Obama-rithmetic

President Obama announced yesterday that employers premiums would be reduced 3,000% under his health care plan. Immediately after that he said that this would enable employers to give everyone a raise. The immediate corrective action by the WH was that he actually meant that employer premiums would go down $3,000 and he simply misspoke. There was no mention in the correction about the raise comment.
The hand picked crowd of KoolAid drinkers was delirious with joy. Whatever Obama meant, he said 3,000% and the crowd applauded wildly. People with a third grade education are aware that when a price decreases 100% it becomes free (at least they were at one time). But this group of geniuses bought it blindly. To be charitable, they had no time for the in depth analysis that 3rd grade arithmetic requires. Suppose they really knew somehow that he meant that premiums would decrease $3000 per employee and had time for reasoned analysis. They would then know that since the employer costs are about $10,000 each, the President projects that this bill would result in a 30% reduction in premiums. This fantasy is not projections made by anyone. Even the WH correction does not make what he said accurate.

So we have the President making wild promises; a group of people buying whatever bilge the President says because he says it; the White House making corrections that don’t correct anything; and the ever obedient media not bothering to report anything. This is not mispronouncing a word which was once covered extensively. This – by any interpretation – is a self-serving lie.