Archive: Lies at the RNC

The general theme of the Republican National Convention on day one (and, I suspect, subsequent days) was "Liberals / Democrats hate America and want people to fail because then the government can control everything."  It would take a thesis to argue every way this is wrong, so instead I'll focus on three specific lies that support this idea and can easily be disproven with accurate quotes and verifiable facts.

Lie 1: President Obama hates American entrepreneurs and thinks they can't do anything on their own.

I was shocked by the extent to which the Republicans have built their campaign around one slightly awkward turn of phrase by Obama taken completely out of context.  Of course, I refer to "you didn't built that."  It was a chorus of the entire evening, even plastered on signs.  Notice, however, that they never played the actual clip from Obama's speech, because in context it ruins the entire point.  So, here it is:

It should be plain to anyone that he's saying that people have help from others and reap the benefits of infrastructure, education, and perhaps loans or business assistance from the government.   But that's kinda hard to argue with, so Fox News took our 4 words and turned them into a sound bite that drives the whole campaign.  Interestingly, the refrain of Monday night was "we built that," suggesting that yes, people collectively worked together to build America - thus driving home President Obama's point.  They spent the entire night channeling the ghost of Ayn Rand to decry any form of public assistance, and then both Ann Romney and Chris Christie touted the benefits of government-funded scholarships to government-funded higher education institutions.  You can't have it both ways.

Lie 2:  President Obama is solely responsible for the huge national debt.

According to the Republicans, apparently, the federal government didn't spend a dime before January 20, 2009.  Let's review.  President Clinton left the country in 2001 with a budget surplus and on track to pay off the debt in 10 years.  Then came the Bush tax cuts, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic meltdown of 2008.  This graph illustrates the portions of our debt attributed to these and other sources:






The only portion of this clearly attributable to Obama is the recovery efforts in response to the economic crisis.  (We'll save the Keynesian debate for government spending to stimulate the economy for another day.)  The wars and tax cuts began as voluntary choices under the Bush administration, for which we are now reaping the full costs.  But there wasn't a single mention of W last night.  Cristie actually said "It doesn't matter how we got here."  And I thought Republicans were the party of personal responsibility?  It does matter, Chris.  You can't preach about "shared sacrifice" while ignoring 8 years of fiscal irresponsibility by the hero of neoconservatism.

Lie 3: President Obama abolished the work requirements for the welfare program.

This is key to their argument that welfare recipients are generally lazy bums who have no desire to work, as if they know everyone's story.  I agree that our welfare system is in need of reform, but the assertion above is simply not true.  What Obama actually did was give states more flexibility to change the requirements - more states' rights!  Something Republican governors have been clamoring for (apparently, now we now why).  My homestate governor, Sam Brownback (R-KS), admitted to this today.

That's it for now.  After listening to Paul Ryan's speech, I need a break.