Inventing a Failure (He's talking about Obamacare)

The New York Times ^ | May 4, 2014 | Paul Krugman

[2ndDivisionVet]

Last week, House Republicans released a deliberately misleading report on the status of health reform, crudely rigging the numbers to sustain the illusion of failure in the face of unexpected success. Are you shocked?

You aren’t, but you should be. Mainstream politicians didn’t always try to advance their agenda through lies, damned lies and — in this case — bogus statistics. And the fact that this has become standard operating procedure for a major party bodes ill for America’s future.

About that report: The really big policy news of 2014, at least so far, is the spectacular recovery of the Affordable Care Act from its stumbling start, thanks to an extraordinary late surge that took enrollment beyond early projections. The age mix of enrollees has improved; insurance companies are broadly satisfied with the risk pool. Multiple independent surveys confirm that the percentage of Americans without health insurance has already declined substantially, and there’s every reason to believe that over the next two years the act will meet its overall goals, except in states that refuse to expand Medicaid.

This is a problem for Republicans, who have bet the ranch on the proposition that health reform is an unfixable failure. “Nobody can make Obamacare work,” declared Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, a couple of weeks ago (when it was already obvious that it was working pretty well). How can they respond to good news?

Well, they could graciously admit that they were wrong, and offer constructive suggestions about how to make the law work even better. Oh, sorry — I forgot that I wasn’t writing jokes for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner....

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If I were Krugman I’d never go outdoors. He’s going to get struck by lightning if he does.

[rockrr]

“Who are you gonna believe - me or your own lying eyes?”

[bboop]

snort .... (how does that go? 5th grade recess is a long ways back) —”I am rubber, you are glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” Do you think they are aware that every time they ‘define’ the conservatives, they are projecting??

I do.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Here’s another thing this moron can be wrong about.

[dirtymac]

You can always tell what a democrat is up to because they are accusing the Republicans of doing it.

Get a grip! The NY Times accusing someone of being a liar? Are they mad because this is their domain and they do not like interlopers?

[Mark]

Saul..I mean Paul, you are an idiot, DUDE! Now put on your pajamas!

[beethovenfan]

“Spectacular recovery”?? WTF??? What’s this guy smoking?

[the anti-mahdi]

I am speaking from ignorance. I have never watched an episode of the Walking Dead. From not avoiding the trailers/advertisements I glean that there are few hums left, they are food for the dead. Further I glean that the few humans engage in war with each other.

I wonder if these programs are paralleling modern politics.

The Walking Dead are the parasites that feed on re-distribution of wealth. Further, since we are adding a trillion plus annually in new debt, I surmise that the flesh eaters are consuming what is left, plus consuming what is beyond anyone can earn.

Perhaps liberals, democrats, progressives, whatever, the semantincs bore and tire me, are no more than the walking dead.

I suppose there are many people wondering, who have proudly voted democrat in the past, if they are no longer behaving rationally.

[Servant of the Cross]

Krugman ... you're gonna have to try harder. Even MSNBC has given up and confesses that 0Care is truly a FAILURE.

[T Ruth]

More lies from the nyt.

[Yosemitest]

Many of us have said for many years that Obama is doing this INTENTIONALLY.
He using the old Soviet Plan from World War II.





Only idiots and the evil voted for Obama, or ANY of the Democrats.
AND NOW, WE CAN ADD "Establishment Republicans" TO THAT LIST, ALSO!
They've lied to us, constantly, and really are "Collapsing the System".
And now, these "Useful IDIOTS" who voted for them, are buying the lies that "Obamacare was designed to work." ?
It was designed to fail from the start.
THEN ... THEY GO TO THE "SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM".

Flashback: Obama's Campaign to Transition to Single Payer Health Care (VIDEO)


obama master plan on health careover the years in his own words--SINGLE PAYER!!! ( 3:38 )

They've been sucking our wallets dry for over four years now on the "Obamacare" LIE.
AND NOW THEY WANT MORE TAXES ?
Our Founding Fathers would have hung them already!

Lets review:

Who was it that cut future funding for Medicare by $575 billion?

...the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters... The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood.
The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years ...

Mr. Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius frequently make that false claim.
Indeed, even Medicare's mailings to seniors repeat the claim
that reducing spending on Medicare will make it more financially secure for future years.
The fact is that Mr. Obama's law raids Medicare.

Who was it that moved Medicare Trust Funds out of the "trust box" and into the General Revenue, replacing them with Government I.O.U.s?
"In early 1968 President Lyndon Johnson [DEMOCRAT] made a change in the budget presentation by including Social Security and all other trust funds in a"unified budget." "

Who was it that expanded Medicare and Medicaid to cover many, many more people than it was originally designed to cover?

