“Not Fixed”? No Kidding
“Not Fixed”? No Kidding
Former President Bill Clinton Says Obama Knows He Has “Not Fixed” the Economy, But Democrats Have No Plan to Change Course
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Former President Clinton admitted Thursday that President Obama’s policies have “not fixed” the economy—and that President Obama knows it.
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The admission is a sign that Democrats are slowly realizing they can’t keep denying that their failed economic policies have had a crushing impact on middle class families. But it hasn’t stopped them from calling for more of the same.
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Sadly, Democrats’ failure to fix the nation’s problems doesn’t stop with the economy—on healthcare, Democrats have made things even worse, increasing healthcare costs, threatening patients’ access to quality care and cutting Medicare to pay for it all.
Former President Clinton admitted Thursday that President Obama’s policies have “not fixed” the economy—and that President Obama knows it:
BILL CLINTON: ROMNEY’S ARGUMENT “IS TRUE,” OBAMA HAS “NOT FIXED” AMERICA’S PROBLEMS AND OBAMA “KNOWS THAT”: “Governor Romney argument is, ‘we’re not fixed, so fire me, and put him in.’ It is true, we’re not fixed. When President Obama looked into the eyes of that man who said in the debate, ‘had so much hope, and I don’t now,’ I thought I was going to cry. Because he knows that it’s not fixed.” (“Bill Clinton: Romney’s Argument is True, Obama Hasn’t Fixed Country,” RCP, 10/18/2012)
NOT THE FIRST TIME: FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON SAID TWO WEEKS AGO THAT FAMILIES “WOULD LOVE IT IF REAL FAMILY MEDIAN INCOME WERE NOT WHERE IT WAS IN 1995”: “They would love it if real family median income were not where it was in 1995. They would love it, to see an America growing again with new jobs again and rising wages again. And they would love to get that tax bill because it would mean that they were moving on up and so were their kids.” (Bill Clinton, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Durham, NH, 10/3/2012)
BUT OBAMA’S ONLY PLAN IS FOUR MORE YEARS OF BORROWING AND THEN SPENDING MONEY WE DON’T HAVE:
TIME’s JOE KLEIN: “OBAMA’S GREATEST WEAKNESS IS THAT HIS PROPOSALS FOR THE FUTURE ARE NONEXISTENT”: (Joe Klein, “The Hofstra Debate: No Clear Winner,” TIME’s Swampland, 10/16/12)
THE NEW YORK TIMES’ TOM FRIEDMAN: OBAMA’S WEAKNESS IS ANSWERING “HOW WILL THE NEXT FOUR YEARS REALLY BE DIFFERENT?”: TOM FRIEDMAN: “I continue to believe Obama has a weakness when it comes to the question of will the next four years really be different? Do you have a plan that excites you and me to get out of my chair and say that’s the guy, that’s it, that’s the person I want to follow now. He has not closed that deal.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 10/17/2012)
NBC NEWS’ DAVID GREGORY: OBAMA WAS A “LITTLE LIGHT ON HIS VISION FOR THE FUTURE”: “I think liberals can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not curtains for the President. He showed up and showed up big tonight. He was more aggressive; he had a lot of fight in him. A little light on his vision for the future, Brian.” (Jonathan Sanger and M. Alex Johnson, “First Take: Obama, Romney ‘Throw Down’ On Long Island,” NBC News, 10/17/12)
The admission is a sign that Democrats are slowly realizing they can’t keep denying that their failed economic policies have had a crushing impact on middle class families. But it hasn’t stopped them from calling for more of the same:
PRICE TAG FOR FAILED STIMULUS: $833 BILLION:(Congressional Budget Office, 8/23/2012)
ECONOMIC GROWTH AT MEASLY 1.3%: (Aanalyn Censky, “GDP Report: Economic Growth Revised Lower,” CNN Money, 9/27/2012)
AP: “ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS THE WEAKEST SINCE WORLD WAR II”: (Paul Wiseman, “Economic Recovery is the Weakest Since World War II,” Associated Press, 8/15/2012)
MEDIAN INCOME WAS $55,198 WHEN OBAMA TOOK OFFICE; IT IS $50,678 TODAY: (“Household Income Down 8.2 Percent Since Obama Took Office,” Fox News, 9/26/2012)
STUDY: U.S. INCOMES FELL MORE AFTER STIMULUS THAN DURING RECESSION: (Jeff Kearn, “U.S. Incomes Fell More in Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/2012)
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 7.8%, SAME AS IT WAS WHEN OBAMA TOOK OFFICE, 10.7% IF WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION WAS THE SAME: (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 10/5/2012)
DEMOCRATS PROMISED STIMULUS WOULD BRING UNEMPLOYMENT RATE TO 5.6% BY NOW: (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09)
$5.57 TRILLION INCREASE IN NATIONAL DEBT SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” Bureau of the Public Debt, Accessed 10/18/2012)
STUDY: ANNUAL COST OF OBAMA’S DEBT AMOUNTS TO $4,000 A YEAR IN HIGHER TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS: “In a new paper, AEI’s Aspen Gorry and Matt Jensen look at the real annual cost of servicing the debt for households at various levels of income — including a potentially higher tax burden. As the table below illustrates, a household making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year could find its tax liability higher by roughly $2,400 every year. Over ten years, that works out to $24,000. And when you add in the debt already accrued the past four years under President Obama (the second table), that’s another $1,600 a year. So now we are now talking about $4,000 a year, $40,000 over ten years.” (James Pethokoukis, “Study: Obama’s Big Budget Deficits Could Mean A $4,000 A Year Middle-Class Tax Hike,” American Enterprise Institute, 10/2/12)
