OBA: “Pattern Of Distortion & Fear-Mongering”
[Updated] Government continues to “run from its 5-year record of soaring unemployment, rising violent crime and reckless borrowing” and offers voters nothing but a “continuing pattern of distortion and fear-mongering,” the One Bermuda Alliance has said.
The OBA was responding to a press conference held yesterday where the PLP questioned the OBA’s commitment to FutureCare. This is the second time in the past few days the two parties have exchanged words about the health plan for seniors.
The OBA said: “It’s unfortunate this Government continues to run from its 5-year record of soaring unemployment, rising violent crime and reckless borrowing by playing on the fears of seniors about the security of their FutureCare health benefits.
“Every day voters are becoming more aware that it offers them nothing but a continuing pattern of distortion and fear-mongering. But here are the facts, as our spokesman for the Shadow Health Board Andrew Simons recently reiterated:
“Once more for the record, the OBA supports FutureCare. We will not abolish FutureCare. We will not cut FutureCare. In fact, under an OBA Government seniors currently enrolled in FutureCare will see no change in their benefits.”
“The challenge for Future Care is ensuring that the system is financially secure, not just for this generation but also for those that follow. Instead of 4 out of 10 younger people unemployed, the OBA will get those young Bermudians back to work so they can help support a health care system for our seniors today and ensure it is there for their generation tomorrow.
“Instead of paying millions of dollars a week in national debt interest, the OBA will reduce the debt and ensure that more of your tax dollars go to providing the essential health care services our seniors need and less of your tax dollars wind up in the pockets of foreign creditors.
“Through the sound fiscal policies in the OBA’s economic recovery plan, we are meeting that challenge. And Bermuda’s seniors can be assured that there will continue to be a future for FutureCare under an OBA government. That’s change they can believe in. The change Bermuda needs,” the OBA concluded.
Update 4.04pm: A PLP spokesperson said: “Over the last several days, the OBA has completely reversed themselves on PLP initiatives that they spent months criticizing.
“The OBA used to say that FutureCare should be scrapped. Now, they say it should be saved. They used to say that EEZ grants were reckless, now, they say they want to expand them.
“Bermudians need to ask themselves if the OBA can be trusted with FutureCare, DayCare and the EEZ. Yesterday, they bitterly opposed these PLP accomplishments. Today, they support them. The big question mark is where they’ll be tomorrow and if you can really trust the OBA to protect these PLP accomplishments?
“We would further like to highlight the following telling statement from yesterday’s OBA statement. The OBA said, “under an OBA Government seniors currently enrolled in FutureCare will see no change in their benefits.” Look at the word they used. Seniors CURRENTLY enrolled in FutureCare.
“Do they plan to cut FutureCare for those who are approaching retirement? Bermudians in their 40s, 50s and 60s need to know if the OBA plans rapid and radical increases in their premiums? It’s time for the OBA to come clean.”
are they forgetting what Louise Jackson statements were on Future Care. She has insuated on numerious occasions how bad future care is and now they come up with tis, give me a break.
Yeah, & for 30 years the PLP made it their mission to tell the UBP that they were doing EVERYTHING wrong & were making a terrible “MESS” of Bermuda.
They, the PLP, knew how to fix it.
Well now, after 14 years of PLP ‘fixing’ the UBP created mess, how is life treating you?
Better today than in 1998? Only those in the private sector i.e. where the economy is generated, need to answer. Those in the civil service, your turn is coming, no matter who is elected Dec 17th. The blow is going to be softer for you under the OBA with their expertise rather than thoughtless reactions to crisis. More “computer glitches” coming at payday.
This is the main reason we need to support the Independent Candidates. Both parites are worthless. With enough Independent in the house of assembly they can’t run this crap and get away with it. OBA speaks from both sides of their mouths. PLP speakes from both sides of their mouths.
The only time we see the leader of the OBA is in still photos or with prepared speeches, why is this? Anything type of validation the OBA wants us to hear, guess who they send, right the true leader Michael Dunkley. OBAers want to hear from you leader tune in to the rehearsed videos and prepared speeches by the Don
The only time we hear of the PLP leader is when she’s off island getting a ‘women’s award’.
Any chance of a PLP candidate visiting my house, or have they given up in Southampton?
For real!
Actually, I’m glad no PLP reps have visited me. If they did, I’d have to sit them down and explain the mind-boggling concept of inflation.
The OBA leader is a bit like Santa Claus …. You get to see him but once a year and , the only thing he will ever say to you is HO ,HO ,HO …
You claim to be retired? You have the insults of an 8 year old, and yet again based off of nothing.
And he made his money and was able to retire under the UBP must be nice. Hardly anyone can afford to retire under the PLP and that’s a fact……………
LOL
Anne Cartwright Decouto retired many fishermen . This is part of the history of your UBP/OBA organization . Sold up , was forced to look for employment abroad , got lucky and came back . So thank you UBP/OBA for retiring me and many other productive members of society .
And now you just bloggin out ya a$$. Go do something productive!!
hahahah BURN!!!!!!
At least she really DID have testicular fortitude and not just empty words.
