FNS

In what has become a tiresome refrain, delivered as it always is in still another meaningless speech delivered in front of a friendly and highly partisan audience, Barack Obama suggested that Fox News was a key catalyst in the public's growing concern about his Affordable Care Act. This president is unique in his hyper-partisanship, but he is ground-breaking (in a really worrisome way) is his tendency to attack a major media outlet that disagrees with his policies and programs. He regularly blames FNS for his policy failures and his program's inadequacies. It's almost laughable, and at the same time, marginally pathetic.

Neil Cavuto, a business anchor at FNS, finally had had enough. His response (read the whole thing) is an absolute classic:

Mr. President, we at Fox News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. You are. Your words are. Your promises are. We didn't sell this healthcare law. Sir, you did. Remember this?

President Barack Obama: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.

Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who've been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Fox News didn't break that news to them, Mr. President. Their companies did.

Fox News didn't push more of those firms to hire part-time workers. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn't incentivize fast food restaurants to scale back their benefits. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn't make doctors want to opt out. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn't make insurance premiums sky rocket. Your healthcare law did. Just like Fox News didn't grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them. You did. And Fox News didn't delay one key provision after another, including online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did.

Just like it wasn't Fox News that said we had to pass this to see what was in this. You did. Or was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes I'm confused. But of this I am not. Fox News didn't re-do basic math. Sir, you did. Fox News didn't say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hit in premiums. You did. Fox News didn't say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it. You did. Fox News didn't all but say you could get something for nothing. You did. Fox News didn't come back years later and say, oh yea, we did raise some taxes. You did.

Here's where you are right about Fox News, however, Mr. President. We can do math. And did. You cannot. And did not. We said it, and proved it. You didn't. And we're all suffering for it. Take it from the numbers guy at Fox. Numbers don't lie. The number of Americans working part-time and nervous. The number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges and anxious. The number of company bosses with any news to pass along on those exchanges, but still clueless. The number of doctors who want out. The number of congressmen now opting out. No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie.

Barack Obama is able to make any mendacious statement with impunity because his trained media hamsters never probe, almost never fact check, and always offer a quick protective comment that serves to protect his factual inaccuracies.

When Barack Obama blames Fox News, the left cheers because FNS is one of their boogie men. The rest of us look sadly at the president and can only respond with one word: "Seriously?"


Update (18 Oct 2013):

Since May, 2013, the Obama administration made a cynical political decision not to post weekly debt figures. The debt stayed constant (in their fantasy world) at about $16.7 trillion for about 6 months. On the day after the debt ceiling increase was signed into law, the debt magically jumped by $328 billion dollars and now stands at $17.075 trillion, according to Treasury Department figures posted online on today.