In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Obama Boom," Paul Krugman acknowledges that President Obama is not responsible for gains in US private-sector employment since 2010:
"Does President Obama deserve credit for these gains? No. In general, presidents and their policies matter much less for the economy’s performance than most people imagine. Times of crisis are an exception, and the Obama stimulus plan enacted in 2009 made a big positive difference. But that stimulus faded out fast after 2010, and has very little to do with the economy’s current situation."
On the other hand, in a patent reference to Obamacare, Krugman would have us know:
"But for those who don’t know much about either history or the world outside America, the Obama economy offers a powerful lesson in the here and now. From a conservative point of view, Mr. Obama did everything wrong, afflicting the comfortable (slightly) and comforting the afflicted (a lot), and nothing bad happened. We can, it turns out, make our society better after all."
Obamacare is the boon to society that Krugman would have us believe? Not everyone agrees. In a blog for The Hill entitled "ObamaCare's predictable collapse," Rick Manning writes:
"ObamaCare co-ops were supposed to provide lower cost health insurance alternatives because they weren't driven by the profit motive. Now, just a couple of years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented, 12 out of 23 co-ops have failed, costing taxpayers $1.2 billion in defaulted loan repayments. The failure rate even outstrips the Labor Department's 2011 projections of 36 percent, and as The Carpenters used to sing, 'We've Only Just Begun.'
. . . .
That ol' promise that healthcare costs would go down by $2,500 for an average family took another hit of reality as a Wall Street Journal analysis of 2016 rates showed that premiums for individual health plans are going up, with double-digit increases more typical than not.
. . . .
Besides skyrocketing healthcare costs, less healthcare service available, anticipated health insurance company abandonment of the system, patients being thrown off coverage and losing their doctors, and the failure of the co-op system, ObamaCare is doing just fine."
Oops.
But beyond Obamacare, how can anyone refer to an "Obama Boom" without alluding to the worst US opening stock market week in history, which has many wondering if another recession is on the way? I suppose that if you've been awarded a Nobel Prize in economics, you can get away with looking the other way and writing this hogwash.
the ACA plan: death by stress.
ReplyDeleteWonder how many others on plain old Medicare have lost access to their doctors.
the only reason I am forced to move south...where I already have a new, and a real, primary care doctor.
The stress? have to find a home I can still afford. This week.
Angry? you bet.