On Sunday Chris Wallace called out Ted Cruz for his blatant distortions of fact. Cruz continued with his Obamacare-doomsday rhetoric, which has no foundation in fact or basic logic. Even Fox News was uncomfortable with Cruz’s distortions, and Chris Wallace finally called them out. Here is the transcript:
WALLACE: I want to drill down into Cruz-care, because there is a statement you made about Obamacare that has gotten a lot of attention since the debate. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: We have seen now in six years of Obamacare that it’s been a disaster. It is the biggest job killer in this country, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and have been forced into part time work, have lost their health insurance, have lost their doctors, have seen their premiums skyrocket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: But, Senator, the fact checkers say you’re wrong. Since that law went into effect, the unemployment rate fell from 9.9 percent to 5 percent, as 13 million new jobs were created and 16.3 million people who were previously uninsured now have coverage.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of problems with Obamacare. But more people have jobs and health insurance than they did before Obamacare.
CRUZ: Chris, the media fact checkers are not fair and impartial. They are liberal, editorial journalists. And they have made it their mission to defend Obamacare.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: There’s certainly no question that more people have jobs and more people have health insurance coverage.
CRUZ: Yes, there is question. Number one, we have the lowest percentage of Americans working today of any year since 1977. That’s fact. They focused on —
WALLACE: But there are 13 million jobs created, sir. That’s a fact.
CRUZ: The fact is that from 2008 to today, we’ve seen economic growth of 1.2 percent on average.
(CROSSTALK)
CRUZ: Chris, don’t interrupt me. I’ll give an answer —
WALLACE: That’s changing the subject.
CRUZ: No.
WALLACE: Thirteen million new jobs have been created.
CRUZ: And that is a historically slow rate of job creation if you look at what has occurred in any previous year. You know, Obama is the first president ever to have a year of 3 percent economic growth. Millions of people in this country are hurting.
One of the problems is you’ve got the elite, the Washington elite, the rich have gotten richer under Barack Obama. The top one percent are in a higher share of our income than any year since 1928. But working men and women are hurting.
And I’ll tell you, you know, representing Texas, one of the things I do when I go home is I host small business roundtables. And I bring together 20, 30 small business owners around the table and just ask them, share what’s on your heart. Share what you’re thinking about. Share what you’re praying about.
I have never done a small business table where at least half the small business owners didn’t list Obamacare as the single biggest obstacle they’re facing. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and the people have been forced into part time work. Or lost their health care or lost their doctors or seen their premiums skyrocket.
WALLACE: Let’s talk sir about your alternative, what you say you would do after you repeal Obamacare, how you would replace it. And this is what you listed in the debate.
Sell health insurance across state lines, expand health saving accounts, make insurance portable so you can take it with you if you switch jobs. Now, conservative think-tanks say those are good ideas. They also say they would have no effect in giving people who are now uninsured health coverage.
CRUZ: Well, that’s simply not the case. So, for example, the biggest barrier to access is cost. If you want more people covered, what you want is lower costs. When you ask people, “Why don’t you have health insurance”, they say, “Gosh, I can’t afford it.”
Allowing people to purchase health insurance across state lines would create a true 50-state national marketplace. That would drive down the cost and expand the availability of low cost catastrophic coverage.
WALLACE: But, sir, the Congressional Budget Office, nonpartisan, the National Center for Policy Analysis, certainly not a left wing group, have both said that that kind of selling insurance across state lines would have minimal effect in expanding access.
CRUZ: Well, I can’t speak to what the CBO can say. What I can tell you is if you want more people to have choices, you want more choices and lower costs. That’s what gives more people health insurance.
Full Interview Transcript Found Here
Even Fox News has trouble handling Ted Cruz’s made-up reality on Obamacare: https://t.co/fne1jUFL4k #donkeyfeed #p2 #tcot #foxnews #cnn
— MATTY ICE (@MattyIceAZ) February 1, 2016