Democracy Is Messy!

Election-eve in Iraq:

Baghdad (CNN) -- A bomb exploded on Thursday night in a popular coffee shop in western Baghdad, killing at least 27 people and wounding 51 others, city police officials said.

Let Freedom Reign!

Deficits Forever, It's the Bush Way

Here are some of the projections from our nation's supposed leading think tank's solutions to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff and put us on a path of deficit reduction.

Notice something?  Deficits as far as the eye can see.  Not even the right wing Heritage Foundation has the U.S. in the black twenty-five years from now.  This has to be disheartening.

Also, there's something else you should notice.  The dark grey is the worst possible solution and the worst possible path that we could go down.  It is our current path. The path of the continuation of the Bush Economic Policy.  It's the same sorry path we've been on since March of 2001-- the same path Obama has failed to turn away from.  But there is something that could happen after the New Year.  We could embark upon a totally different policy, a policy that allows for the Bush Tax Cuts, the Bush Spending and the Bush Path to expire.  That path is the light grey shaded area.  It's nothing to brag about, of course.  But it's way better than the path set by George W. Bush and the fiscal conservatives.

Amnesiacs are real

My buddy Steve Benen touched on something yesterday that I've been wanting to write about for at least a week now.

Benen calls the people who intentionally refuse to remember the true state of the country in 2009 "amnesiacs."  He's referring to the Republican talking heads, the Fox News noise machine and the hate radio of the right.  These are the people screaming out marching orders to the rank and file GOP voters trying to convince them things really weren't that bad in 2009.  My contention is, they've done a decent job.

Here's an excerpt of an email I got last week from a close Republican friend.

"Chris....you can't really be that naive.  W. inherited a recession too and he handled it well never blaming Clinton.  This pointing back to blame the other guy isn't what a leader does.  Yes there was a crash but by the time Barry took office it was almost over and things were not that bad.  But just think.  If Obama is re-elected just think of the mess he'll inherit!"  

You can only imagine my response.  My friend and author of the quote above is not a Republican operative.  She's not even involved in party politics at all.  She's a mere GOP voter and proud of it.   She starts her day off with Fox & Friends in the morning; has talk radio on all day and finishes at night with Hannity or O'Reilly.  And she's thoroughly convinced things are either no better now, or are worse.  She's bought into the "amnesiacs."  She lives in a total alternate universe.

In the midst of replies back and forth supplying her with much data showing things are better now, I asked numerous times for her to tell me what is "worse."  Or what is the mess she is talking about.  Her response:  "the debt.  Chris, you know the debt is worse now than ever before.  Your boy has spent more money than all presidents combined.  He's rationed off our children's future with his spending binge..."  Blah, blah blah.

The only thing not better is the debt.  Very true.  It's all they have to focus on.  But there was no way to stop the mountain of debt that was coming no matter who was president. They know this.  They just find it very opportune.  The truth, however, is still very frustrating to them.  President Obama inherited the largest budget deficit ever.  He didn't create it.  And that's where the mountains of debt Republicans now claim to care about come from.  Yet the greater truth about the deficits is that they are smaller now than when Obama took office.

Listen, the whole thing might not be a walk in the park but the country is in way better shape now than what George Bush and the Republicans left it in.  The only people who believe otherwise are a brainwashed group living in a alternate universe.

Ignorance is Bliss, but Republicans really believe this stuff

If I sound like a broken record, it's probably because I am.

Condi Rice: "… we are exceptional in the clarity of our conviction that free markets and free peoples hold the key to the future, and in our willingness to act on those beliefs. Failure to do so would leave a vacuum, likely filled by those who will not champion a balance of power that favours freedom. That would be a tragedy for American interests and values and those who share them."

Must we go through this again?  Apparently so.

Sec. Rice was writing in hopes to highlight her belief that sometimes the American people need to be reminded that our country is exceptional to the rest of the world.  We savior freedom in all realms but especially in "free markets."  It is our "conviction that free markets" are so important to free society that failing to uphold such a market system would collapse our nation and freedom as we know it.

As an 8-year member of the Bush administration, Secretary Rice should know a thing or two about unfettered markets.  Or at least about how to grow government to huge lengths and nationalize them. 

The Bush administration instituted at least 8 government-funded bailouts of private industry, well over a trillion dollars worth.  He nationalized entire financial and lending industries, meaning he used tax payer money to buy up majority ownership in private companies.  He did more to interfere with the free market system than any president since FDR.  He created TARP, No Child Left Behind, Dept. of Homeland Security, and who can forget his transfer of billions of dollars of American wealth to Iraq.  If anyone failed to uphold the free market system it was the Bush administration.  How dare any Republican pretend it never happened.

