Urgh. It’s not really surprising that a speech made to gin up the base and appeal to swing voters would be so full of holes you could drive one of Ann Romney’s Cadillacs through it. The real question is in going forth in this manner, how stupid does this guy think America is? Pretty stupid from the looks of it — or perhaps more to the point– he doesn’t really care what you think.
Taking a page literally out of the Sarah Palin book of trumped up bullshit wrapped in a folksy, “I’m just like you” burrito of hypocrisy and condescension, Paul Ryan attempted to disparage the President with a whole slew of make-believe events and manufactured falsehoods that we’ve sadly come to expect as part of the Republican agenda. When in doubt. Lie. When not in doubt. Lie. When it’s in our best interest to be forthcoming? Lie, evade, bluster, back pedal, claim misstatements, and then lie some more.
With the help of the Associated Press, Salon, and ThinkProgress let’s take a look at all the whoppers Ryan laid out last night.
- Ryan claims, “seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.” FACT: Ryan himself incorporated the same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipients directly, but rather reduce payments to hospitals, health insurance plans and other service providers.
- Ryan claims, “The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst.” FACT: Ryan himself asked for stimulus funds shortly after Congress approved the $800 billion plan, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
- Ryan claims Obama misled people in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could be saved. FACT: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants – though not the Janesville facility – to stay in operation. Ryan himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed through by Obama.
- Ryan claims Obama has amassed more debt than all past presidents combined. FACT: “The national debt stood at $10.626 trillion on the day that President Obama took office. It now stands slightly above $15 trillion.”
- Ryan claims that he and Mitt Romney would save Medicare. FACT: The federal government will spend less on the program because seniors will have to pay more — $60,000 more to be exact in 2023.
- Ryan claims, “Obama created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing.” FACT: True, Obama didn’t heed their recommendations, but Ryan was a member of the commission and voted against its final report.
- Ryan claims Obama alone was responsible for the credit-rating downgrade. FACT: S&P blamed it on GOP intransigence.
- Ryan claims all taxpayers got from the 2009 stimulus was “more debt.” FACT: Most got a tax cut (and the stimulus is known to have saved between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs) in addition to programs like the home buyers stimulus which put about $8,000 dollars into the pockets of new homeowners.
- Ryan claimed the large deficit we face is the work of Obama. FACT: Ryan voted for many of the programs that put us there from two wars, tax cuts, new Medicare benefits and TARP.
And perhaps the worst of all with regard to the pandering and the smarmy commentary about “College grads shouldn’t have to live out their 20s in childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters” and his talk about waiting tables and mowing lawns when he had Social Security benefits waiting to pay his way through school, were his statements about protecting the weakest among us.
- FACT: His budget would drastically cut the programs they rely on. Religious leaders have described Ryan’s budget as an “immoral disaster” that “robs the poor.” At the same time, it gives the rich and corporations $3 trillion in tax breaks.
So there you have it. The lowest denominator. The kind of abhorrent tactics that have truly made politics the dirtiest of games all done with the kind of slick, glib, charm that is nothing short of obstinate demagoguery. Michael Tomasky over at the Daily Beast opines that the way this guy lies requires the skills of a psychologist and that Democrats may have found themselves in new territory — by fighting a monster of a totally different color. Tomasky says, the “lies [are] so blatant that he’s practically saying to the Democrats and the media: “Fuck you, come and get me. You can’t touch me.”
Image Source: Democratic Underground
Hat-Tip to Monkey Biz for the ThinkProgress link in his Daily Sausage.
