Fighting for the Middle Class — By Raising Their Premiums???
Various press reports about the President Obama’s speech in Kansas yesterday have emphasized the way in which the President tried to frame his agenda as fighting for the middle class. There’s only one problem with this allegation: When it comes to his signature agenda item – health care – Obama has abandoned the middle class, not helped them. Candidate Obama repeatedly promised his health care plan would LOWER premiums by $2,500 per family, and do so within his first term. But the price of the average employer-sponsored plan ROSE by more than $2,200 per family since Obama was first elected in 2008, according to studies from the Kaiser Family Foundation. In other words, Obama’s abandoned promise has cost American families nearly $5,000 per year – a $2,200 premium increase compared to a $2,500 promised premium reduction. That’s failing the middle class, not fighting for them.
Rather than admitting his broken promise, the President instead chose to deflect blame. His speech decried “insurance companies that jacked up people’s premiums with impunity.” He made this allegation even as Obamacare will RAISE individual insurance premiums by $2,100 per family, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. If anyone is attempting to jack up people’s premiums with impunity, it’s the President himself, thanks to the massive 2700-page Obamacare.
A final note: The President’s speech also derided banks for “huge bets…made with other people’s money on the line.” Some might argue that – by spending $2.6 trillion on a massive new entitlement scheme at a time when Washington has already run up trillion-dollar deficits – Obamacare makes a similarly risky bet by the federal government, using OUR taxpayer money.