Thursday, July 23, 2009

Barack Obama is a Flat Out Liar: Says Medicare and Medicaid are Causing the Deficit

by Scott Creighton

This evening, President Obama gave yet another one of his infomercial speeches.  This time it was in favor of his healthcare reform measures that have been rightly condemned in the House and the Senate by a few.

Apparently his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, can't twist enough arms to get the measure written exactly the way the secretive White House visitors from Big Pharma and the insurance industry want, so now the president of the most power country in the world has to take the stage and flat out lie to the people of this nation in order to sell the new "Insurance Company Bailout Plan".

What was the lie?  President Obama, the president of "CHANGE" and the so-called "Greatest Man of Our Generation",  said that Medicaid and Medicare are the cause of the federal deficit.

That's right; he's blaming the deficit... on the elderly and the poor.
He (Obama) said Medicare and Medicaid, government health care programs for the elderly and the poor, are the "biggest driving force behind our federal deficit.MSNBC

His exact quote was…
The biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid,” he said. “So let me be clear: If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit.”  WSWS

Is he joking?  I’m afraid not. Let’s examine his claim…



Put aside the fact that this phony liberal president is pushing for mandatory healthcare coverage (meaning when this passes, you will be mandated BY LAW to buy an insurance policy from the same big-time insurance companies that are already robbing this nation blind...) and hinting at tax increases for even the middle class in this latest speech of his.
For the first time ever, every American would be required to carry health insurance. MSNBC

It was not immediately clear whether the president was signaling he would accept at least some higher taxes on middle-class families as the price for winning passageMSNBC

While that stuff is bad enough, what is absolutely WORSE is the way in which he is subtly trying to justify his evisceration of critical social programs (to hand over more money to the likes of AIG and Blue Cross) by demonizing the programs themselves - and by extension, the people that desperately need them.

What he is saying is a ridiculous lie.  An obvious lie for that matter.

How can any president stand up and make a comment like that, and not get booed right off the stage?  Or laughed off?

How about some facts?

According to the Department of Health and Human Services website:
"The report projects that Medicaid benefits spending will increase 7.3 percent from 2007 to 2008, reaching $339 billion..."

You can verify this number on page iii of the Executive Summary of the 2008 Actuarial Report put out by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Now, though I am no economist, let me try to see if I can offer another possible cause of the rising deficit problem... without working TOO hard, and thus confusing myself and you, the reader.
Half a trillion dollars and you don’t know who got the money?

"Asked which European financial institutions received the money, which was handed out by The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a component of the Federal Reserve System, Bernanke responded, “I don’t know.”  Sodahead

So, one possible solution for part of the deficit problem that President Obama blamed on the poor and the old, could possibly be the Federal Reserve Bank handing over 500 billion dollars to foriegn banks whom he apparently won't disclose the names of.

Another possibility might be the 23 trillion dollar price tag that the bailout plans are expected to cost...
"A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government’s watchdog over the effort says – a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation’s entire economic output for a year."  Politico

23 trillion dollars? I think that might have a little more to do with the deficit than Medicaid's paltry 339 billion, right?

Now you say, "Well that's not fair Scott. That's just Medicaid... what about Medicare?"

Well, as best as I can figure it, along with the likes of Henry Paulson, Elaine Chao, and Leslie Norwalk, Medicare, though "projected" (by the very people who were doing their best to privatize Medicare and Medicaid) to be in trouble in 10 years. That projection made in the 2007 Medicare Trust Fund Report.  So in 2008 - 2009, according to their projections, it wouldn't be adding to the deficit at all.
"In 2006, 43.2 million people were covered by Medicare: 36.3 million aged 65 and older, and 7.0 million disabled. Total benefits paid in 2006 were $402 billion. Income was $437 billion, expenditures were $408 billion, and assets held in special issue U.S. Treasury securities grew to $339 billion.Report

In fact according to the report, the securities in the Medicare trust fund actually GREW in 2006 and according to their predictions at that time, the assets would still be quite sufficient in 2008 - 2009 to cover the costs of Medicare.  So Medicare wouldn't be adding to the deficit at all.

