In these tough times, it’s important for Americans to have faith in the accuracy of information their government provides to them. It’s become clear in the last few months that the Obama Administration has some problems with math.
You might remember in February, President Obama and Nancy Pelosi told us that unless we passed their $787 billion “stimulus” plan, they would be unable to keep unemployment below 8%. Their sales job worked and the pork plan passed. Bart Gordon was right there first in line to cast a yes vote for more debt and a weaker economic future for our children.
Here we are in November and unemployment sits at 10.2%. Vice President Biden tells us, “everyone guessed wrong.”
After nine months we cannot get an accurate number of the jobs the administration claims to have “saved or created” with the pork plan. We do know from reporting that the president is claiming jobs have been created in 15 of 25 Arizona congressional districts.
The problem with their estimates is Arizona only has eight congressional districts.
Faced with an avalanche of new debt, the House moves to Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990 health care takeover bill costing $1.3 trillion, but we are told it will lower costs. A week after the bill is passed, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services informs us that it will actually INCREASE costs by $289 billion over the next decade.
Now comes word that the Department of Health and Human Services will revise the number of available doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine down from the original number of 100 million to 40 million and today down to 28 million. This after the HHS Secretary told Congress earlier this year that there would be plenty of vaccine available. Since September, 3,000 Americans have died as a result of H1N1 and 29,000 have been hospitalized. The administration blames the manufacturers for their staggering overestimation of available doses, but excuses don’t solve the problem.
Whether the administration’s problems giving accurate numbers to deal with policy issues are a result of politics or incompetence, the fact remains that we as citizens deserve an honest accounting of our government’s activities. The Obama administration has not learned that lesson and the Congress has failed in its oversight responsibilities.