And, thanks to that iron lady, we still have hinds, which, if you’d been left to decimate, would be extinct now.
Loser.
Burn indeed lololol
lol
Waiting for a visit in Devonshire too. They have alot of slpainin to do. My vote is worth more than a flag or a turkey.
And Smiths!
And St. George’s.
Can’t wait to ask Dame Jennifer what exactly has she done for St. George’s. I already know what she hasn’t done, she should be ashamed to call herself a St. Georgian.
And Warwick…………
PLP must know they are winning as they hold a one time town hall meeting and don’t canvass the constituencies………..
LOL
Who is the leader of the PLP? She is never around as a leader, she HIDES when we need comment on nonsense, like the guy who paid for himself to write a report on himself…she gets TWO salaries for her TWO roles that she does both at the same time……hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm LEADER is something she had never been
why n0t support the indpendents, their voice will be ours. They do not need to support party lines.
OBA deal with this honestly. You made a career as the UBP opposing FutureCare every chance you got. As the OBA you have opposed FutureCare and NOW that you realize it is a benefit highly valued by seniors and their families you’re flip-flopping. Admit it and move on. And while you’re at it, explain why you want to reopen the Indigent Clinic. Back to warehousing sick people and robbing the less fortunate of their dignity. Just say you don’t want poor people to be treated by the physician of their choice and that THEY should all go to the Indigent Clinic where THEY belong. Just admit it.
The OBA said they will “scrap” THE CURRENT MODEL of Futurecare. Maybe because it’s not working well, spending too much money, etc. Meaning they will AMEND it NOT GET RID OF IT ALTOGETHER. You lot are dumb as rocks if you don’t understand the difference. Anything else you’re skeptical about? They don’t oppose it entirely, THEY OPPOSE THE WAY IT’S CURRENTLY BEING RUN. smh get real!
Um… So they say no change and then they say they are going to scrap it… I think we need another puppet ad on this one, pure rubbsih from the OBA and their supporters. Face it, you don’t like future care, and you can’t eat your past words that you’ll scrap it.
Funny how you can’t really say anything just repeat de bull$hit they spoon feed you. THEY WILL SCRAP THE CURRENT MODEL, NOT THE ENTIRE ENTITY!!! You really are retarded.
No they understand, its just spin, what they’re being paid to do.
It’s call “trolling”!
and perhaps the indigent clinic was closed by Dr. Brown so that people would visit his clinic? is that a possibility? just asking…is that unreasonable to assume? perhaps at the indigent clinic people who can least afford it would not be asked to pay co-pays and deductibles? Future Care is a mess and is unsustainable IN ITS PRESENT FORM but it is a sacred cow.. how does something get priced at $300 one year and $600 the next? make sense to you? how is it covering 100% one day and then a stealth memo goes out knocking it down to 75%? make sense to you?
Under Doc Brown health care costs went up. Wounder why …he is a doctor and was pretecting who’s interests ……his. You want to know why health costs are so high here. Insurance people agree on a schedual that is set by governement, the doctors and the insurance companies. Doctors like the Brown charge way over the schedual and therefor shoot costs up. as this happens on a yearly basis you can see that it the medical professionals pushing costs……….
LOL
This is pure crap from the OBA.
OBA how are you going to “reduce debt” if you don’t cut the budget! You have to cut the budget in order to do that so tell us what you will cut!!!!!
You can talk about the PLP as much as you want, but you want people voting FOR you not against the PLP right, or is that not the case.
If you say you will “reduce debt” tell us how!!!!!!!
“OBA how are you going to “reduce debt” if you don’t cut the budget”.
Um, ever heard of increasing revenues? Improving efficiency? Every time a person gets thrown on the PLP unemployment scrapheap the government loses tax revenue. Every time a business relocates a department overseas the government loses revenue. Every time money is wasted on, for example, an unnecessary $160,000 ‘report’, that gets added to what the government has had to borrow.
How about this. Tell us what plans the PLP has. Do they plan to reduce debt or not? How? When? What exactly are they going to do? Is it a secret PLP plan?
Nice try, I like that one. Your vodoo economics is soooo 1980s. Come up with a better answer except for “trust me the money will come”
If the OBA were to say “trust me the money will come”, they’d be saying a whole lot more than the PLP!
Funny it goes both ways but you don’t want to see it like that. WHERE is the PLP’s plan IN DEPTH?!?! I’ve seen the “10 point plan” which is nothing more than bullet points with a couple of sentences. WHERE IS THE IN DEPTH PLAN THAT BREAK DOWN EACH POINT? Oh wait there is none….I’ll still be waiting.
Here’s an example of a secret PLP plan: Who are the trustees that were behind the contract to build the Dame Lois Building?? Remember that one? A taxpayer funded public building with secret trusts hiding the names of …..well, who??
People have short memories! And…where’s the “Son of the soil” report?
From the literature I read yesterday, it said the OBA would reduce the debt through growth in the economy. Therefore, they wouldn’t need to make actual cuts to the budget up front.
