Mindset of Intentional Misinformation

Longtime reader and pal, Kent, left a usual trite comment yesterday that's worth bringing to the main page.

He writes:

"Oh yeah. The country is better off now that Obama and the dim-witted Democrats have tripled the deficit. Way to go, Barr. That's really something to crow about."

It's worth bringing to the main page because it's the same incorrect line Republicans have been saying for 19 months about the Obama administration. It gets repeated numerous times a day on Fox News and hate radio. It's used over and over again by Republicans to try and hide the fact that it was George Bush that created the deficit we have today.

Here's some basic 5th grade level understanding of our current federal budget.

The day Obama took office the budget deficit was $1.4 trillion.  As you'll recall, Obama inherited the office and that deficit from Republican George Bush.  Last month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the budget deficit for the next fiscal year to be about $1.3 trillion.  Moreover, this fiscal year's deficit has been estimated by the White House to be roughly $1.47 trillion.  No where in any logical sense does that equal a tripling of the deficit.  In reality, it shows President Obama might actually shrink the deficit from where he inherited it.

So why the lying and how are they getting away with it?

They lie to cover up their own misguidance while in power.  They lie, too, because they can.  The media doesn't follow up on it and when they are fact checked, they simply dismiss it as a liberal attack machine.  Most importantly, the media they pay attention to, Fox News and hate radio, never mentions the fact checks and never mentions to them that they are way off base.  Unless a Republican like Kent sees it on Fox News or hears it from Rush Limbaugh that Obama has not tripled the deficit, they will never believe it otherwise.  As we all know, the Republican media establishment will never tell them that their world is made up of complete lies.  So we get left with elected Republicans lying through their teeth about serious matters like the budget.  Likewise that leads to Republicans like Kent repeating them over and over again on the internet.

When you try to lay out a very basic understanding of the budget, you are immediately not a Serious American.  The right casts aside anything that doesn't fit into their fantasy world and hope that by repeating their lies enough people will eventually quit trying to correct them and succumb to their madness.  I'm not going to do that, however.  Kent is wrong and he knows he's wrong.  But admitting it crumbles everything he has ever been led to believe about the GOP.  So it's easier for him to pretend it's not happening.

*Update:

A Republican friend writes an email to tell me how wrong I am. 

Cut the guy some slack.  He's actually right you know.

I'll do the math for you.  Bush's final budget was only $400 billion in the deficit column.  Obama's first budget was over $1.4 trillion.  That actually equals more than a tripling of the deficit.  I guess this is too basic for you to understand.  It's also funny that we didn't see huge deficits until democrats took back congress either.  I'm sure you also know that it's congress that sets the budget and spending rests with them.  Blaming everything on Bush is getting really old.  It's time democrats admit they have failed.

Aaaaahhhhh yes I've heard this one many times before.  I know exactly where Republicans get the tripling claim from.  I know exactly what it is they are doing.  And it's pure wishful thinking.  No actually it's complete dishonesty.  Total lies.

The budget is set for the beginning of a fiscal year.  By the time that year is over, things can change and the operating budget has to adjust.  At the beginning, before Bush's budget ever went into effect, it was in the red about $400 billion.  That is correct.  And then came the bailouts.  When you add in TARP, Fannie, Freddie, Bank of America, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros., and the auto industry bailout the total deficit for the final Bush budget is $1.4 trillion.  The government's own charts reflect as much.  Just like Obama is responsible for the entire fiscal year '10 budget, so is Bush for fiscal year '09.

This is not blaming Bush.  This is stating pure fact.  Obama has not tripled the deficit.  What Republicans want to do is pretend the bailouts never happened under Bush.  They most certainly did.  They are Republican policy to the end.  By pretending 2008 never happened, Republicans get to enjoy a world that stood still and was shielded from their very own policies.  Just own it already.

**Update:

Nearly 5 hours later, still no response from my friend who has no recollection of 2008 ever occurring.  I'm sure he's waiting on Rush Limbaugh to tell him how to respond.