Obama was less than honest in his half-hour commercial about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Brietbart:

Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are—beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn’t tell them:

THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

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THE SPIN: “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost.”

THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama’s policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years—and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: “Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years.” The analysis goes on to say: “Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.”

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THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. “

THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”

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THE SPIN: “I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care.”

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: “I want to start doing something about it.” He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

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THE SPIN: “We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we’re going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad that we’ve got to look at bringing that war to a close.” These lines in the ad were taken from a debate with McCain.

THE FACTS: Obama was once and very often definitive about getting combat troops out in 16 months (At times during the primaries, he promised to do so within a year). More recently, without backing away explicitly from the 16-month withdrawal pledge, he has talked of the need for flexibility. In the primaries, it would have been a jarring departure for him to have said merely that “we’ve got to look at” ending the war. As for Iraq’s surplus, it’s true that Iraq could end up with a surplus that large, but that hasn’t happened yet.

THE “OBAMERCIAL” — L.A. Times Cathleen Decker: “Barack Obama’s 30-minute campaign commercial Wednesday night was not merely a tactical decision to carpet-bomb millions of Americans in pursuit of a few thousand undecided voters who can dictate the outcome of the presidential campaign. Aired on seven network and cable stations, the ad served as a national get-out-the-vote organizing tool for Obama operatives. It offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential, helping to condition voters to that possibility. And once again it proved to John McCain, and everyone else, how Obama’s deep pool of campaign cash has allowed him to rewrite the rules of the campaign. … According to an accounting by the Nielsen television research company, the Illinois senator was running more than twice as many ads across the country as McCain, even after the Republican increased his television buys.”

Hot Air:

I watched The Last Seduction for the first time in years.  Michelle live-blogged it, and apparently I didn’t miss anything.

The Associated Press watched it too, and surprisingly, the 30-minute infomercial also failed to impress them:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are – beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

MISLEADING ITEMS:

  • Health care costs – Obama claimed his plan would lower costs by $2500 per year per family, but it doesn’t.  In fact, Obama can’t point to any particular cost reductions.  He plans to spend $50 billion over five years on modernization and chronic-disease prevention and presumes that this will lower costs in the future, but in the meantime it raises costs at least in the short run on everyone (the $50 billion doesn’t come out of thin air).
  • The Pay-Go of his plans – No, he hasn’t demonstrated that he’s found the revenue for his spending, despite his claims last night.  Non-partisan analysts believe that his spending programs will add at least $428 billion to the deficit in his first term, and that’s if you accept his non-specific pledge to cut spending in other areas.
  • Tax cuts for working class families – Before the commercial aired, he had already begun backing away from that idea because of the financial crisis, although Obama didn’t acknowledge it in the ad.
  • The “right” to affordable health care – Obama doesn’t guarantee coverage in any of his plans, at least not for adults.
  • Getting out of Iraq – Obama noted that the US spends $10 billion a month in Iraq and talked again about “bringing that war to a close” — but he’s backed away from his previous pledges to get out on a strict 16-month timetable, which is as fast as the remaining units can be properly withdrawn.