The Associated Press put it this way on August 9th:

“WASHINGTON – Using better-than-expected jobs numbers to press his top domestic priority, President Obama is arguing that overhauling the healthcare system is essential to the country’s economic well-being.

“Republicans countered that the high unemployment rate – 9.4 percent in July – shows that families and businesses are struggling and that Obama’s reliance on a large government role in expanding health coverage is the wrong approach.

“A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in June as the United States tries to pull out from the worst recession since World War II.

“‘We’ve begun to put the brakes on this recession and … the worst may be behind us,’ Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address yesterday …

“‘So far they have produced a (healthcare) measure they cannot sell even to their own members,’ Mitch McConnell Senate GOP leader, said in a jab at majority Democrats. ‘The only thing bipartisan, so far, is the opposition.’

“With lawmakers embarking on a monthlong summer break, opponents and supporters of various proposals under consideration are waging fierce campaigns. Obama is redoubling his effort to explain his positions to a public that polls suggest is becoming increasingly wary that he can deliver on his promise to revamp healthcare.”

This is one of the smokescreens being laid down by the White House.

How many new jobs do you suppose a healthcare program will generate? The needed 40 to 50 million? 20 million, maybe? Any?

The only sure effect we’ll see if this socialized program materializes is a tax increase. No new jobs – just new taxes. Officials in this administration hype “recovery” the way officials in the previous administration, hyped “terrorists” and “weapons of mass destruction” – and the “recovery” they’re pointing to is just as pretended as the “terrorists” and the WMDs.

Reports have indicated that another 1.5 million Americans will have exhausted their unemployment benefits by Christmas. 247,000 newly unemployed? … and this is supposed to convince us that “the worst may be behind us”?

Santa Claus may be one of the 1.5 million newcomers filing for unemployment in December.