June 7, 2010
By Herman Cain
Last week the political campaign propaganda season began, and President Obama fired the first shot at Republicans. In an effort to shift the subject from the Gulf oil disaster, the president went into campaign mode (again) when he said, "We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future."
Unfortunately, the facts do not substantiate the president's claim when we compare December 2008 economic statistics before Obama took office to where we are today.
December 2008 June 2010
National debt $9.5 trillion $13 trillion
Gross Domestic Product , or GDP $14.1 trillion $14 trillion
Unemployment rate 7.2 percent 9.7 percent
Unemployed workers 11.1 million 15 million
As you can see, none of these statistics improved. They all got worse. But maybe it depends on one's definition of "improved."
The president and the liberals would also like for us to not remember that the $826 billion in stimulus spending was supposed to keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. The unemployment rate has not been below 8 percent since the stimulus bill passed in early 2009. In fact, it has been consistently closer to 10 percent.
After the president declared in his State of the Union address last February that job creation would be a top priority, the number of government jobs has increased while private sector jobs have continued to decrease. Even when the administration was tempted to boast about the 431,000 new jobs created in May (oops!), we soon learned that 411,000 of those jobs were government Census jobs.
In that same speech, the president said, "We can't go back. We have got to move forward." You do the math! We are clearly not moving forward. Again, maybe it depends on one's definition of forward. On the other hand, maybe this is the direction the president and the liberals want to take this country – backward.
The president and the liberals said that the health-care deform bill would reduce the deficit and bring down health-care costs. After uncovering some of the administration's accounting gimmicks, the Congressional Budget Office has now indicated that the bill will cost $115 billion more than originally estimated over 10 years. That reduces the estimated deficit reduction to $28 billion.
If you think that will happen on a $1 trillion new bureaucracy, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you. It's being renovated!
The president and the liberals would also like for us to forget the fact that 63 percent of the voters want Obamacare repealed. This percentage has increased from 54 percent as people learn more and more about what's really in the legislation.
Ignoring the facts is one of the liberals' favorite tactics, because their agenda is not motivated by any facts at all. Their agenda is totally politically motivated for the purpose of concentrating more power to government rather than the people.
Campaign propaganda just does not work like it used to work. The facts are too compelling and easily accessible, and there are fewer and fewer uninformed voters. There are still too many clueless voters, but the intelligence trajectory is pointing upward. This is another encouraging sign for the elections in November 2010.
Unfortunately, the economic trajectory for the country is pointing downward, and the spending trajectory is pointing upward. That does not look like a stronger future as the president claims.
No matter how much the president and the liberals try to talk their way around the facts with propaganda and lies, the facts don't lie.
Liberals hate the facts.