Notice too that Rice says failing to hold steady to the conviction of free markets would result in a vacuum likely filled by those who don't cherish freedom.  Bush failed to abide by the GOP's dream of free markets and guess what?  We're still here and just as free as we were in 2001-2009.  Anyone who thinks, or would write in a printed publication that America is exceptional because of our unbridled love of a free market system especially after they worked for the administration that issued and created TARP is ridiculously stupid. 

When It Comes To Debt, Punish the Hostages

This goes right along with an ongoing conversation we've been having here on The Fold, and one I assume will play large in the election- debts and deficits.

The argument seems to have a few different strands. One is Republicans deny any responsibility for today's massive budget deficits and think everything was fine until 2009 (i.e., inheritance is meaningless). Or they acknowledge some guilt in driving up the deficit but think it all should be fixed by now and would be if Obama would quit with his massive spending binges and start CUTTING. Their third route is a combination of the two but with a slightly more optic edge that thinks we can somehow cut taxes even more for the wealthy, then cut spending on social programs and raise spending on defense by another trillion dollars and come out with a balanced budget.

The facts of the matter are simple.  The budget mess we have currently didn't happen over night.  It is a result of almost a full decade of misplaced fiscal responsibility.  It's also a result of a near full decade of chronic budget deficits brought about by tax cuts that were not offset, very expensive policies that were not paid for and a massive economic downturn not seen since the 1930s.  That's a lethal combination for any economy.  It is what happened, however.  And pretending like we can get out of this in a short period of time is crazy.

I really do love TPM's graphs!!

But certainly what we don't need right now is finger pointing.  Because if we do that we see the people who are crying the loudest right now about spending and debt are the very ones who share the biggest burden of blame for the situation in the first place.  No sense in doing that. It's better we don't blame the hostage takers.  Makes more sense to punish the hostages.

Senate Report Concludes Bush's State Sanctioned Torture Program Didn't Work

There were Democrats on this committee so that can only mean it is a complete bogus report engineered to aid the gay terrorists so they can enforce Sharia Law and force women to take birth control.

Reckoning Sure Is a Bitch

I love this stuff.  Absolutely love it.

Kristen Billy, who has returned as predicted by the love letter he wrote to us, has, once again, tried as hard as he can to invoke his Republican Fantasy World argument to shield his favorite president from any blame for crashing the country into a ditch.

The trillion dollar deficit in '09 was due to the Great Recession, not Bush's tax cuts or wars. Today's deficit is a function of Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc.

And you thinly the next year's deficit has nothing to do with the previous year? Disagree - it influences the next year but the people in charge have the ability to change fiscal policy to improve the shortfall

As if the deficit wasn't already huge and as if Bush hadn't already ran 7 previous budget deficits prior to 2009.  But in Kristen's world, a world where Iraq had something to do with 9/11, none of that matters.

Here's the thing.  The deficit, no matter the amount, is from George Bush.  He created it.  He inherited the largest surplus in American history.  And what did he do with it?  He turned it into the larges deficit in American history.  And during that time, not one word from Kristen Billy or any other Republican for Bush's recklessness.  Billy didn't care at all.  He loved it.  He cheered it on.  They all did.  Just this week Sen. Rubio called Bush "fantastic."  They do not acknowledge the fact that George Bush created a $1.5 trillion budget deficit and that he is responsible for $7 trillion of the federal debt.  They pretend it never happened.

Kristen Billy chillin' for the ladies

Billy can't stop there, however.  He tries to say the '09 deficit was due to the recession and nothing to do with Bush.  What about the 2010 and 2011 and 2012 deficits?  Oh no, those are Obama's so the economic crisis had nothing to do with that.  That's pure and complete fantasy.

It's true the economic crisis depleted government revenue because of the massive job losses. And as we all know, unemployment is still above 8%, which drastically reduces current revenue thus it's a continuing scourge on the budget.  But not according to Billy.  He specifically says it's "Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc."  Total lie.  He's a chronic liar brainwashed by Fox News.

George Bush increased spending by 108%.  In real dollars he increased spending by $1.3 trillion.  Barack Obama has merely increased spending by $600 billion, largely due to an increase in unemployment benefits.

As you can see from the chart above, spending is actually starting to decline under Obama. Since none of this is Fox News data, Kristen Billy will disregard it as he always does.  The importance of bringing this to the front page doesn't change, however.  This highlights the lengths Republicans go to disregard reality and factual information.  And the lengths they will go to protect their make-believe world.  They prefer to make up total lies just so they can sleep at night.