Of course the downside is that without growth, they can’t reduce the debt. But against that we’ve seen the spend, spend, spend record of the PLP during the ‘good times’ so there is little indication they would do anything to reduce Government debt were the ‘good times’ to return. In fact, in Col. Burch’s recent letter to the paper he stated how proud he was of this record….
And how is the PLP going to reduce DEBT, that is what I would like to know. Can you tell me? We can’t continue like this. If we continue like this eventually our worthless Bermuda Dollar will be devalued and then you won’t be able to afford a loaf of bread, never mind fuel for your car or a airline ticket out of here.
Please answer that question
@Eastern This is a challenge that is facing Bermuda today, Kim Swan the leader of the UBP/OBA said that there was a secret plan,….THE UBP tried to fool Bermuda by disbanding and forming a new party to act as if it’s a new party when in fact it is the same Old Bermudian Associates (OBA/UBP) .
And Bermuda is fed up with the UBP and that old secret boys club way of doing business, at least the PLP opened the doorway for more Bermudians to do business and become business owners, and sour wealthy people pulled their money out of Bermudas circulation to help hurt our economy but we did excellent with out them,
And to all you Morons talking about debt remember George Bush had a war 2 years after the PLP was in government and he had two terms which ended in 2008, so for 10 years Bush sent the world into a recession and Bermuda was affected by that so out of the 14 years PLP has been in power the r GDP decline peak to trough was higher than any recession the UBP ever faced in their 30 something years,
and The PLP invested in its people and in infrastructure ,we accumulated debt but it if you understand basic economics… which most of you don’t ….then you would understand how debt creates money, the OBA/UBP tell you they have a 500million plan in government spending and you think that that is coming out of their a$$??? You think they are going to invest their own businesses and money in that??? Or do you think that would put us further in debt.
Most of us are in debt, we are broke ..we don’t have more than $3000 in our bank accounts..
We get in debt because we need to purchase certain things in order to live and make it…
We work mon to fri and we have no money by mon
In order to get money we invest in ourselves and we get a job some get two jobs or three
Those jobs help us to pay off our debt…(loan..house..bills ect ect)
Once our bills is paid off we are then out of debt and we gain profits (if we keep our jobs)
The PLP had to invest in its people in order for Bermuda to survive this recession
More jobs was saved by this investing during this recession
The PLP took money to make money and we have to go further into debt in order to gain profits and survive…..still not understanding???
If you buy a house you have brought into debt…once you own the house and rent it out you have something that you would have invested in that is now bringing you a profit.
And 14 years of battling a recession and investing is too short of a time to see a fast growth, and I don’t know of any body that has gotten a house and paid it off in 14 years, they usually finish by 30 years and some peoples children or grandkids end up finishing off the debt, and are able to see the profits of their grandparents from the investment they made years ago.
So our future children will inherit debt but it wont be a debt that will cripple them and truth be told there is no nations except a few that have no nation debt!
Norway, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is among the few,
On June 26, 2012 the Government raised nearly half a billion dollars in a four-times oversubscribed bond sale….
DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN READ ANYMORE????
Institutional investors will receive an interest rate of 4.13 percent on the $475 million of ten-year bonds sold. Some of the proceeds will be used to restructure more expensive and shorter-term debt. More than 106 investors placed orders from places including from Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and US, the Finance Ministry said. It also stated the use of proceeds included the refinancing of more expensive and shorter term debt with $180 million representing new debt; the refinancing of a $200 million 4.95 percent loan facility due 2014 will result in savings for the country over the next two years; and the low pricing and very large order book confirmed that the markets continue to have a very favorable view of the Bermuda credit story despite ongoing economic challenges and the general volatile backdrop stemming from the European debt crisis. The debt sale came on the same day that Fitch downgraded Bermuda’s sovereign bond credit rating to AA from AA+.
AND THE PLP is doing a bad job???????????????????? Smh
and our Bermuda dollar gets its value from the other dollars so as long as we are in business..which we are we wont be slipping that much and you can thank George Bush for the economic problems we face today
” …we accumulated debt but it if you understand basic economics… which most of you don’t ….then you would understand how debt creates money …”
BWAA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-Ha!!
Pure nonsense… so much spin I’m dizzy.
We all know full well who has all the money….
Let me dispel the myth for your simple mind.
OBA SECRET PLAN = CAMPAIGN SUGGESTIONS
THE PLP HAS ONE ALSO….IN FACT ONE AFTER EVERY ELECTION.
NEXT PLEASE
Ohhhh…almost forgot. George Bush DID NOT CREATE the United States recession or the global one. Housing collapse, bank mortages/foreclosures, loans, etc started the recession, neither did his “wars.” Guess what….THE UNITED STATES IS NOT IN A RECESSION ANYMORE!
“…..at least the PLP opened the doorway for more Bermudians to do business and become business owners…..”.
Are you talking about Denis or Zane? Or both of them combined?
I cannot believe how many stupid people live in this country.
jt i agree with you…..
I dont give 2 s**ts about Futurecare, Daycare or the EEZ. i want a financially savvy government who do not put MY money in their friends and families pockets…