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The Daily Caller did a great job uncovering more of the information surrounding the writing and passage of Obamacare. Going back to 2009, the chief architect of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, made two very specific points about the bill: 1) it is unaffordable because there are no cost controls; 2) in order to control costs, treatment would have to be denied.
Below are highlights from the 2009 policy brief:
* “The problem is it starts to go hand in hand with the mandate; you can’t mandate insurance that’s not affordable. This is going to be a major issue.”
* “So what’s different this time? Why are we closer than we’ve ever been before? Because there are no cost controls in these proposals. Because this bill’s about coverage. Which is good! Why should we hold 48 million uninsured people hostage to the fact that we don’t yet know how to control costs in a politically acceptable way? Let’s get the people covered and then let’s do cost control.”
* “The real substance of cost control is all about a single thing: telling patients they can’t have something they want. It’s about telling patients, ‘That surgery doesn’t do any good, so if you want it you have to pay the full cost.’”
* “There’s no reason the American health care system can’t be, ‘You can have whatever you want, you just have to pay for it.’ That’s what we do in other walks of life. We don’t say everyone has to have a large screen TV. If you want a large screen TV, you have to pay for it. Basically the notion would be to move to a level where everyone has a solid basic insurance level of coverage. Above that people pay on their own, without tax-subsidized dollars, to buy a higher level of coverage.”
However, what the American public was told by Obama is that Obamacare would lower the cost of insurance by $2500. Now we know, even more than ever, that we were told whatever was necessary in order to make the bill palatable enough to eke out passage in Congress despite protestations from much of around the country.
You can read the entire policy brief here.
For more on Jonathan Gruber and Obamacare, go here
How “Obamacare Was Sold on a Pack of Lies”, go here
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, TAXES
The White House released its latest regulatory agenda for the fall. This current amount contains 3,415 items for consideration. Did you miss the list? Most people did; the White House released the massive agenda on the eve of Thanksgiving. The Daily Caller notes that this latest document dump marked “the fifth time the Obama administration has released its regulatory road map on the eve of a major holiday”. It follows the footsteps of last spring’s agenda, when it was released right before Memorial Day.
The 3,415 regulations “includes 189 rules that cost more than $100 million.” These include several controversial EPA rules and regs, such as the redefinition of the “Waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. Likewise, several educational proposals, which seem to expand federal reach into education, have raised eyebrows.
Center for Progressive Reform Executive Director Matt Shudtz remarked that “it’s a shame that the Obama administration goes about intentionally releasing such important agendas in stealth at times when Americans are the most distracted, especially when its wide range of rules and regulations touch virtually every American both here and abroad.”
To view the entire list, called the “Unified Agenda for Fall 2014” go here.
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In case anyone wasn’t sure about the White House denials regarding its ties to Jonathan Gruber, here we have video of Obama heaping praise upon him:
“You have already drawn some of the brightest minds from academia and policy circles, many of them I have stolen ideas from liberally, people ranging from Robert Gordon to Austan Goolsbee; Jon Gruber; my dear friend, Jim Wallis here, who can inform what are sometimes dry policy debates with a prophetic voice.”
This seems to directly contrast Obama’s statement to Ed Henry yesterday, where he “just learned” about Jonathan Gruber (probably from the TV), like every other major story. President Obama said, “I just heard about this. I get well briefed before I come out here. The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed an opinion that I’ve completely disagreed with in terms of the voters, is no reflection on the actual process that was run. We had a year-long debate, Ed, I mean, go back and look at your stories. The one thing we can’t say is that we did not have a lengthy debate about health care in the United States of America. or that it was not adequately covered. I think it is fair to say that there was not a provision in the health care laws that was not extensively debated and was fully transparent.”
Gruber was also not merely “some advisor who never worked on our staff”. We know now there was a cozy relationship with Gruber. Gruber “visited the White House more than a dozen times, according to official visitor logs. One of those meetings took place in the Oval Office with Obama. Additionally, according to contracts issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Gruber was paid $400,000 for his work on the president’s signature health care law.”
