The Washington Free Beacon’s Elizabeth Harrington discussed skyrocketing health care premiums and a lackluster economic recovery Thursday on Fox Business Network.
Harrington pointed to low growth and labor force participation rates as "signs of policies that have been in place that are not improving the economy."
Ambitious entitlement programs like Obamacare were passed with big promises, but their implementation has been less than inspiring. A new report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund found that 31 million people in the U.S. were underinsured in 2014. Another news report found that Obamacare exchange insurers in six states are attempting to raise premiums by an average of 18.6 percent in 2016, with one insurer in Tennessee seeking a 36 percent increase.
"All these promises that prices would go down, that more people would be insured.," Harrington said. "They just haven’t panned out."
Higher enrollment in food stamps is another symptom of a sluggish economy. Since President Obama took office in 2009, the number of people on food stamps has increased from 33.5 million to 45.7 million.
Harrington noted that the food stamp did not capture the full extent of federal assistance in a tough economy. "We spent $100 billion last year across 18 programs," Harrington said. "The total number of Americans getting assistance in these 18 programs is 109 million. That is not a good sign of a growing economy."