Katie Pavlich
After speaking for more than an hour, President Obama has finished his 2014 State of the Union Address. Not surprisingly, his words and statements didn't come without irony or hypocrisy. Here are the top five:
1. President Obama touted the pre-existing condition requirement in Obamacare saying, "Because of this law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition." As a result of Obamacare and since the federal exchanges were launched on October 1, 2013, millions of people have been dropped from their health insurance plans.
2. President Obama said it was an "embarrassment" that in today's American society women get paid less than men, ignoring the fact that his White House pays women less than men.
Female employees in the Obama White House make considerably less than their male colleagues, records show.
According to the 2011 annual report on White House staff, female employees earned a median annual salary of $60,000, which was about 18 percent less than the median salary for male employees ($71,000).
3. President Obama said, "I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible," and urged Congress to send him legislation to make it happen while ignoring the Keystone Pipeline, a project that would create thousands of jobs and one that has been sitting on his desk for years waiting for approval.
4. On foreign policy President Obama said, "America must move off a permanent war footing," while refusing to acknowledge his administration's meddling in places like Egypt, Libya, Syria and Honduras.
5. When discussing veterans and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama said, "As this time of war draws to a close, a new generation of heroes returns to civilian life. We’ll keep slashing that backlog so our veterans receive the benefits they’ve earned, and our wounded warriors receive the health care – including the mental health care – that they need," while failing to acknowledge Obamacare has destroyed those healthcare benefits in Tricare.
The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.
The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.
The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.
Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.
“We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”
Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
