President Obama “Caterpillars” Health Care Industry
Conn Carroll /
On February 12th President Barack Obama flew to East Peoria, Illinois, headquarters of Caterpillar, Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. At the press conference President Obama claimed, for the second day in a row, that thanks to his $787 billion stimulus package Caterpillar CEO James Owens planned on rehiring 20,000 recently laid-off employees. But then reporters asked Owens if Obama’s claims were true. Owens replied:
I think, realistically, no. The honest reality is we’re probably going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again.
Not only has Caterpillar not rehired as Obama promised, they have since been forced to lay off even more workers. Fast forward to this Monday when the Obama administration hosted a press conference at the White House this time trying to show that the health care industry supports his health care plan. Obama claimed:
These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment. Over the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.