Democrats Aren’t Working: They Think More Government Is the Answer

Democrats began their national convention by watching a video that included the disturbing claim that “government is the only thing we all belong to,” yet another reminder that Democrats believe more government is the answer:

DNC KICKOFF VIDEO: “GOVERNMENT IS THE ONLY THING WE ALL BELONG TO”: “A promotional video played this afternoon at the Democratic convention in Charlotte states, ‘Government is the only thing that we all belong to.’” (Daniel Halper, “Dem. Video: ‘Government is the Only Thing That We All Belong To,’” The Weekly Standard, 9/4/2012)

OBAMA HHS SEC. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: “FOR US DEMOCRATS, OBAMACARE IS A BADGE OF HONOR”: (Sam Baker, “Sebelius: ‘ObamaCare is a Badge of Honor,’” The Hill, 9/5/2012)

OBAMA TO ENTREPRENEURS: “IF YOU’VE GOT A BUSINESS—YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT. SOMEBODY ELSE [READ: GOVERNMENT] MADE THAT HAPPEN.” (Kerry Picket, “Picket: (Video) Obama: ‘If You’ve Got a Business—You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen,” The Washington Times, 7/15/2012)

OBAMA: “WE TRIED OUR PLAN—AND IT WORKED”: (“Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event,” The White House, 7/25/2012)

THEN AGAIN, OBAMA ALSO THINKS “THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS DOING FINE”: (Zeke Miller, “Obama: ‘The Private Sector is Doing Fine,” BuzzFeed, 6/8/2012)

The Democrats’ big government record of the last four years shows that their approach has left Americans worse off:

A FAILED TRILLION DOLLAR STIMULUS THAT HAS LEFT WORKING FAMILIES SUFFERING IN THE OBAMA ECONOMY:

PRICE TAG FOR FAILED STIMULUS: $833 BILLION: (Congressional Budget Office, 8/23/2012)

8.3% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, 15.0% UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE: (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8/3/2012)

DEMS PROMISED UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WOULD BE AT 5.6% BY NOW IF WE PASSED THEIR STIMULUS: (American Enterprise Institute, 8/3/2012)

42 MONTHS OF UNEMPLOYMENT OVER 8%: (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8/3/2012)

STUDY: U.S. INCOMES FELL MORE AFTER STIMULUS THAN DURING RECESSION: (Jeff Kearn, “U.S. Incomes Fell More in Recovery, Sentier Says,” Bloomberg, 8/23/2012)

“HALF OF HOMEOWNERS UNDER 40 ARE UNDERWATER”: (Ann Carrns, “Half of Homeowners Under 40 are Underwater,” The New York Times, 8/23/2012)

“US POVERTY ON TRACK TO RISE TO HIGHEST SINCE 1960s”: (Hope Yen, “US Poverty on Track to Rise to Highest Since 1960s,” Associated Press, 7/23/2012)

“US CHILDREN, FAMILIES STRUGGLING AFTER RECESSION”: (Susan Heavey, “US Children, Families Struggling After Recession,” Reuters, 7/25/2012)

UNEMPLOYMENT TO “REMAIN ELEVATED FOR ANOTHER FIVE TO SIX YEARS”: “Federal Reserve officials agreed at a meeting in June that unemployment would remain elevated for another five to six years, but most did not regard that as a reason for the Fed to expand its efforts to stimulate growth, according to an official account published Wednesday.” (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Fed is Torn on Tipping Point for Action,” The New York Times, 7/11/2012)

AP: “ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS THE WEAKEST SINCE WORLD WAR II”: (Paul Wiseman, “Economic Recovery is the Weakest Since World War II,” Associated Press, 8/15/2012)

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “IT’S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW UNUSUAL THIS KIND OF WEAK RECOVERY IS”: (Editorial, “The 1.5% Presidency,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/27/2012)

CBS NEWS’ SCOTT PELLEY: “THIS IS THE WORST ECONOMIC RECOVERY AMERICA HAS EVER HAD.” (CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley, 7/17/12)

$16 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT, $5.38 TRILLION ADDED BY OBAMA: (“The Daily History of the Debt Results,” Bureau of the Public Debt, Accessed 9/5/2012)

OBAMA, TWO WEEKS AGO: “FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS IS A LOT OF MONEY, EVEN IN WASHINGTON”: (President Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Dubuque, IA, 8/15/12)

SIZE OF NATION’S ECONOMY AT $15.606 TRILLION: (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Accessed 8/30/2012)

POLITIFACT SAID LAST YEAR THAT OBAMA WAS THE “UNDISPUTED DEBT KING OF THE LAST FIVE PRESIDENTS”: (Louis Jacobson, “Nancy Pelosi Posts Questionable Chart on Debt Accumulation by Barack Obama, Predecessors,” Politifact, 5/19/2011)

THREE YEARS AND TWO MONTHS OF OBAMA IS MORE DEBT THAN EIGHT YEARS OF PREDECESSOR: “The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.” (Mark Knoller, “National Debt Has Increased More Under Obama than Under Bush,” CBS News, 3/19/2012)

OBAMA RECORD “THE MOST RAPID INCREASE IN THE DEBT UNDER ANY U.S. PRESIDENT”: (Mark Knoller, “National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama,” CBS News’ Political Hotsheet Blog, 8/22/2011)

A GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTHCARE THAT HAS RAISED HEALTHCARE COSTS, HIKE TAXES AND CUT SENIORS’ MEDICARE:

GROSS COST OF OBAMACARE: $1.68 TRILLION: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,” Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012)

$1 TRILLION IN OBAMACARE TAX HIKES OVER 2013-2022: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,” Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012, p.6)

$700 BILLION CUT FROM MEDICARE TO PAY FOR OBAMACARE: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,” Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012)

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: OBAMACARE TO DESTROY 800,000 JOBS: (Remarks from Douglas Elmendorf, House Budget Committee Hearing, 2/10/2011)

UBS RESEARCH: OBAMACARE IS “ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO HIRING”: (“Great Suppression II,” UBS Research, Pgs.1, 5, 9/19/2011)

STUDY: HEALTHCARE COSTS TO RISE 6.2% IN 2012: “Employers anticipate total health care costs will reach $11,664 per active employee in 2012, up from $10,982 in 2011 — a 6.2% increase in total costs over the period.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,” 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)

RISING PREMIUMS FOR EMPLOYEES: “Employees, on average, paid 23.0% of total premium costs in 2011 and are expected to pay 23.7% in 2012, as companies take steps to control their costs. In paycheck deductions, this translated into an average employee contribution of $2,529 to premiums in 2011, which is expected to rise to $2,764 in 2012 — a 9.3% increase in one year.” (“Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,” 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Healthcare, August 2012)

FAMILY HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS ROSE 9% IN 2011, WITH OBAMACARE PLAYING A ROLE: (Julie Appleby, “Cost of Employer Insurance Plans Surge in 2011,” Kaiser Health News, 9/27/2011)

After four years of failure, Democrats still won’t abandon their big government policies and are actually proposing more of the same, even if it means more economic suffering for working families:

“STRONG QUOTIENT OF POLICY STATUS QUO” IN OBAMA PROPOSALS: “The theme of Obama’s campaign is ‘forward,’ chosen to convey the impression that the country is moving in the right direction. A majority of the country believes otherwise. So far there is a strong quotient of policy status quo in what Obama has talked about.” (Dan Balz, “What Is Obama’s Second-Term Plan?”, The Washington Post, 9/4/2012)

OBAMA “HAS SUGGESTED THAT THE POLICIES HE HAS PURSUED ARE WORKING” AND WANTS MORE OF THE SAME: “He has suggested that the policies he has pursued are working and that, given time, they will lay the foundation for a strong recovery sometime into the future.” (Dan Balz, “What Is Obama’s Second-Term Plan?”, The Washington Post, 9/4/2012)

WASHINGTON POST: OBAMA HAS LEARNED NOTHING, “HAS NEVER REALLY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE MADE MISTAKES”: “He has never really acknowledged that he made mistakes — other than saying he didn’t do an adequate job telling a better story about his accomplishments.” (Dan Balz, “What Is Obama’s Second-Term Plan?”, The Washington Post, 9/4/2012)

“SECOND-TERM PRIORITIES REMAIN LARGELY OPAQUE”: “And third, descriptions of second-term priorities remain largely opaque, leaving voters to wonder where a reelected Obama would take the country.” (Major Garrett, “Chasing Romney, Losing Himself,” National Journal, 9/3/2012)

THE PLAN SO FAR? MORE TAXES, LESS MEDICARE:

OBAMA’S BIG PLAN FOR DEFICIT REDUCTION IS TO GIVE A BOARD OF BUREAUCRATS EVEN MORE POWER TO CUT MEDICARE BENEFITS (“VALUE-BASED BENEFIT DESIGN”): (“Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future,” Office of Management and Budget, September 2011)

TRANSLATION: “OBAMA BUDGET WANTS MORE TEETH” FOR MEDICARE-GUTTING BOARD: (Phillip Klein, "Obama Budget Wants More Teeth for Medicare Board," The Washington Examiner, 2/13/2012)

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN INSISTS AMERICANS ARE “BETTER OFF” AFTER FOUR YEARS OF OBAMA, CALLS FOR MORE OF THE SAME: “I’ll say it to the press. America is better off today than they left us.” (Michael D. Shear, “G.O.P. Seizes on a Question: Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?”, The New York Times, 9/3/2012)

LA TIMES: “FOR OBAMA, IT’S RIGHT BACK TO TAXES AFTER JOBS REPORT”: (Michael A. Memoli, “For Obama, It’s Right Back to Taxes After Jobs Report,” Los Angeles Times, 8/3/2012)

710,000 JOBS COULD BE DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS’ TAX HIKE PLAN: (Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Increasing Tax Rates on High-Income Taxpayers in 2013,” Ernst & Young, July 2012, Appendix C)

1.8% DROP IN WAGES: “Real after-tax wages would fall by 1.8%, reflecting a decline in workers’ living standards relative to what would have occurred otherwise.” (Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Increasing Tax Rates on High-Income Taxpayers in 2013,” Ernst & Young, July 2012)

JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION: 940,000 SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET HIT BY DEMOCRATS’ LATEST TAX HIKE: “Congress's Joint Tax Committee—not a conservative outfit—estimates that in 2013 about 940,000 taxpayers will have enough business income to meet Mr. Obama's tax increase threshold.” (Editorial, “Off the Tax Cliff He Goes,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2012)