Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:32:11 PM
The Associated Press watched it too, and surprisingly, the 30-minute infomercial also failed to impress them:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less
than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the
costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face
in office.
Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond”
the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow
to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his
failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are -
beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Calvin Woodward reports that Obama misled viewers on at least five key points in his 30-minute final argument:
- Health care costs - Obama claimed his plan would
lower costs by $2500 per year per family, but it doesn’t. In fact,
Obama can’t point to any particular cost reductions. He plans to spend
$50 billion over five years on modernization and chronic-disease
prevention and presumes that this will lower costs in the future, but
in the meantime it raises costs at least in the short run on everyone
(the $50 billion doesn’t come out of thin air).
- The Pay-Go of his plans - No, he hasn’t
demonstrated that he’s found the revenue for his spending, despite his
claims last night. Non-partisan analysts believe that his spending
programs will add at least $428 billion to the deficit in his first
term, and that’s if you accept his non-specific pledge to cut spending
in other areas.
- Tax cuts for working class families - Before the
commercial aired, he had already begun backing away from that idea
because of the financial crisis, although Obama didn’t acknowledge it
in the ad.
- The “right” to affordable health care - Obama doesn’t guarantee coverage in any of his plans, at least not for adults.
- Getting out of Iraq - Obama noted that the US
spends $10 billion a month in Iraq and talked again about “bringing
that war to a close” — but he’s backed away from his previous pledges
to get out on a strict 16-month timetable, which is as fast as the
remaining units can be properly withdrawn.
In other words, we didn’t miss much, except for the usual evasions Obama gives on the campaign trail.