The History of Medicare

In 1965, the Social Security Act established both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare was a responsibility of the Social Security Administration (SSA), while Federal assistance to the State Medicaid programs was administered by the Social and Rehabilitation Service (SRS). SSA and SRS were agencies in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). In 1977, the Health Care Financing Administration was created under HEW to effectively coordinate Medicare and Medicaid. In 1980 HEW was divided into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The first U.S. President to propose a prepaid health insurance plan was Harry S. Truman [DEMOCRAT]. On November 19, 1945, in a special message to Congress, President Truman outlined a comprehensive, prepaid medical insurance plan for all people through the Social Security system. The plan included doctors and hospitals, and nursing, laboratory, and dental services; it was dubbed "National Health Insurance." Furthermore, medical insurance benefits for needy people were to be financed from Federal revenues.

Over the years, lawmakers narrowed the field of health insurance recipients largely to social security beneficiaries. A national survey found that only 56 percent of those 65 years of age or older had health insurance. President John F. Kennedy [DEMOCRAT] pressed legislators for health insurance for the aged. However, it wasn't until 1965 that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed H.R. 6675 (The Social Security Act of 1965; PL 89-97) to provide health insurance for the elderly and the poor.

On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the Medicare and Medicaid Bill (Title XVIII and Title XIX of the Social Security Act) in Independence, Missouri in the presence of former President Truman, who received the first Medicare card at the ceremony; Lady Bird Johnson, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, and Mrs. Truman also were present. President Johnson remarked: "We marvel not simply at the passage of this Bill but that it took so many years to pass it."

Medicare extended health coverage to almost all Americans aged 65 or older. About 19 million beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare in the first year of the program. Medicaid provided access to health care services for certain low-income persons and expanded the existing Federal-State welfare structure that assisted the poor.

The 1972 Social Security Amendments expanded Medicare to provide coverage to two additional high risk groups disabled persons receiving cash benefits for 24 months under the social security program and persons suffering from end-stage renal disease.

...(continued at link)

So Democrats,

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR INSURING THE FAILURE
OF THE MEDICARE/MEDICAID PROGRAM,
and now YOU DEMOCRATS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S.A. ECONOMY!!!

So DEMOCRATS ... SHUT UP!!!

You have no integrity!!!

Sen Mark Kirk's statement Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 ...

"There are 55 million Social Security beneficiaries that will see little or no extra cash from this 2012 tax holiday;
instead, the dedicated payroll contributions meant to pay for future benefits are being diverted from the Trust Fund
and replaced with Treasury debt that does not even have a AAA credit rating.
Social Security was designed to be independent and free from the danger of Congressional manipulation,
and maintaining the firewall between the Social Security Trust Fund and general government funding is the best way to maintain the solvency of this important program.
Neither bill protects the Social Security Trust Fund
so I voted no. "

It's not our fault that DEMOCRATS raided the Social Security Trust Fund.
Let's remember ...

Not ALL are to blame for the empty lock box.

It's the Democrats Communists.

Let's take a deeper look.

Obama: "I Don't Want the Folks who Created the Mess to do a lot of Talking" "

Okay, then the DEMOCRATS need to shut up!!!

[Kozak]

[Gay State Conservative]

I'm sure that Comrade Krugman reminds readers that he's exempt from OsamaObamaCare every time he defends it.

[Chewbarkah]

Breaking tradition, I actually read the article before commenting. As suspected, it is fact-free.

Krugman condemns the GOP for relying on “rigged” surveys to show that large swaths of claimed enrollees never paid. His evidence: other SURVEYS. He omits to address WHY he and Congress both must rely on surveys: the Obama administration refuses to release real data, by hiding behind incompetence. If there is one thing computerized systems are good at, it is counting. That HHS is still incapable of counting how many people have signed up and PAID for what coverage, is not credible. The real story remains: WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

Krugman blithely pronounces ObamaCare (and Medicaid) sign-ups to be a big success after a shaky start. Compared to exactly what original assumptions? Pre-ACA, the Democrats claimed 45 million Americans were uninsured. Now they say that after 8 million claimed enrollees, only 15 million remain, even though we know millions lost coverage or switched. Was there a mass die-off we don’t know about? Before passing ACA, Congress never, to my knowledge, published targets for enrollment in ObamaCare, or Medicaid, or for either gross numbers or a total percentage of insured Americans to be insured by specific years. So what exactly is Krugman using as a baseline for Mission Accomplished? He failed to cite his rectum in the article, but that seems the obvious source. The Left has such a hard time distinguishing falsity and genius.