By Don Todd
President Obama gave an amazing interview to the Huffington Post on March 20th. (Disclaimer: I knew Arianna Huffington when she was a conservative, and I did not like her then either.) Largely ignored by the legacy media, the interview is amazing in the insights it gives into the President’s mindset, including what he views as his major accomplishments and how he views the next two years.
Obama brags that in the first two years of his Administration, “We advanced more progressive legislation than anybody in 50 years.” He strengthens that assertion by saying, “It was larger by a significant margin than the New Deal in real dollars…”
During the Obama Administration, the federal government has spent a larger percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) than at any time since the height of World War II. In order to understand the magnitude of that statistic, it is important to realize that 16.1 million people served in the military during the Second World War. So the President is proud of that fact that he is spending as large a part of the GDP as at any time since we had 16.1 million people in the military.
On the domestic front, the President stated that “the Affordable Care Act… is working better than even I thought it was going to work.” This is really an astounding statement considering the fact that the health care law is widely viewed as a disaster. Next he will be saying Bowe Bergdahl is an even bigger military hero than he originally thought.
Aside from the lies he used to promote Obamacare, he expected it to be a bigger disaster than it turned out to be? That is the only conclusion one can draw from that statement.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Obamacare will destroy two million jobs by 2017. Did Obama expect four million jobs to be destroyed?
According to the same source, 31 million nonelderly residents of the United States are likely to be without health insurance in 2024, roughly one out of every nine such residents. Did Obama expect 62 million would be without medical insurance due to his plan?
Again, according to the CBO, between 6 million and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of the ACA. Again, ACA is working better than even Obama expected.
And, of course, costs are skyrocketing, but apparently not as much as Obama had expected.
Looking toward the future, Obama states he will work with Republicans; but if they are not willing to do as he wishes, “we will do it administratively…” In the next paragraph, he says he will impose his will “by hook or by crook…”
The definition of “by hook or by crook” is, “by any means necessary, by fair means or foul. “
This is the best takeaway of the interview, in that it is an apt description of the Obama Administration in its entirety, stated by the man himself.
Don Todd is Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government.
