A recent article in the foreign press supposedly quoting an anonymous foreign official claimed that the president's trip to Asia would end up costing American taxpayers $200 million per day and that 34 navy warships were being used for the trip -- certainly an astounding figure, were it true. Buts it's not even close to true. This hasn't stopped some political opponents of the president, including some elected officials, from trafficking in this claim.
So let us be unequivocal: the numbers reported have no basis in reality. Due to security concerns, we can't get into details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated and President Obama's costs are in line with the costs of protecting previous Presidents.
For the record, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was also asked about the claim that the President will be accompanied by 34 warships on the trip, and gave an appropriate response:
We obviously have some support role for presidential travel. We don't speak to that in detail for security reasons. But I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy -- some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier -- in support of the president's trip to Asia. That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done.
Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director. This post appeared first at the White House Blog
"political misinformation primarily works by feeding into people's preexisting views....
... a series of new experiments show that misinformation can exercise a ghostly influence on people's minds after it has been debunked -- even among people who recognize it as misinformation. In some cases, correcting misinformation serves to increase the power of bad information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091402375_pf.html
This makes absolutely no sense at all. "Osama, we've got it! President Obama's security will cost $74,349,021.34!"
"Aha, now we've got him!"
There are no -- zero -- security implications associated with the total cost of a security operation. You just don't want to say the number, because it would subject you to accountability. Most transparent White House ever!
Just askin'.
But this is by far the more important story. Fox News and talk radio recklessly ran with this story without even a slight attempt at fact checking. Their careless, reckless disregard for the truth is once again on display for all to see. They care nothing about facts - they only want to discredit Obama. In their gleeful haste to do so, they've discredited themselves yet again.
In addition - the 200 million story is not the only lie that's been exposed. Tom Tancredo isone of many conservatives who has accused Obama of being a "committed socialist idealogue." Yup, Obama is such a socialist, he's meeting with more than 200 American CEOs on this trip, all in an attempt to promote American businesses. If that's socialism, Obama's doing a lousy job of it.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/pepsico-citigroup-ceos-among-200-biz-leaders-to-meet-with-obama/19705546/
The bottom line: How can you tell when Fox News and right wing talk radio hosts are lying? When their lips are moving, or when they are typing something on a keyboard. Anyone with an ounce of honesty cannot respect anything they say.
But it's not up to anyone to prove that something is non-existent; it's up to the rumormongerers to show that their sources are acceptable. Merely because Bachman and FN, say the Obamas will use however much recources on this trip doesn't make it so.
Btw, one should ask oneself, "Have the supposed 34 ships reached India yet, or are they still chugging over from disparate parts of the world?"
Take the Clinton figures, QUINTUPLE them, and you're STILL at less than an EIGHTH of this number!!!
Tea Party based their belief and mouth on multimillionaire Bush tax cut-benefitted Talking Head in FOX "News" not on Fact