Robert Reich: A 'Misinformation' Propagandist For ObamaCare

During the rise of the Third Reich, one person, Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, operated on a very simple principal: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

To me, there are many on the left that have been taken Goebbels words to heart with the constant spinning of all things about Obama and ObamaCare. But none are as prolific in the "spin" agenda than the former Clintonista, Robert Reich. Last Sunday was no exception with his latest New York Times piece titled: "It's Working Despite Misinformation".

The problem with this latest laughable "piece-of-whatever", is that he claims that "misinformation" is being used to slander the law and, thus, retard its success.  So, to counter that, he uses actual and very intentional "misinformation" to try and prove that ObamaCare is "working".  

Right off the bat he writes this:

 "After decades of rising percentages of Americans lacking health insurance, the uninsured rate has dropped to its lowest levels since 2008."

First of all, we're supposed to take his word for it that there has been decades of "rising percentages" because he provides no support for that supposed fact.  Well, here's the truth.  For almost two decades, the "percentage" of uninsured has hovered slightly above or below 15%:

But, you see he didn't want us to know that.  Instead he presents a link to this chart in support of his statement that the percentage of uninsured has dropped to the "lowest since 2008" and, which, in no way supports his previous statement about rising percentages:

To me, this chart just raises more questions than any support of his commentary; and, I think that's why he didn't embed it in his opinion piece. Instead, he made it a hypertext link with the assumption that his readers probably won't even look at it.  This way he gets away with his "lowest level since 2008" because, in fact, 15.9% is lower than the first quarter of 2009's 16.1%.  But, not by a whole hell of a lot and still almost a full percentage point higher the average of about 15% from 1990 to 2008.  Also, he fails to make note of the fact that we are still a full percentage point higher than the decades low of 14.4% that existed just before Obama took office.

Not once does he explain why the dramatic drop in uninsured in 2014 followed a record rise in 2013 from 16.3% to a history making 18%. The only explanation that I can think of is that people, because of ObamaCare, were losing their policies in the run up to its implementation on October 1, 2013.  This chart just tells me that, at the beginning of 2013, 16.3% or 15.7 million Americans were without insurance.  Today, a year later, 15.9% or 50.4 still have no insurance. That's only a net improvement of 300,000 uninsured.  Or, in other words, of the 5 million who have already signed up for ObamaCare, only 6% previously had no insurance and 4.7 million previously had insurance. Not hardly proof that "It's working".  All this chart is telling us is that ObamaCare is real good at forcing people to lose their private insurance and not so good at solving the uninsured problem in this country.

Then, too, Reich repeats an Obama claim that we are already seeing slower growth in health care costs thanks to ObamaCare.  This is a complete lie.  First of all, the slowing of costs started long before any part of ObamaCare went into effect in January of this year. Economists who have studied this have concluded that the slowing in health care expenditures are a direct result of the slow recovery from the recession and higher than normal numbers of uninsured and unemployed. In fact, Obama's own people at the Centers For Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), just released another study in January that supports that very fact.

While I could go on and on in tearing up the rest of Reich's propaganda, I think I've made my point on his critical points of misinformation.  People like Reich spin by cherry picking and telling half-truths and, in many cases, complete lies in support of failed Democratic party policies.  They survive on the basis that they carry hefty professional and educational credentials and, as a result, most people won't fact check their claims.  In Reich's case, he relies heavily on his tenures at both Berkley and Harvard.  Therefore, how could anyone doubt the words of someone who had taught at these two prestigious institutions of higher learning?  Well, I do and so do many millions of Americans who have been hurt by ObamaCare!

One final comment. Reich liked his propaganda piece so much that he repeated it, word for word, in the Huffington Post Blog section with a different title: The Real Truth About Obamacare.  Remember part of what Goebbels said: "... and keep repeating it" and "people will eventually come to believe it."


References:

Joseph Geobbels: http://www.goebbels.info/goebbels-goebbels.htm 

Robert Reich: It’s Working Despite Misinformation: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/20/obamacares-four-year-checkup/the-affordable-care-act-is-working-despite-misinformation 

CMS: Recession Drove Lower Healthcare Spending: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/cms-report-recession-drove-lower-healthcare-spending.html/?a=viewall

The Real Truth About Obamacare: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/truth-about-obamacare_b_5020496.html

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