It's amazing what you can gain from lying. In the worst cases, lying can get you in jail, or lose you a few friends. But done the right way, lying can mislead an entire country -- and maybe even get you elected president.
Sure enough, Mitt Romney and the Republican party have gotten away with lying on countless occasions. Here are just a few examples:
Lie #1: Obama has increased spending.
"Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history"
- MittRomney.com
False. In fact, President Obama has presided under some of the slowest growth in federal spending in decades. Since Obama took office, federal spending has increased at an annualized rate of 1.4 percent, the lowest since the Korean War. For comparison, spending increased around eight percent per year under President Bush. Under Ronald Reagan, Romney's proclaimed role model, it increased around nine percent per year.
Lie #2: Obama has raised taxes.
"He has already raised taxes on millions of Americans, but he won't stop there. He wants to raise taxes on millions more by taxing small businesses and job creators."
- Gail Gitcho, communications director for Romney's campaign
False. When the Washington Post asked the Romney campaign for evidence, they cited a list of 19 tax increases, all of which involve Obama's health care plan, the Affordable Care Act, which is yet to take effect. In fact, Obama ought to be better known for keeping taxes low: The renewal of the Bush tax cuts, two straight years of a payroll tax holiday and the stimulus bill tax cuts all took place under Obama. It is true, however, that Obama is hoping to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of the year for wealthy Americans. But the key word is "hope."
Lie #3: Obamacare will kill jobs
"Obamacare will kill 800,000 jobs. What could the president be thinking by passing a bill like this, knowing full well it will kill 800,000 jobs?"
- Rep. Michele Bachmann
False. According to a study by an economist at Harvard, the Affordable Care Act will actually save employers roughly $3,000 a year per employee in health care costs. Repealing the law, the study estimates, would cause four million job loses by 2019. It's repealing the law, not implementing it, that would kill jobs.
Lie #4: Obamacare increases the deficit.
"The number one to cut is Obamacare. That saves $95 billion a year."
- Mitt Romney
False. When Republicans introduced H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, the Congressional Budget Office sent House Speaker John Boehner a letter detailing what would happen if the law was passed. As it turns out, the CBO estimates that repealing the Affordable Care Act would "increase federal budget deficits over the 2012-2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion." In short, the Affordable Care Act will save us money in the long run.
Lie #5: Obama promised unemployment below eight percent.
"Three years ago, a newly elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to borrow nearly a trillion dollars, he would hold unemployment below eight percent."
- Mitt Romney
False. Simply put: No such promise was ever made, either by President Obama or any member of his administration. The only comparable statement was made in 2009, in a report by then-chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer. The report made various projections relating to the stimulus plan, one of which stated that unemployment would peak under eight percent in 2009. The operative word, of course, being "projection" -- not a promise by any means. Regardless, President Obama didn't even say it.
This is a short list of many lies being shouted at the American people. It's a distortion of democracy at an astronomical level. Only the voters can teach these liars a lesson, and the future of the country depends on it.
Follow Jess Coleman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@jesskcoleman
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Total kudos to the author for doing a far better job than the so-called journalists/bloggers on the right are doing.
You can find hope for the future in the strangest places and i have found it in the teen section of the Huffpost.
''Guantanamo Bay will be closed within a year''
Obama, Council on Foreign Relations Jan.22,2009
''I pledge to cut the deficit in half in my first term''
Obama to the Associated Press Feb.05,2009[ observing in his press conferance that the interest owed on debt ''in 2008 was 250 billion dollars, which could have been used for education'']
It is now 400 billion per annum.
''We do not want to put Americans in a position where we are mandating them, we are forcing them to buy health insurance''
Obama. Democratic Debates, Cleveland Ohio, Feb.22,2008.
''The healthcare package will pay for itself''
Obama. TIME Magazine Apr. 30, 2009: ''Can Congress Make Healthcare Pay For Itself''?
''The border fence is basically complete''
Obama. The Associated Press May 10, 2011.
The Dept. of Homeland Security and the Government Accountability Office place this rate of ''completion'' at 5%.
