It is in the little lies that President Obama tells that say an awful lot about his character. I have never found Obama to be a very trustworthy individual, which is clearly not the type of relationship a citizen should have with their president. But I am not alone in my concern with our integrity-challenged president. From Obamacare, the economy, Benghazi, the auto bailout, and countless other areas, people have a hard time trusting Obama. Or worse, they simply dismiss his misinformation because he is ‘their guy.’ Far too many Americans have grown accustomed to their representatives, either elected or appointed, lying to them. It isn’t a matter of wanting to accept their dishonesty; it is just that it happens so often we dismiss it as the natural existence of our American political culture. That truly is a sad state of affairs.
Obama’s lies aren’t any different than most politicians’ dishonesty, and they often come in the same form: the lie of omission, the lie to pander, the lie of exaggeration, the lie to deflect blame. It is not that Obama is the master of lying, there have been far better than him. Some were so good we still don’t know they lied to us. But the fact that Obama is hardly ever challenged by the mainstream media when he misstates the facts has only served to embolden him.
This past week, Obama took to the road to try and sell America on Obamacare, again. As he does all too often, he exaggerated the “positive” impact that Obamacare was having, and would have once fully implemented. He also tried to twist the facts to fit his understanding of reality. He dismissed major issues such as the delaying of the employee mandate, or the bipartisan calls to repeal a major funding component with the medical device excise tax, or the fact that upwards of 20 million to 35 million people are expected to lose their health care (http://onforb.es/16OFzXd) as just “glitches.” I do not think that the people who will lose their healthcare plan because of Obamacare look at it as a “glitch,” especially considering that Obama promised that “if you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it.”
Of course he resorted to his usually childish mocking when he mentioned the fact that Republicans passed a bill to delay the implementation of the individual mandate, failing to mention that only 12 percent of Americans want the individual mandate enacted. He joked that Republicans have tried to repeal Obamacare so many times, he’s lost count. Not surprising considering he forgot to mention that 22 Congressional Democrats sided with the Republicans to delay the individual mandate. But this is the same man who thought America had 57 states. Clearly, counting isn’t one of his strongest points.
Touting that Obamacare ‘was doing what it’s designed to do,’ he went on to try and take credit for things that have very little to do with any perception of success with Obamacare:
Obama claimed that Obamacare was serving as a check on rising costs. Note the phrasing, because at no time did he say it was actually reducing costs. Why? Because it won’t. According to the non-partisan Medicare actuary (http://bit.ly/12SE6fW) Obamacare is expected to increase national healthcare spending by no less than hundreds of billions of dollars, or triple the current rate. In fact, the governmental price tag for Obamacare has increased from its original projected cost over ten years of $900 billion to $2.7 trillion, with no end in sight.
During the same speech Obama stated that those buying health insurance would see more choices and lower premiums due to Obamacare. But this has been disputed time and again by numerous think tanks such as the CATO Institute, Manhattan Institute, Heritage, and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has been very clear on this when it reported to Congress that it concluded (http://1.usa.gov/1axwYMk) that individuals would be forced to purchase more expensive insurance and will have fewer choices.
But Obama also promised on at least 20 occasions (including in New Hampshire) that he would lower family health care premiums by $2,500. Once again, a blatant falsehood that was disputed from the beginning by the Kaiser Family Foundation when they stated that “there’s no question premiums are still going to keep going up … it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today.” In California, Obamacare is expected to increase individual health insurance premiums by 64-146 percent (http://onforb.es/114vk27), and Hoosiers are expected to see their insurance premiums increase by 78 percent (http://indy.st/1bwbhiW). Lastly, is Obamacare doing what it’s designed to do when 74 percent of small businesses (http://bit.ly/12BCDMp) say they will need to lay off workers and reduce hours because of the provisions within Obamacare?
The fact is that every time a president lies, spins the details, omits the truth, and misrepresents the facts to us, regardless of the lie, he helps to eat away at the faith that Americans must have that their president is honest, sincere, and straightforward.
