The Economy
#1
The Promise: During the 2012 presidential primary season, Mitt Romney said, as president, he would bring the unemployment rate down to 6% by 2016. After losing the election, Republicans continued to insist that President Obama's policies were killing job growth.
The Reality: Unemployment reached 5.8% in the fall. (A lower percentage reached two years earlier than Mitt's boast.)
#2
The Promise: Newt Gingrich warned that Obama's re-election would mean $10/gallon prices at the pump. As president, Newt said he would bring gas prices down to $2.50/gallon. Republicans continued to call for more drilling, claiming that President Obama's environmental policies would result in higher and higher gas prices.
The Reality: Gas prices are below $2.00 in many places while the average across the country is $2.38/gallon. (Despite careful environmental restrictions on new drilling sites, prices remained in the $4.00 range until this year. They are now better than Newt said he could do.)
#3
The Promise: Tim Pawlenty (remember him?) said that his plan to cut trillions of dollars in taxes for the wealthy would result in a 5% GDP. Republicans continue to claim that lowering taxes for the wealthy is the only road to improving our economy.
The Reality: President Obama ended this year able to boast of a 5% GDP (And he did it despite raising taxes on the wealthy, which also helped to lower our deficit.)
Economic growth is at an 11-year high, job growth is at a 15-year high, the stock market is booming, wages are rising, gas prices are falling and America's manufacturing rate is increasing. In short, the economic news seems to prove that President Obama's policies are successful and the Republican predictions of doom and gloom were entirely wrong.
And what does the GOP have to say about this positive news? Nothing, zilch, nada, zero. One political writer reported: "I went to the homepages for John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC and the RGA. Collectively, they didn't publish a single word about the striking economic growth. So, I moved on to Twitter, checking the feeds for Boehner, McConnell, Reince Priebus, the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC and the RGA. Again, literally nothing."
The roar of silence coming from the right should surprise no one. Did anybody really expect them to admit they were wrong and the man they love to hate is right?
Healthcare
#1
The Prediction: The GOP has spent four years and millions of dollars promoting their belief that "Obamacare" will fail. Even if the government portal is repaired, they said, the program is so flawed that people will refuse to sign up for it.
The Reality: Not only are the vast majority of those who signed up for insurance during the first enrollment period saying they are happy with their coverage over-all, mid-December figures during the current enrollment window indicate that 6.4 million Americans have joined. Even those who support the ACA didn't expect the number of enrollees to reach 6 million until the end of March.
#2
The Prediction: The ACA will mean the end of employer-provided healthcare plans.
The Reality: WalMart, one of the largest employers in the U.S., did dump their own healthcare plan, but the Urban Institute reports that they are the exception to the rule. There is no evidence of wholesale jettisoning of employer-sponsored plans.
#3
The Prediction: "Obamacare" will result in huge increases in the cost of premiums, lower quality care and it will be difficult to get insurance companies to participate in the program.
The Reality: Wrong on all three. Premium increases are the lowest in 50 years, medical errors have been reduced and the number of participating companies is on the rise.
And still, both John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have promised to put repealing the ACA near the top of their To-do List for January.
Certainly the ACA as it stands has room for improvement; but repealing it "root and branch" as Mitch has promised--and eliminating the coverage for the millions of Americans who have health insurance for the first time in their lives--is nothing but a campaign boast designed to feed the GOP's rabid, right-wing, Obama-hating base.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense realizes this would be political suicide, but then who am I to argue if the GOP wants to execute their own deathwish?
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