President Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination to run for reelection at the Democratic National Convention. Then he promised America pet unicorns, leprechaun servants, and monkey butlers, if only we please (please!) vote for him again.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain while 23 million people are out of work, the national debt has passed $16 trillion, and one in seven Americans are on food stamps.
Okay, maybe Obama didn’t promise us mythical creatures to do our bidding, but he sure as heck offered up quite a few myths. Like free heath care for everyone! Free college for everyone! No more oppression for women! No jobs being shipped overseas! Happy happy joy joy!
The Free Health Care Myth
The truth is that health care is neither a right nor a privilege; it’s a service. I know it’s shocking, but doctors don’t want to work for free any more than anyone else. What if we all expected our mechanics to work for free? This is the real world, and part of living here is paying for things that we receive.
The Free College Myth
Same problem as with health care: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you receive a good or service (like medical care or a college education), someone provided it to you. If you didn’t pay for it, someone else did. There’s only so much a doctor or a professor can do for free. They have their own bills to pay. I’ll say it again, because it can’t be said enough: If you didn’t pay for it, someone else did.
The Oppressed Women Myth
I have never, ever, not even once, been denied access to health care because I’m a woman. Since I’ve started using it a decade ago, birth control has never been banned. So long as I’ve been willing to pay my bills, I’ve been seen by whatever doctor I wanted to see. Silly doctors, wanting to be paid. It’s not like we have programs that allow poor people to receive health care ... oh wait, Medicaid. Never mind.
But -- glass ceiling! Women deserve equal pay! Newsflash: If women deserve equal pay to men, they’ll see their paychecks cut. Because when all things equal are considered, it’s actually women that make more than men. Unless they work for Barack Obama, because he pays his female staffers 18 percent less than their male counterparts.
The Overseas Jobs Myth
The president referenced several times that Mitt Romney sent jobs overseas, rather than employ Americans on U.S. soil. Then he said Mitt had no foreign policy experience, which made me giggle, because with all the jobs he’s supposedly sent overseas, you’d think he’d be a foreign policy expert.
Obama also failed to mention that he’s sent more jobs overseas than Romney ever has. But math is hard, so maybe Obama decided to give himself an incomplete. It’s happened before.
The Bottom Line
Obama delivered a speech full of platitudes and nice ideas. If he can get my unicorn to me by November 6, I might even consider voting for him.
Image via Alex Wong/Getty
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Comments 75
Wow busy, someones got a chip on there shoulder. i don't give 2 craps if he's pink, purple, technicolor, albino, etc.. he has not done his job as he promised so many times he would (superman complex) i don't care where he goes jungle, brooklyn, chicago, don't care, just get the hell out of office and let someone else who doesn't want to spend all of my hard earned money on bullshit have a chance.
I love the United States. Its a beautiful country. I've always admired Americans for their patriotism. I still do but I'm so glad I live in Canada. I can't imagine the anxiety of not being able to visit a doctor because you can't afford it. Here we have free health care, well maybe not free, we pay it through our taxes. Moms also get a year maternity leave which I think is so important for the parent and the child(dads can take paternal leave or they can split it between each parent) Most people have extended health care (dental, home care, prescriptions) through their work and if they can't afford it, its covered through social services. We are not without our political woes and we all have our grievances but overall I'm very proud to be Canadian.
Its not unrealistic to have free health care. It shouldn't be survival of the fittest (or should I say richest) I believe that every human being should have that right.
Don't have a chip just an opinion which I'm allowed to express. And everything I said is true.
@Jasmine, I'm sorry our government has put you in a position where your life depends on them. It's not your fault, and some people could even argue that you are exactly where this government wants you to be. If you're so dependent on the government that you are forced to vote accordingly, you have lost your most basic freedom.
I hope you get the care you need, and I hope we can find a way out of this so more people don't have to face the same challenge.
@jhslove, that's a great example. We can't deny at this point that half of our country is made up of citizens that believe in some level of social services. It may not be what Jefferson imagined, but it's undeniably the case today. We can keep playing a tug of war with each other, or we can try to find something agreeable to us all and move on.
Guess the speech didn't go over that well...