RISING STUDENT LOAN DEBT: “We estimate that two-thirds (66%) of college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt, with an average of $26,600 for those with loans. The five percent increase in average debt at the national level is similar to the average annual increase over the past few years.” (“Student Debt And The Class Of 2011,” The Institute For College & Success, 10/2012)
Sadly, Democrats’ failure to fix the nation’s problems doesn’t stop with the economy—on healthcare, Democrats have made things even worse, increasing healthcare costs, threatening patients’ access to quality care and cutting Medicare to pay for it all:
$716 BILLION IN CUTS TO MEDICARE TO PAY FOR OBAMACARE: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,”Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012)
RISING HEALTHCARE COSTS:
STUDY: HEALTHCARE COSTS TO RISE 6.2% IN 2012: “Employers anticipate total health care costs will reach $11,664 per active employee in 2012, up from $10,982 in 2011 — a 6.2% increase in total costs over the period.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,” 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)
RISING OUT OF POCKET COSTS: “The share of total health care expenses paid by employees, including premium and out-of-pocket costs, is expected to be 34.4% in 2012, up from 33.2% in 2011.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,”17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)
EMPLOYEES’ SHARE OF PREMIUM COSTS HAS ALREADY INCREASED 9.3% FROM 2011 TO 2012, $235 PER PERSON: “Employees’ share of premium costs increased 9.3% between 2011 and 2012, with the dollar burden rising from $2,529 to $2,764.” (“Performance in an Era of Uncertainty,” Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, March 2012)
FAMILY HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS ROSE 9% IN 2011, WITH OBAMACARE PLAYING A ROLE: (Julie Appleby, “Cost of Employer Insurance Plans Surge in 2011,” Kaiser Health News, 9/27/2011)
HEALTHCARE COSTS TO RISE 7.4% AS OBAMACARE TAKES FULL EFFECT: (Sean P. Keehan, Gigi A Kuckler, et al, “National Health Expenditure Projections: Modest Annual Growth Until Coverage Expands and Economic Growth Accelerates,” Health Affairs, July 2012)
OBAMACARE TO INCREASE HEALTHCARE COSTS BY $478 BILLION THROUGH 2021: ”For 2011 through 2021, national health spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 5.7 percent annually, which would be 0.9 percentage point faster than the expected annual increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) during this period. During this period, the Affordable Care Act is projected… to add about $478 billion in cumulative health spending.” (Sean P. Keehan, Gigi A Kuckler, et al, “National Health Expenditure Projections: Modest Annual Growth Until Coverage Expands and Economic Growth Accelerates,” Health Affairs, July 2012)
LESS ACCESS TO CARE FOR PATIENTS:
“OBAMACARE’S $716 BILLION IN CUTS WILL DRIVE DOCTORS OUT OF MEDICARE: (Avik Roy, “How ObamaCare’s $716 Billion in Cuts Will Drive Doctors Out of Medicare,” Forbes, 8/20/2012)
DOCTORS HAVE ALREADY HAD TO STOP TAKING MEDICARE PATIENTS: “ ‘I love taking care of Medicare patients,’ Wertsch told the Capital Times, a progressive paper in Madison. ‘But every time we treat them we have to dig into our wallets. What kind of business model is that?’ Today, Medicare patients represent one-quarter of Wildwood’s practice overall, and as much as 70 percent for some of the clinic’s veterans, like Wertsch. In 2011, Wildwood decided to stop accepting new patients from the Medicare program.” (Avik Roy, “How ObamaCare’s $716 Billion in Cuts Will Drive Doctors Out of Medicare,” Forbes, 8/20/2012)
DOCTOR AND PATIENT GROUPS: IPAB’S CUTS “WOULD LEAD TO A REDUCTION IN ACCESS TO CARE”: “The Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under the health care law to help control Medicare costs, lacks flexibility to do much more than cut provider payments that would lead to a reduction in access to care, witnesses told a House Ways and Means panel March 6.” (Ralph Lindeman, “IPAB Would Reduce Access to Care, Witnesses Tell Ways and Means Panel,” Bloomberg, 3/7/2012)
12,000 DOCTORS OF AMERICAN PODIATRIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: IPAB WILL “SEVERELY LIMIT MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES’ ACCESS TO CARE” AND “INCREASE HEALTH-CARE COSTS”: “[Our] members believe that the ill-conceived Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) contained in the Affordable Care Act will not only severely limit Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care but also increase health-care costs that are shifted onto the private sector.” (Michael J. King, American Podiatric Medical Association,” Letter to House Energy & Commerce Committee, 2/28/2012)
“Not Fixed”? No Kidding http://ow.ly/eAM5f