For further proof that there hasn't been a huge spending increase from Obama, take a look at this graph and post I brought up a few weeks ago.  It completely sums up everything Billy The Retard is trying to say right now.

Translation:  There is no spending binge from Obama that is to blame for the budget deficit.

Billy can't comprehend this, however.  It's the opposite of what he hears on Fox News, so it sends his body into shock.  And doing so proves me almost prophetic.

Here's what I wrote in March:

In their world the recession that began almost two years before Obama took office had nothing to do with the drop in tax revenue.  Also, two inherited on-going endless wars completely unpaid for had nothing to do with our budget mess either.  Neither did the completely unfunded $700 billion Republican expansion of Medicare.  And don't dare blame TARP on anyone but Obama either.  No they believe it was huge spending increases and ginormous growth in government that began with President Obama that is responsible for today's mess.

That's exactly what Billy is trying to do!!!  That's exactly what he just wrote in his comment.

Despite the fact that there is no spending splurge from Obama, any suggestion otherwise is a total lie. Despite the fact of the condition of the economy Bush handed over to Obama.  And despite the fact that Obama has actually cut defense spending, Billy denies it all.  He denies reality and insists-- just like all good God-fearing Republicans do-- that "[t]oday's deficit is a function of Obama's spending, Obama's decisions on tax rates, Obama's decisions on defense spending, etc."  Except for the fact that there is no truth to that, Kristen is right.

Just wait and see, such lies just like Billy is saying here will be the Republican meme throughout this campaign.  The deficits are from Obama's spending; Bush had nothing to do with Obama's runaway spending binge; Republicans are fiscal conservatives will be the battle hymn throughout the year.  It will be one big circle jerk where Republicans just like Kristen Billy bump their peter heads and pretend the guy they voted for twice shrunk government, cut spending and reined in the deficit.  Because, after all, that's what Republicans really believe they do.

The Bush Era Was That Bad and Romney Lies to Cover It Up

Mitt Romney, again, goes for the total rewrite of history:

“I think that young people will understand that ours is the party of opportunity and jobs,” the former Massachusetts governor continued. “If they want to have a president that can create good jobs and can allow them to find them a bright and prosperous future for themselves and for their families then I hope their going to vote for me.”

The party of jobs?  He can't be serious.  The GOP has the worst track record on job creation since Herbert Hoover.  More importantly, the GOP has the worst economic record of any time period since the Great Depression.

Here are the FACTS:

During the Bush years, the U.S. economy experienced the worst economic expansion of the post-war era.  Growth in investment, GDP, and employment all posted their worst performance of any post-war expansion.  In other words, the worst ever!  The Bush tax cuts were supposed to encourage business investment, but nonresidential fixed investment increased a meager 2.1% annually-- a third of the average increase and less than half that of the next poorest post-war increase in business investment on record.  Additionally, job creation during 8 years of Republican economic policy resulted in the worst job creation in the modern post-war era.

How in the world can that equal the "party of opportunity and jobs?"  It doesn't.  Only in the Republican Fantasy World can a track record so abysmal, so terrible equal "opportunity and jobs."  What's more is that Mittens is serious about this.  He really believes the Bush Economy was great.  The only thing Romney is honest about is that he wants to take Bush policies and update them for the next four years.

The cloak Romney wants to be able to pull this year is nothing short of psychotic.  He wants Americans to believe that George Bush was great, that his policies created an awesome economy, that any ripple created during the Bush years could have easily been fixed by now and the only reason the economy is in slow motion is because of the current president, which he claims gets no credit for anything.  That's what Republicans believe.  That's the lie they want Americans to buy into.  Fortunately for this nation, the facts prove the economy under George Bush and the GOP was the worst in modern history.  Any suggestion otherwise is a complete lie.  And any suggestion we should return to them is deranged.

GOP Says Romney Economic Plan Will Be Bush's Updated

Alexandra Franceschi of the Republican National Committee, said that the Republican party’s economic platform in 2012 is going to be the same as it was during the Bush years, “just updated."

ESPUELAS: Now, how different is that concept from what were the policies of the Bush administration? And the reason I ask that is because there’s some analysis now that is being published talking about the Bush years being the slowest period of job creation since those statistics were created. Is this a different program or is this that program just updated?

FRANCESCHI: I think it’s that program, just updated.

Of course it will. They love George Bush. They think he did an excellent job. They want more of it.

Don't believe me? Here's Mitt Romney's front runner for his Vice President Marc Rubio saying he thinks George Bush was Super Terrific!

And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.”

George W. Bush left office with a 24% approval rating.  And Republicans call that "fantastic" and want to update his policies for our future.  Absolutely insane.