Obama, in fact did tell Americans that the Recovery Act resulted in ''saved or created'' jobs immediately before the unemployment cratered to 10% beginning in Oct. 2009 setting off another firestorm when congressional accountants at the GAO found that the Recovery Act blew $ 761,586 in order to ''save or create'' a whopping 30 jobs in the state of Arizona. [ ABC NEWS Nov.16,2009 ''Jobs ''Saved or Created'' in Congressional Districts That Do Not Exist''].
Oh, yeah, and this one: ''We do not want to put Americans in a position where we are mandating them, we are forcing them to buy health insurance'' Republicans put the mandate in the health care act ... in fact, it was THEIR IDEA.
man, you are a liar.
in three charts:
1. Spending, Bush 88% increase vs Obama's 7.2% increase
2. Deficits
3. Jobs. 1.8 million new private sector jobs in 2011.
href="http://www.cps-news.com/2011/08/29/some-bush-vs-obama-facts-vs-your-news-sources-facts/">http://www.cps-news.com/2011/08/29/some-bush-vs-obama-facts-vs-your-news-sources-facts/
Heh. ''Faux'' News indeed....
Heres the real deal.
www.treasurydirect.gov The United States Dept. of the Treasury. [closely observe the spending graph between Bush and Obama].
i'm better off than i was 4 years ago and according to ayn rand, that's all that matters
why all of the sudden gotp concern about jobs? it didn't seem to matter after a gotp congress was elected in 2010, only to legislate on culture war issues...
Lie # 2 Healthcare debate will be on C-SPAN
Lie # 3 A family should see 2700% decrease in annual premium after Obamacare passes
Lie # 4 Doctors make $50,000 for amputating a diabetic's leg ( my brother said he has to amputate 37 to get that amount)
1. Budget is a forecast, but expenditures are actuals. 3/4 of every dollar spent during 2009 fiscal year was as a result of an appropriation signed into law by OBAMA. Not Bush.
2. New taxes are raising taxes any way you want to look at it. Extending an existing tax cut is not cutting taxes. Here's some math for libs. IF my taxes are 10% now, and you simply continue them at 10% that doesn't make you a tax cutter.
3. Obamacare is saving jobs? You and your harvard economist need to stop smoking the swag. The only "savings" employers are going to get will be by dropping their coverage and paying the penalty.
4. Obamacare does increase the deficit. You call ridiculous budget trickery, double counting the same dollar, and using CBO "baselines" as reality in your budget analysis?
5. It's on tape. Look it up. By your definition does every politician get a pass on breaking their promises by calling them "projections" instead?
Keep up the good work.
Measured in growth, the American economy outperformed those of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - every Group of 7 developed nation except Canada. Corporate profits are at their highest since 1960 with corporations sitting on the largest stockpile of cash in US history.
By the first quarter of 2011, unemployment had the steepest drop over a three-month span since 1983. In March after 18 months of solid growth the jobless rate fell from 9.1% to 8.8% with the best jobs report in three years (now at 8.6%), an average of 220,000 jobs created in each of the previous three months, GDP grew 1.3%, the economy expanded 0.4% and Gross Domestic Income rose 2.4%.
Manufacturing reached the highest reading since May 2004 with expansion for 19 straight months - the employment index topped 60 for only the third time in a decade with jobs created at the highest rate in 38 years - the highest reading since January 2004.
Total tax revenues of states returned to pre-recession levels in the 2011 third quarter. This is Obama's economic policy.
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/42911
On 3, while PPACA won't kill jobs, it will in all likelihood reduce participation in the workforce - which, unless I miscalculate, will REDUCE unemployment.
On 4, while it may 'save' $95B to repeal PPACA, it will COST $about $10B more to return to pre-PPACA. In other words, with PPACA, we spend $95B. WITHOUT PPACA, we spend $105B+. Wouldn't that be the opposite of reducing spending, Mitt?
On 5, all I can do is shake my head in amazement. Someone fed him the zombie lie, and he dutifully repeated it!