Un-Happy Anniversary: ObamaCare One Year Later

Chris Field | February 28, 2011 11:11 AM

When President Obama signed ObamaCare into law last March, Vice President Joe Biden called it a “big f#*&ing deal.” The Democrats promised it would create jobs and control costs. One year later, does that rhetoric still hold?

In selling the health care takeover, Obama repeatedly pledged, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it way, no matter what.” But the government’s regulatory burdens and perverted incentives to businesses have prompted many of the nation’s largest companies and small business to talk of dropping their employee coverage.

Less than a month before ObamaCare was signed, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaimed the $1 trillion bill would be a boon for the economy, saying it would create 4 million jobs -- 400,000 almost immediately.

President Obama promised his health care bill would be deficit neutral. But the administration’s Medicare actuary Richard Foster estimated health care spending will increase $311 billion over the next decade because of the new law.

Townhall Magazine’s cover story, “Un-Happy Anniversary: ObamaCare One Year Later,” exposes the lies and subterfuge involved in the passage and implementation of ObamaCare.

What we know one year later is that President Obama’s signature issue has been filled with unwelcome surprises, broken promises and unintended consequences (beyond the change in House majority). Chief among those unfulfilled goals was the new law would control costs and increase choices. It has thus far done the opposite.

During his 2008 campaign, Obama vowed to not increase taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000, but ObamaCare includes more than 20 tax hikes.

Core to the Democrats’ argument during the year-long debate was that health reform would not lead to rationing -- tell that to cancer patients who saw multiple drug treatments become instantly harder to get.

The Congressional Budget Office, using the administration’s ridiculous numbers, estimated ObamaCare would reduce the deficit by $143 billion. But a more realistic report from the House Budget Committee exposed the CBO’s nonsense, showing that the law will actually add more than $700 billion to the deficit over 10 years.

There’s much more that our March issue reports on this unhappy anniversary of ObamaCare -- including the truth about abortion funding -- so subscribe today to make sure you get the full story.