1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.
2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.
3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.
4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.
5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.
6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.
7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.
8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.
Need more? OK. Here's the fact, reported by Bloomberg: The Obama administration cut taxes for middle-class Americans, expects to make a profit on the hundreds of billions of dollars spent to rescue Wall Street banks and has overseen an economy that has grown for the past five quarters.
We are on the right track, finally. The GOP has fought this administration tooth and nail every step of the way. Instead of finding solutions, they focused on their primary objective, as admitted by Mitch McConnell this week: make Barack Obama a one-term president. Saying NO to everything meant they could concentrate all of their energy and efforts crafting their narrative, which is the exact opposite of reality. The ditto-heads and teabaggers gobbled it up and spread the word without question.
The Democrats are not without blame. They failed to tought their accomplishments (some have even run from them). They also allowed themselves to be played again and again.
In fact, just recently Nancy and Harry were handed a game-changing golden opportunity with the middle-class tax cuts. They could have split the bill and held one vote for Americans making UNDER 250,000 and followed that up with one for citizens OVER 250,000. That would have been WIN WIN. The GOP would have had to either vote down the middle-class tax cut, or cave and hand the Dems a victory. The only way they could have lost is to punt...which is exactly what they did. Demoralizing their base once again.
And here we are...
It is frustrating, but I am watching all of my hard work in 2008 go up in smoke. I am seeing a GOP that is willing to drag their country down to win, and am I am watching helplessly as a supermajority of Democrats in power do nothing to stop them.
How sad and ironic that America is on the brink of putting the GOP back in power by replacing those who have actually grown the economy with people who really did triple the deficit last time they were in power.
Looks like its up to us again. Get the message out, and most importantly, VOTE!
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