Obama, Dems’ promises are not materializing

The current administration maintains spending is necessary to recover jobs. The health care reform bill is law. One of the first realizations is that the tax incentive that encourages corporations to provide prescription drug benefits to retirees has been eliminated. AT&T, John Deere, Caterpillar and many other companies revealed that the new law will cost them billions in the first year. How many jobs will this cost?

Obama promised that the stimulus bill would allow Caterpillar to rehire workers that were laid off. Didn't happen.

Sen. Tom Harkin, Rep. Dave Loebsack and Obama continue to tout that the health care bill will save money, especially for small businesses. Does the government's past record on forecasts concern anyone? In 1965, when Congress was working on Medicare, the government estimated that the hospital insurance portion of the program, Part A, would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990. Actual Part A spending in 1990 was $67 billion.

Small businesses develop and produce many new and innovative medical equipments used in hospitals. The health care law will hit them with new taxes.

The national debt is approaching an unsustainable 90 percent of gross domestic product. Now we hear rumblings of a value-added tax. This would fit the current big-government solution for everything because it is well-hidden and applied at multiple layers of production. It would be a European solution that may get us a European unemployment rate, unless voters wake up in November.

Doug Emerson

Marion