….and, the results may surprise some of you!
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Kast week, breaking from the historical precedent, former-President Obama hit the campaign trail to support Dem candidates by blasting Trump and burnishing his record as president.
The sweet oration was there … along with the usual emphasis on “I” (reportedly. 132 times) and the castigation of all evil people who disagree with him … especially President Trump.
I imagine that Obama was expecting a continuation of the free-pass that the press gave him during his active tenure … but, that wasn’t the case.
For example, the AP — which is dependably left of center — took a stab at fact-checking Obama’s assertions.
The entire AP report is worth reading if you have time.
Here are some highlights…
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Freedom of the press
Obama: “I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people.”
AP: Trump may use extraordinary rhetoric to undermine trust in the press, but Obama arguably went farther — using extraordinary actions to block the flow of information to the public .. in a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into its news-gathering activities, betraying information about its operations “that the government has no conceivable right to know.”
Quoting the NY Times: “The Obama administration moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.”
Oops.
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ObamaCare
Obama: “Sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance.”
AP: While sign-ups for government-sponsored private insurance under Obama’s law show a drop of about 900,000 … that number is more than offset by the number of additional people who are now working full-time with employer-sponsored health insurance benefits.
And, enrollment through expanded Medicaid — the other major source of Obamacare coverage — appears to be stable at about 12 million people.
The AP fact-check didn’t flashback to Obama’s biggest whoppers: “Keep your plan, keep your doctor” or “reduce costs by $2,500”.
Bottom line: Many folks had to switch plans and doctors … and average out-of-pocket spending on healthcare went up by $2,500 … a $5,000 swing from the promise.
For details, see Remember when an ObamaCare architect called you stupid? and Remember how healthcare costs were going to drop by $2,500 for every family?
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The economy
Obama: “The actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth.”
Fact-check (from multiple sources): Yes, the economy did start to revive itself.
Obama stepped-up Bush-initiated programs to bail out the the U.S. financial and auto industries … and his stimulus package pumped almost $1 trillion into the economy. About 1/2 went to tax cuts and about 1/2 went mostly to so-called shovel-ready projects and grants and loans to green energy initiatives.
But, data shows that the recovery was far slower than prior economic recoveries (source); none of the shovel-ready or green projects reached marquee status (quick: name one besides Solyndra); and, most economists credit the Fed’s near-zero interest rate policy for the recovery’s growth.
Importantly, GDP growth was stalled at 2%, which was touted as a “new normal”.
It’s currently hovering around 4%
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Hope the AP’s fact-checking was just a one-time effort…
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Follow on Twitter @KenHoma
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The Homa Files 
September 18, 2018 at 2:41 pm |
“I alone can fix this!”
That didn’t bother you right? But Obama is obsessed with himself?