These are some of the numbers by which the future successes or failures of the new presidency will be measured.
What President Trump Inherits
Issues: uninsured
More Than 9 Million Newly Insured
Top Democrats, including President Obama, have credited the Affordable Care Act for more than 9 million Americans obtaining health insurance. But that’s an exaggerated figure that includes individuals who renewed Medicaid coverage and others who switched insurance to plans on the exchanges.
Gingrich Overshoots the Truth
Republican Newt Gingrich mistakenly claimed on "Meet the Press" that a U.S. helicopter involved in the Osama bin Laden raid "was shot down." There’s no evidence of that. U.S. officials say it crash landed and was destroyed by Navy SEALs. Gingrich also was wrong to say Pakistan’s intelligence chief did not apologize for "failing to find" bin Laden. He may not have apologized to Gingrich or the U.S. public, but he did apologize to the Pakistani Parliament.
Thirty Million Uninsured
One of the items we noted in our Sept. 10 wrap-up of President Barack Obama’s televised prime-time address to Congress was his carefully worded estimate of the number of uninsured citizens.
Obama, Sept. 9: There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.
We said that Obama appeared to be underestimating the number of uninsured, even if we subtract the estimated 10 million uninsured who are not U.S. citizens. With the Census Bureau now reporting 46.3 million people without insurance,
Uninsured U.S. Citizens
Q: How many of the uninsured are U.S. citizens?
A: The vast majority of the uninsured are citizens from working families.
Highlighting Health Care
It has started. A new TV spot is running nationally saying that “fixing health care” is “something that we must do.” It is the first ad in what we expect will be a massive barrage of public relations claims on all sides of the coming debate over President-elect Obama’s …