Clinton's convention speech kills regressive lies

Damn, Bill Clinton is good. Despite vehemently disagreeing with a number of his policies he is still one of the very best speech givers and motivators around, right up there with the current President. And like the President he is authentic and genuine to his values and beliefs, which include character and truth-telling. Hence it was gratifying to see him lay bare the blatant lies of the regressive convention and agenda. In his speech he responded to all the the major GOP charges and made mincemeat of them. His winning focus was on something the regressives cannot abide: math (and science and facts). Or as Clinton puts the economic solution in one word, "arithmetic."

In the last 52 years of governance 66 million private sector jobs were created. The score: Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million. Why the disparity?



"There’s a reason for this. It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics. Why? Because poverty, discrimination and ignorance restrict growth. When you stifle human potential, when you don’t invest in new ideas, it doesn’t just cut off the people who are affected; it hurts us all. We know that investments in education and infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase growth. They increase good jobs, and they create new wealth for all the rest of us."

In terms of job creation, while acknowledging we're a long way from a full recovery, nevertheless Obama's policies have created 4.5 million new jobs. Meanwhile the regressive obstructed any new job growth whatsoever. His scorecard on jobs: Democrats 4.5 million, GOP 0.  The auto bailout saved a million jobs and has created 250,000 new jobs. Romney said let them go bankrupt. Score: Obama 250,000, Romney 0.

As to the regressive bullshit on Obamacare Clinton again laid out the math. Insurance companies have already paid back rebates of more than a billion dollars, since they are required to spend 80% of premiums directly on healthcare. When they don't they must rebate. More than 3 million young people have health insurance for the first time because they can be on their parents' policies. Millions now receive preventive healthcare when they didn't before. Insurance companies are getting millions of new customers. Pre-existing conditions are now covered. As a result healthcare costs are going down.

As to the charge of robbing Medicare of $716 billion, there were no cuts to benefits. Obamacare cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies. The savings were used to cut the doughnut hole in the Medicare drug program and added 8 years of solvency to the program. As for the work requirement in welfare, it was Republican governors that asked for a waiver if they could put people back to work. Obama agreed, but they must have a plan to increase welfare to work by 20% and if they don't deliver then the deal is off.

There is much more so I encourage you to go see the speech or read the transcript. This is a very different vision for America than the regressive agenda. The choice couldn't be more stark or important going forward, not back.