Taking the Kool-ade intravenously

I just read a piece by Antohny Coley that appeared on CNN Opinion. Coley's thesis is that Obama has done a wonderful job on the economy. Here, in essence, is how he states his point:

"The president and Democrats in Congress can point to many victories, including an $800 billion cash infusion of cash and tax cuts to jump start the economy and prevent a second Great Depression; tough legislation that eradicates Wall Street's riskiest financial practices and enacts comprehensive consumer protections; and a historic health reform law that lowers cost, enhances choice and extends quality, affordable health care to 32 million uninsured Americans."

As I read this, I thought that Coley must be a true believer. Then I saw that he is the former chief spokesman and communications director for the late Senator Kennedy and former governor Corzine of New Jersey. So Coley's great communications skills helped the Democrats lose the seats of both his employers just in the last year. Even so, the litany of nonsense that Coley puts forth is amazing to me (even coming from a Kool-ade drinker like Coley).

First, Coley points to the stimulus as something that jump started the economy. What BS. There is not any evidence that the economy is any better today than it would have been but for the stimulus, and that is wholly apart from the 800 billion dollars of debt added to the national burden on the future. The drop in production was the result of a financial crisis that was stopped by the TARP program. The recovery so far has been the normal bounce back from the plunge. the slow nature of the recovery has been due in part to the drag placed on investment by the new regulations, taxes and nationalizations that have scared away investment that would grow the economy. Obama promised that the stimulus would keep unemployment from breaking above 8%; instead, we are way above that and seem to be stuck in the 10% range. In short, Coley is just spouting garbage on this point.

Second, Coley talks about "tough" legislation that eradicates Wall Street's riskiest practices. Again, this is complete nonsense. The so-called reform bill does increase the number of agencies which are "supervising" Wall Street. the added costs of compliance will make it much harder for smaller, more nimble banks and brokerages to compete with the big guys on Wall Street. Less competition and fewer competitors makes things riskier, not less risky. Then there is the issue of the prearranged authority for future bailouts that the "reform" bill includes. Inother words, the big banks now know that there is a bail out waiting if they get close to failure. Once again, this increases risk; it does not lessen it. Coley must be bathing in the Kool-ade.

Finally, Coley touts Obamacare as lowering costs, enhancing choice and extending coverage to 32 million new folks. Well let's look at this howler. Lower costs? The Democrats got to lower costs by taking out about a quarter of a billion dollars of costs in the so-called doctors' fix and putting it in a separate bill. They also got to lower costs by promising to reduce the cost of medicare by half a trillion dollars through removal of waste and fraud. Many months later, have you heard even one story about how the Dems or the new agencies have reduced waste and fraud? Neither have I. These are phony savings that the Democrats conjured up to justify the increased costs of Obamacare. Coley actually thinks that Americans are dumb enough to believe this. Well how about enhanced choice? After the bill was signed into law we learned that over half of all health insurance plans fail to meet the requirements of Obamacare and will have to be terminated. That will leave about 45% of the previous plans out there from which to choose. sounds like less choice to me, not more. But there is always extended coverage. Maybe Coley can explain the news item today out of New Jersey; the new program out of Obamacare designed to provide coverage for the previously uninsured with pre-existing conditions has drawn the remarkable increase in coverage of two families. That's right -- two families signed up for this new coverage in the Garden State even though the federal government gave Jersey 141 million dollars to subsidize these policies. That comes to iver seventy million dollars for each additional policy.

the truth is that Obama has been a disaster for the economy. Essentially every move he has made has had the impact of reducing rather than increasing job growth. If he is not careful, Coley may drown in the Kool-Ade.