For those following from yesterday, I mentioned that the Obama administration estimated that the Stimulus bill has encouraged around $280 billion in private investment. Their numbers are based upon the same flawed Keynesian model that their job numbers come from. The Federal Reserve has calculated that there is approximately $2 trillion in capital sitting on the sidelines right now. The reason it is not being used to move the economy…Obama’s economic polices.
But enough economics, the administration will also try to push their healthcare legislation that they are extremely proud of despite polls showing that more than half the people do not want it. There are too many problems with Obamacare to go over here, but I will list a few of the arguments Obama will (or has) used to defend it and why they are not true.
The first big topic is always cost. Obama says that this legislation will cut healthcare costs and was deficit neutral. This is obviously not true. Let’s give a few examples. First, the legislation was passed before a full cost analysis could be performed. Case in point, a week after the bill was passed the CBO released that the legislation will cost $115 billion more than stated by the administration…just in administrative costs that were not accounted for. There is also the increase in Medicare payments to doctors that was not included in the bill. They tried to pass this spending separately but did not accomplish it before the bill passed. After the legislation passed Obama made a televised plea to Congress to not cut these payments. There was also a Bernie Madoff style ponzi scheme called the Class Act that was included in Obamacare. You can read about it here. But more important than these short term gimmicks are the long term effects on our economy. Obama will say that this ‘reform’ legislation bends the cost curve for health care. This is also not true. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report (again after it passed) that this legislation will increase national health care spending by $311 billion over the next decade. This report also contradicts other claims by the Obama administration. In addition to the CMS, the CBO also reported that the legislation was unlikely to solve the healthcare spending problem. Considering all the budgeting gimmicks and these two reports, you cannot call Obamacare a reform bill with a straight face.
A second point that Obama will not bring up was his promise that Obamacare would not fund abortions. A few months in and the legislation has funded high risk insurance pools in New Mexico and Pennsylvania that include abortion services. There is no real argument there.
He may stay away from abortion, but what Obama will say is that it helps small business. Yet another fallacy. So says the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s largest small-business advocacy group. According to the Heritage Foundation the NFIB’s bottom line on the small business provisions in Obamacare was this, “qualifying for the small-business tax credit isn’t easy. If you do qualify, you’ll have to limit hiring and employee compensation to keep it. And, even then, the credit is only a temporary help. After six years, the business and its workers have to pick up the whole tab.” This hiring problem is not limited to just small business either. White Castle reported that the legislation “makes it difficult to justify growing where jobs are needed most-in lower income areas.” So not only does it not help employers give coverage to employees, it could prevent them from hiring them in the first place. That is not an accomplishment to brag about.
I could go on and on (effects on the states…keeping your coverage…etc), but the bottom line is this. Countries such as Great Britain are currently trying to decentralize their health care system because they are having to ration care and still cannot contain costs. Someone will have to try to explain to me then why in the world we are trying to do the opposite. I am sure that is not a question Obama will get on the view. Maybe he will grant me an interview…yeah…probably not. Once again hope this helps you counter Obama’s points to your liberal friends. Please send them my way if you wish. I am always here for a little pleasant debate.
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Excellent points as always. I share many of your posts on my FB page. Am going to try to make myself watch the Big O on The View tomorrow….if I can stand it. Had it on for all of 5 minutes today and had to turn it off. Joy Behar is the worst.
Thanks Lori…you can do what I do and try to find a transcript to look over later…helps with the blood pressure