President Obama spoke to adoring Obama fans in Eden Park this week. Not surprisingly, they cheered just about everything he said. But much of what he claimed, just wasn’t true.
Referring to the choice the American electorate has to make between Mitt Romney and himself, he said, “I honestly believe this is the clearest choice of any time in a generation…it is a choice between two fundamentally different visions for how we move forward as a country.” I agree with him (it might be the only time I will.) It’s a choice between bigger government, deeper debt, more regulations, higher taxes – or less of these things. I choose less.
Obama criticized Mitt Romney and Republicans for wanting to cut taxes. Then he claimed “I’ve cut taxes too… on small businesses.” The fact is, he’s trying to RAISE taxes on small business owners. Of course he calls them the rich and claims they’re not paying their fair share. They’d pay higher taxes for Obamacare too.
Trying to make excuses for how long the Obama recession has dragged on, he said “I want you to know, Cincinnati, I have never promised that the path we’re on is going to be quick or easy.” Not true, Mr. Obama. Roughly 12 days after you were inaugurated, you made the following statement on the Today Show: “If I don’t have this (economic recovery) done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” So why’s he running for a second term?
Obama claimed that “millions of students are paying less for college” because of his policies. Then he demagogued that Republicans are allegedly “proposing to gut education just to pay for more tax breaks for the wealthy.” Pure bunk. Under Obama, the cost of college is at “an all-time high.” In the last year alone, tuition for college has risen 8.5%, which is far higher than the rate of inflation. And under Obama, student loan debt has surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time, and also for the first time, student loan debt surpassed credit card debt as the biggest source of unsecured debt for U.S. consumers.
Obama claimed we “are less dependent on foreign oil” and that his energy policy is working. Are you serious? Former Obama advisor Steven Rattner admitted “we have absolutely no energy policy.” And NBC News commentator Chuck Todd (no conservative, mind you) said “there’s no issue that has been … a bigger bust for the President than energy policy …” All you really have to do is fill your tank up at the pump to see how unsuccessful Obama has been on energy. When he was sworn in, gasoline was $1.87 per gallon. Now it’s nearly $4 – more than doubled. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising when Obama named Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy, a guy who said “somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
Obama claims that if he’s re-elected “we’re going to reduce our deficit.” This may be the tallest tale of all. Four years ago, he promised that he’d “cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.” Instead, we’ve seen deficit spending more than double. We’ve seen the national debt under Obama grow from $9 trillion to $16 trillion. He’s the 44th President of the United States, and we’ve seen the national debt grow more under his watch than under the first 42 Presidents combined!
Obama said “I don’t want a government that’s wasting money. It’s got to be lean…” Lean? He’s grown government at unprecedented levels. Obamacare. Solyndra. GAO workers lavishly partying in Vegas. Stimulus dollars being shoveled out the door. Takeovers of whole industries. Lean? Hardly.
Obama claimed he wants to work with Republicans in Congress. He said “… look, I want to work with them to reduce the deficit… we’ve got to reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul…” Well, Paul Ryan reached out to work with Obama on reforming Medicare, and what did he get? A TV ad showing a Ryan look-alike pushing a senior citizen in a wheelchair over a cliff. Sure, Mr. President, you’re someone we can work with.
At the same time he claims that due to his policies “al Qaeda is on the path to defeat… and that so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will always have the strongest military the world has ever known,” he supports cutting a trillion dollars from our national defense, even though his own Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, has said that such cuts would be “devastating” to our national defense.
There were other glaring claims the President made in his speech which don’t stand up to scrutiny, but due to time and space constraints, I’ll stop there. The bottom line is, Barack Obama is in re-election mode, and he’ll say and do just about anything to get re-elected. And although the adoring crowd at Eden Park was obviously buying what Obama was selling this week, the majority of Americans who weigh in on November 6th, may be another story.
I sure hope so.
