Where does the buck stop?

Obama has been in office for more than four years. At what point is he held responsible for anything? For years it was "blame Bush." Now it's "blame Republicans," or "blame insurance companies" or "blame oil companies." Obama's policies, endorsed and rammed through during Democrat control of Congress, have created an economic environment where businesses have been terrified of moving because of mistrust of how the Obama administration would punish them for something.

Now the reports are that Obamacare -- Obama's flagship "accomplishment" -- will cost nearly a trillion dollars more than we were told, more people will pay higher insurance premiums than we were told, businesses will pay more fees than we were told, fewer people will be covered than we were told, and hidden provisions -- e.g., forcing the Catholic Church to cover birth control and abortions, against their religious teaching -- have wider and deeper impacts than we were told. 

Bush & co. were wrong about Iraq's WMDs -- but so were 99.9% of Democrats and the rest of the civilized world. Much more evidence exists that the Democrat party, and Obama in particular, have repeatedly deceived and lied to the American public than that the Bush administration ever did. It's about time for Obama to face his "proper comeuppance" (to quote the Washington Post.) 

I hate to say I told you so, but...

The "Beige Book," the report of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on current economic conditions, confirms a lot of what Republicans and other opponents predicted about Obamacare. The Governors report economic trends from their various Districts around the country, usually centered around a large city such as Kansas City, San Francisco, Minneapolis, etc.

From the section "Consumer Spending and Tourism" -- "Many District contacts commented on the expired payroll tax holiday and the Affordable Care Act as having restrained sales growth." 

From the section "Labor" -- "Employers across the District continued to cite the Affordable Care Act and its unknown impacts as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff."

From the section "Nonfinancial Services" -- "Some contacts noted concern that client companies are hiring the absolute minimum to get by due to uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act."

Remember how before the Obamacare legislation was passed, Democrats mocked opponents' predictions as "doom and gloom?" When you add the slowdown in consumer spending and business hiring to the already-more-expensive-than-Democrats-promised cost of Obamacare, it's not much of a leap to believe 1) Obamacare is going to cripple the American economy; and 2) The quality of our health care is just as likely to decline as it is to improve. So far Democrats have proven clueless in their predictions about its effects.