Additionally, Gruber was paid large sums of taxpayer money, totaling nearly $4 million of the last several years — half of it directly related to Obamacare work. Though he wasn’t paid directly by the White House (probably how Obama technically justified the “staff” comment to himself), he was paid by Health and Human Services as well as 8 states so far to work on Obamacare and, prior to, by HHS for other consulting work
Though Obama continues to try to distance himself from Gruber and his remarks, the ties just keep surfacing.
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While stumping for Democrat candidates in Oregon, the Vice President shared his thoughts on the current economy with voters. And he got it very wrong.
“Economic growth has replaced the income that was lost during the recession, but the gains went primarily to taxpayers on the top. I think we should make them start to pay their fair share. Take the burden off the middle class”
Economic growth has not happened. Since Obama began his presidency:
The national debt has skyrocketed from $10.6 trillion to $17.8 trillion
Homeownership has decreased from 67.5% to less than 65%
Labor participation has fallen from about 66% to 63%.
Food stamp use has increased from 32 million to 46 million participants
Lost income has not been replaced: Since Obama began his presidency:
Median incomes have decreased from about $54,000 to $51,500.
The number of Americans who consider themselves middle class has dropped nearly 20%
Gains did not primarily go to taxpayers on top:
“The top 20 percent of earners accounted for 51 percent of all income in 2013, unchanged from 2012 and up slightly from 49.4 percent in 1999″.
Of course, Biden used his (wrong) economic talking points to pull out the old class-warfare playbook and insist that the rich “pay their fair share”.
Finally, if Biden is concerned about taking the burden off the middle class, he needs to start with the government. As I said earlier this week, the middle class has been the most devastated by Obama’s policies. Job growth and small business sustainability have been decimated by government regulation, taxation, fines, and lawsuits meddling in normal business practices. The middle class can’t get good jobs anymore, businesses have failed, growth is tepid, and everyday Americans are rightfully discouraged.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, POLITICS, TAXES
Suddenly, Obama is everywhere talking about economic policies again. He is the mastermind behind the growth in corporate profits. He is the reason for the current stock market highs. He has single-handedly reduced unemployment to its lowest rate since 2008. He is Obama!
And yet, the middle class is repeatedly telling Obama that they feel left behind.
Why such disparity? The Administration can try to attribute these recent “successes” to Obama, but it only shows that they have a laughable cluelessness about what is really happening as a result of his economic policies.
Major corporations are doing well because they have enough size and stability to weather the storm created by Obama’s terrible business policies. This has included minimizing employment and trying to be as lean and efficient as possible. Mom-and-pops, on the other hand, have not the luxury to be as resilient.
The stock market is high only because major corporations have continued to persevere by changing the way they do business. Because of the government policies — including over-regulation and excessive taxation — companies have been forced to operate on the skinny just to survive. By doing so, profits are able to be maintained and the stock market reactive to that.
As a result of efficiency, therefore, unemployment is at its lowest percentage because there are no jobs to be attained anymore and people are just simply leaving the workforce altogether. Obama refuses to acknowledge the fact that labor participation is at its lowest rate since 1962. That is the major contributing factor to his “low” unemployment number — not because of job creation as he claims. Americans have stopped looking for work.
Thus, the middle class has the correct assessment because they have been the most devastated by Obama’s policies. Job growth and small business sustainability have been decimated by government regulation, taxation, fines, and lawsuits meddling in normal business practices. The middle class can’t get good jobs anymore, businesses have failed, growth is tepid, and everyday Americans are rightfully discouraged.
Related: “AP’s ‘Fact Check’ of Obama’s ‘Stronger Economy’ Claims Limited to ‘A Few’ Items: Two”
Lou Dobbs Refutes Obama’s Claim that the Economy Has Improved by Every Economic Measure
Are You Better Off Today? Here are the True Facts & Figures From the Obama Economy
