Last week, the 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) took place in Philadelphia, PA. Over the span of four days, Democrats gathered together to celebrate their party, engage with political leaders and witness speeches from Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, President Obama and Hilary Clinton, just to name a few. While most were excited about the convention, I found myself curious about the conversations being had by the opposing side.
One speech that stood out to me was the speech President Obama gave on day three of the DNC. His speech focused on the accomplishments of his presidency and overwhelmingly on the Democratic candidate running in this year’s election: Hilary Clinton. His speech instilled a sense of hope and accomplishment into the eyes of his fellow Democrats, but the same was not to be said about Republicans.
Tomi Lahren, who has recently gained attention in the public eye, had a few words to say about Barack Obama’s speech.
Looking past some of the harsh comments made by Lahren, I was curious to see if there was truth behind what she was saying. In the video (at 0:38) Lahren mentions that Obamacare is not a right but rather an obligation. She also says, “Obamacare kills jobs, raises premiums and taxes.” The following is the information I found according to Curtis S. Dubay, Research Fellow, Tax and Economic Policy Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies:
“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) imposes numerous tax hikes that transfer more than $500 billion over 10 years — and more in the future — from hardworking American families and businesses to Congress for spending on new entitlements and subsidies. In addition, higher tax rates on working and investing will discourage economic growth both now and in the future, further lowering the standard of living.”
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly referred to as Obamacare, is, after all, raising taxes by an enormous amount and ultimately lowering the standard of living, thus killing opportunity for future generations.
Moving on, Lahren discussed the state of the economy during Obama’s presidency. She goes on to say, “Not one year of economic growth over three percent since elected — the only president in history.” After researching I found an article from CNS News that stated the following:
“The United States has now gone a record 10 straight years without three percent growth in real Gross Domestic Product, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis ... In the 85 years for which BEA has calculated the annual change in real GDP there is only one ten-year stretch — 2006 through 2015 — when the annual growth in real GDP never hit 3 percent.”
Based on this data collected from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we see that Lahren was correct when she stated that Obama was the only president in history to not see a single year of economic growth since elected.
Lahren has been known to gain media attention with her political statements, but we can’t ignore that there is truth behind the facts and figures she gives in her video about President Obama’s speech. Some of her statements are covered up by harsh criticism, but what remains is the truth.
I invite all Americans to approach political situations cautiously. If you hear a fact or figure from a politician, look it up. If you see a news story from a biased station, look up the same news story from the opposing view. Don’t be too quick to judge. Learn the information and then decide whom you stand with.
As Tomi would say, those are my final thoughts — What are yours?
