In my most recent column for the American Spectator, I wrote that ObamaCare is at least partially to blame for the high unemployment rate. While the voters made it obvious that we wanted the President and Congress to abandon their fixation on health care and focus on jobs, we were ignored. Thus, unemployment has hovered around 9% for two years.
Much the same point can be made about the debt situation and the Dem obsession with ObamaCare. Obama and his allies in Congress had, after passing the infamous “porkulus” bill, a chance to focus on serious entitlement reform and the debt instead of pushing ahead with an egregious health care “reform” bill disdained by the voters and the markets:
The end product was a plan that, according to both the Congressional Budget Office and actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, did not bend the health care cost curve down.
In fact, it obviously exacerbated the problems that led to the downgrade:
The reality is this: the law used money raised through tax hikes and Medicare cuts that otherwise would have been available for deficit reduction, to instead expand Medicaid by 18 million beneficiaries and create a massive new health care entitlement.
Then, Obama and his congressional accomplices compounded their blunder:
After health care passed last March, Obama punted on the debt for the rest of the year as he awaited a report from his fiscal commission. He then ignored its recommendations and released a budget so ludicrous that within two months, it failed 0 to 97 in the [Democrat-controlled] Senate.
In other words, the President and congressional Democrats never had any real interest in the debt or entitlement reform. They focused on spending, increasing taxes and—-most of all—-creating huge new health care “reform” program that they obviously hoped would buy them lots of votes. So, in a very real sense, ObamaCare contributed to the downgrade, even if it was not the only cause.
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