Obama’s Promises Don’t Hold Up

A few weeks ago I wrote a column about President Barack Obama’s propensity to play fast and loose with the truth. Imagine my surprise when turning to my column and seeing the headline; “Obama is a Big Fat Liar.”

My instinctive reaction was, “Holy crap, that’s really gonna liven up next week’s letters page!” I figured either my editor strongly disagreed with me and was content to let readers give me my come-uppance or he was persuaded by my column and felt the dramatic headline was appropriate.

But now, with the “officialization” of Obamacare just last week, much of his “fast and loose with the truth” habit is coming back to haunt the president.

In June of 2008, Obama solemnly pledged that Obamacare would save the “average family” $2,500 per year on health care premiums. And “we’ll do it by the end of my first term.”

At the time, Factcheck.org called this assertion “overly optimistic, misleading and to some extent contradicted by his own advisers.” Now Medicare actuaries say Obamacare will actually cost $621 billion more per year, which, over the first 10 years, will cost a family of four more than $931 more per year.

For you readers who may simply dismiss Michelle Malkin’s columns in this publication as just more conservative anti-Obama rhetoric, please go back and read her last column “Obama Lied, My Health Plan Died.” She reminds us of Obama’s promise. “Remember? Our President looked America straight in the eye and promised: ‘If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.'” Then she goes on to list case after case where people’s plans have been terminated by Obamacare – doctor and all.

And what about the huge pink gorillas on the Obamacare lanai that never have been explained, e.g., pre-existing conditions and exemptions for his favored constituencies.

If I total my car in a Saturday night smash up on H-1, then call USAA Monday morning to buy collision insurance, that’s fraud. Hey, no worries! What the heck, I’m covered for pre-existing conditions. USAA can just charge all of its other customers a little more to make up for having to pay out on fraudulent claims like mine: i.e., higher premiums for everyone!

And wouldn’t you think if Obamacare is really the great deal he’s been acclaiming since the roll-out, he would want to ensure all of his favored constituencies get to benefit from it? Not so. With union members (of course), federal government employees, many large and small corporations and municipalities, and Congress (although Congress members not exempt by law, the president chucked his “fairness” schtick and simply decreed they can be exempt, or draw huge taxpayer funded subsidies – not available to you and me – up to $5K for an individual and $10K for a family).

Oh, well, what else is new in this administration where black is white, bad is good, up is down, defeat is victory, and terrorism is workplace violence?

Eric White’s recent letter takes me to task for boring in on our president’s lack of leadership. Eric, you are right. It was a stretch to bring in the president’s poor example in a column about a local issue.

But the dynamics of cause and effect are not limited to either Washington or Honolulu. There is a connection. Facing a nationwide media drunk on the Obama Kool-Aid, I feel compelled to provide some balance. We are in a state of crisis. In my lifetime, America has never been so dissed internationally, never before announced to our enemies the date of their victory. Our national debt has never been greater, we’ve never suffered a lower credit rating, we’ve never been so weak economically, our domestic priorities have never been so muddled, and our government has never been less accountable – starting with our president.

But, Eric, mahalo for reading MidWeek and Coffee Break.