who arranged bus trips to the homes of these people in order to harass them. It was Obama who said that if they bring a knife he will bring a gun and it was Obama who told his followers to get in their faces…
This is the Alinsky crowd working to isolate the opposition and keep it on the defense.
Pretty soon we will have to worry about an America that resembles Venezuela:
The owner of Venezuela’s only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo Chavez was arrested Thursday, raising concerns the government is carrying out a widening crackdown aimed at silencing opponents. Yahoo News
How long before this takes place? How long before the opposition is silenced? They are working on it now.
The call for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated is but one method being considered to silence the opposition.
But it will not work.
Never surrender, never submit.
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Health Care Sob Stories More Common Than Actual Events
Mar 8, 2010 Political
Barack Obama says he reads letters that are sent to him and it is true that he has used some of them for political advantage. He walked into a meeting this past week and read a letter from some person regarding the increase in insurance premiums. He has used these kinds of letters to garner support for his health care takeover.
One thing we will never know is how many letters he gets telling him that the writer is happy with his health care. I bet Obama gets more letters of this nature than the ones where some poor schmo was wronged by an insurance company. Those letters always see the light of day. The other kind never will.
Interestingly, we are supposed to think about how bad our system is when Obama and his Democrats read these kinds of letters (the summit had letter after letter) but we are supposed to dismiss as unusual any story that shows the horrors of government run health care. Medicare denies services at a greater rate than the private companies, ignore it, not important. People dying in the UK under the health care system, ignore it because these examples are little stories and do not mean anything. Canadian politicians coming to the US for health care that is the best available, forget it, not worth mentioning.
Some old lady has to use her dead sister’s teeth, read the letter and make it the norm.
American Thinker has a great article describing the politics of the sad sack letter.
Doug Ross highlights the wonderful medical care in the UK and Canada where people lie in filth and are left to die and politicians come to America for the best care available, respectively.
The sob stories only seem common because that is all we hear. The same people who tell us how wonderful socialized medicine is and that these stories are rare expect us to believe that the letters read by politicians are representative of the system of health care as a whole.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Continually saying our health care is bad does not make the statement more true any more than continually continually saying attacks by Democrats were done by right wingers makes that claim true.
As an aside, Obama says not to worry because his plan will save us money. Of course this is absolutely untrue. Once again, saying something is so does not make it so. But, even if it did save money any potential savings would be offset by the 9.7 TRILLION DOLLARS Obama will add to the debt in the next decade. Even if his health care saved money (it does not), it will not be anywhere near 9.7 TRILLION DOLLARS.
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Tags: distortions, health care, lies, Obama, pentagon shooter, sob stories
Obama Scoffed When McCain Said It
Mar 15, 2009 Political
Back during the campaign John McCain talked about taxing health care benefits provided by employers. I am not in favor of taxing benefits such as health care that employers provide and think it is counter productive. Taxing it would make employers less inclined to provide it. The left was not impressed with it either and Obama scoffed at the idea and called it a large increase on the middle class. Obama failed to mention that McCain intended to offset the tax with a tax credit for their health care.
The International Herald Tribune is reporting this regarding Obama’s position at the time:
In television advertisements last fall, Mr. Obama criticized his Republican rival for the presidency, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for proposing to tax all employer-provided health benefits. The benefits have long been tax-free, regardless of how generous they are or how much an employee earns. The advertisements did not point out that Mr. McCain, in exchange, wanted to give all families a tax credit to subsidize the purchase of coverage.
The article goes on to state that Obama might regret his position if he were to win and now it appears that their concern had merit. Barack Obama is open to taxing the health care benefits that employers provide as a way to obtain money to pay for those who do not have health care. Once again, this rookie is working to require those of us who pay our bills to pay the bills of others. We have to pay for their houses so why not their health care?
Obama, at the time of the campaign, called McCain’s proposal the the largest tax increase on the middle class in history but now it looks as if he is open to imposing the largest tax increase on the middle class in history. Once again we see that Obama is not doing what he promised. He is now aligning himself with the policy of a rival, a policy he clearly denounced.
Will the media pick this up and run with it? Will they denounce this and scream about how unfair it is? Will they attack Obama like they went after McCain?
Of course not and his toadies, some of whom comment here, will excuse this and say it is for the good of the nation. They will not look at it as a flip-flop, or worse a lie, but will instead discuss how much this guy cares for people.
I think Obama had these kinds of plans in mind when he was debating McCain. Obama wants to have all health care provided by the government and the way to do that is to destroy the private sector and force employers to abandon health care benefits for employees. If he intended to do this all along then he was lying back then.
One thing is certain, he described it as the largest tax increase on the middle class which means he is not being truthful when he says he will cut taxes for 95% of the people.
This is just another example of spreading the wealth. It is also another example of Obama not being able to do what he said or to stand up for what he said were his beliefs. He is a typical politician and this is not change we can believe in.
They are painting Republicans as the party of NO but it looks like Obama is the leader with NO (scruples, truth, or convictions).
I hope those of you who voted for this guy are learning something though I seriously doubt that you can teach them much. The Kool Aid is very strong.
Also:
NYT
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Tags: benefits, campaign, distortions, health care, lies, McCain, Obama, taxes