http://www.examiner.com/national-politics-in-detroit/a-campaign-built-on-liesDave Hornstein
Detroit National Politics Examiner
A campaign built on lies
November 1st, 2010 5:18 pm ET
Whatever the results of tomorrow's election, the most appalling aspect of this year's political season is that the Republican campaign has been built entirely on lies.
It is one thing to attack President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats for missteps in office, but totally unethical to lie about the actual results of the policies they have been pursuing. One of the most prominent lies is the claim that Obama tripled the deficit, when the deficit for his first budget, $1.29 trillion, was less than it was in the last budget of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush, $1.416 trillion. It has also long been claimed that government spending takes money out of the economy, when this spending creates the infrastructure that allows businesses to thrive.
Republicans have claimed that the stimulus didn't work, and that Obama raised taxes and hurt the economy. While the biggest weakness of the stimulus was that it didn't include a major infrastructure program to directly create jobs, the stimulus saved 2.5 million jobs that would have been lost had no action been taken, and 40 percent of it went to middle class tax cuts. While Republicans claim that a business tax cut would create jobs, the fact is that businesses hire when they need to meet increased demand, not because they have additional cash on hand.
Another major Republican lie in the 2010 campaign is the false claim that health care reform will cost $1 trillion, when in fact it will reduce the deficit by $138 billion. The hostility of Republicans towards any government program that helps average Americans is also seen in their false claim that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that's going broke. But Social Security has always run a surplus, can't legally borrow and therefore can't contribute to the deficit, and has a trust fund in the trillions that is completely sound for at least 25 years. Any possible future insolvency can be avoided by eliminating the cap on income over $106,800 a year that is subject to the FICA tax.
While it has been alleged that Obama was responsible for the Wall Street bailout, it was in fact pushed through by Bush and his treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and passed before Obama was elected. On the other hand, Obama was successful in bailing out General Motors (GM) and Chrysler, thereby preventing the collapse of this country's manufacturing sector, which would have exploded unemployment to Great Depression levels. With the auto industry saved, both GM and Chrysler are again profitable and beginning to grow.
Amidst all of Obama's initiatives, Republicans have had nothing to offer but the same failed ideas that had gotten the economy into a mess in the first place. Perhaps Obama's biggest failure is that he hasn't tooted his own horn enough. Meanwhile, Republicans have campaigned on the assumption that they are dealing with an electorate largely comprised of stupid and ignorant bigots. We can only expect the worst from a party that has contempt for its own voters.
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