Unlike, say, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which to date, have cost this nation roughly $890 billion dollars, according to Cost Of War.  According to the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, $139 billion is slated for this year alone which will push us up to the trillion dollar mark probably by years end.

And that is to say nothing of the $514 billion dollar defense budget that was just released (a $36 billion dollar increase from last year).

And lets not forget the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy, which were projected to deprive the federal government over a trillion dollars more, from about 2004 - 2010.

All told, there are many reasons for the sky-rocketing deficit problem; the biggest one of course being the bailout plans and the stimulus package that, so far, has just served as a corporate bailout plan (and massive corporate tax-giveaway scheme).

Ultimately the final proof actually lies with the Clinton administration. They too were saddled with Medicare and Medicaid, but somehow or another, they were able to operate the federal government at a surplus.  So it isn't Medicare and Medicaid causing the deficit.

And if someone as uninformed as I am can figure that out, surely President Obama and his "wonderful" staff of neoliberal "free-market" zealots can too.

Which means, he's lying. Through his teeth.

5 comments:

  1. Of course he's lying. He's a slick con man. However, the people who fell for his snake oil before the election (and after) really weren't listening to his words closely enough.

    He let little gems slip about what he intended to do once in office in speeches, press conferences and town hall meetings prior to his selection. Coto picked up on this. The average American instead fell for the glitz and glitter of his sparkly campaign.

    I believe it was shortly after he was selected that he let his true feelings be know about this issue. He said , when speaking of the tremendous budget, that nothing was off the table including entitlements. I saw him say that live. Right away I knew, uhoh, there goes medicare & medicaid.

    And here he is actually doing it. Along with the fact that he's not closing gitmo, continuing rendition and torture, more war, more wiretapping, more tyranny and so on and so forth... I am not the least bit surprised. He is exactly what coto thought he would be... More of the same but worse.

    Of course, there is ALWAYS more money to throw at the banksters.. Ahh Amerika.. sweet land of fascism.

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  2. Unfortunately, most everyone here at Coto saw all this coming down the pike before the election. But then what do we do with all our "liberal" friends (including most members of my family) who bought his bs hook, line, and sinker? And who still believe he's some sorta savior like MLK or JC or even Ghandi. He's nothing but a dark horse, or should I say trojan horse, or even worse... the manchurian candidate. It was my comment about his dark soul that got me kicked off OEN. The problem is - how do we "enlighten" the masses? Esp the drone "liberals" (upper middle class, mostly) who want to believe in fantasy rather than face reality. These people are clueless. Most of my family won't even talk to me any more. They think I'm nuts. And I think they're insane.

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  3. It's out insatisable greed for other people's resources, backed by our mighty military, that is causing the huge deficits. stop spending over a trillion a year on war, weapons and overseas bases; START rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and emphasize green energy (thus creating many long-lasting jobs), rebuild our own manufacturing base, and the deficits would quickly drop and the economy recover. NOT doing )or even contemplating) any of these logical things shows me that that the real plan must be to utterly bankrupt this country and let the banksters and foreign interests holding our debt to buy up what's left of this country in a fire sale; leaving us as serfs to a one world dictatorship. It's as plain as the nose on the face of Pinnocio while he's lying.

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  4. Actually, more than 2 trillion a year on war, waepons and overseas bases. Sorry for the disinfo

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  5. Unfortunately, being direct with a President whose popularity is more than double the prior administration (before it left office), is hazardous.

    Maybe you'se guys think you have time to shout down 30-40 million potential supporters and outrun them financially, but I don't.

    Why not examine HOW O'hama might be telling the truth, first, and then eviscerate his argument? Then hit the fold and proceed to chew him a new one....

    Clearly the SOB is using Bush Admin data (that kept the GWOT expenditures off the books and overstated the Medicare/Medicaid fiscal sleight of hand) and needs to be called on it.

    Keep an eye on Krugman's columns, too. He has alot of street cred on both sides of the aisle and would be a good quote to snag. This kind of "prevarication" is something he normally wouldn't miss (unless they got to him, too).

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