My Dearest Digby, I Must Disagree

Digby is an icon when it comes to political blogging.  She's a pioneer and will be remembered as one of the greatest political philosophers of our day.  Lord knows I've stolen plenty from her.  It's safe to say that everyone who came after her did so because of her.  So it's with all due respect that I must disagree with her about Dem messaging, or I guess you could called it political posturing.

My contention?  A new WaPo/ABC News poll that shows President Obama leading Mittens in every category except for one: Who voters think will do better at handling the budget deficit.  This one area sends chilling concerns Digby's way.  And mine as well but maybe to a lesser extent.  To counter this she suggests Dems need to start talking about how spending money on people during a recession is actually good.  It seems Dems are too busy trying to portray themselves as Slashers and Cutters for fear of being painted as a big liberal spender.  True enough.  But I think trying to convince voters that spending money right now is futile, especially this late in the recession game.

It would be time better spent reminding voters-- despite all their fancy rhetoric about fiscal stewardship-- of just how fiscally irresponsible Republican administrations are once they get into power.  Remind voters that President Obama inherited a $1.4 trillion budget deficit from the Republicans.  And that he has SLASHED the deficit to almost below a trillion for the first time since George Bush.  It really won't take much convincing on this issue at all.  Voters know what the economy was like and what he left for Obama to fix.  Reminding how bad it was is honesty at its best.

Time is better spent reminding voters that it was George Bush's tax cuts that turned Clinton's budget surplus into a huge budget deficit.  It's better spent reminding voters that not one single piece of legislation from Bush's Republican Administration was paid for-- not one single bill was funded, not one.  Remind them that it was the Republicans who slashed government revenue and then invaded two countries and instituted Endless War without raising one single penny to pay for any of it.  And that it was President Obama who ended the war in Iraq saving us billions every month, refocused are attention to the people responsible for 9/11-- killing bin Laden and formed a coalition with our allies that removed Gaddafi from power.  These are all worthy remembrances.

It's much easier to remind voters that George Bush doubled our federal debt while in office and since then his policies are accountable for $7 trillion worth of federal debt-- That's 50% of our total federal debt just from George Bush. Trying to convince people that spending is okay right now because of the recession is so 2009.  We've moved beyond that conversation, for the worse I agree.  But it's gone and not returning.  Reminding voters, instead, that Republican rhetoric has never matched their governance, that it has never matched their legacy and that today's economic troubles were inherited from them is the better conversation to have with voters.

What, in the history of modern Republican Rule-- since Reagan--- can Republicans use as their example of small government conservatism where they slashed deficits, paid down the debt, shrunk government and created jobs can they point to as an example?  There's our conversation to have.  Their empty rhetoric must be portrayed to voters daily.  I do disagree Digby, there is a better message.

George Bush's Economy, Republicans Want More Of It

George W. Bush Two-Term Presidential Economic Record:

• 1.8% total GDP growth, worst ever since Hoover
• Zero net job creation, worst ever since Hoover
• Household income dropped $2,000, worst ever since Hoover
• Net loss of over 2,000 points in the Dow, worst ever
• Increased spending by 108%
• Grew federal subsidy programs by 30% (i.e., also what tea baggers call Big Government, unless it's Republicans doing it.)
• Took largest budget surplus in history and turned it into $1.4 trillion budget deficit, worst in history
• Accumulated $7 trillion to the federal debt, worst ever and still counting
• Begot America the Great Recession

So a man with that kind of record gives a speech about taxes and economic policy designed to give America advice for future economic growth and we're supposed to treat him and his policies as Very Serious Stuff?  Why, yes we are.  Because the Ryan Plan that nearly every Republican member of government has endorsed including their nominee for president is nothing but the continuation of Bush policies.  And the media fawns over it like it's some sort of magic blueprint that will burn and slash our way to epic awesomeness.

George W. Bush Finally Speaks, Begs For a Return to His Policies

Yesterday former President George W. Bush gave a speech.  The focus was tax policy and economic growth.  Bush's record in both areas is abysmal.

Bush reiterated his policies from his two-terms in office and suggested they be carried into the future all the while neglecting to mention that his policies left America in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  A crisis, five years after it began, we are still reeling in.

He advocated for lower taxes on the wealthy and spoke out in favor of his signature 2001 and 2003 tax cuts saying, “If you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you’re really raising taxes on the job creators.”We believe that one of the clearest expressions of freedom is that the aggregate demand of the citizens determine that which is produced,” said Bush. “We trust people when it comes to spending their money, and so should our government.”

“If the goal was public sector growth, it’d be a short conference,” said Bush. “We believe that the best policy is that which creates a robust private sector.”

A robust private sector? Under his watch the private sector shed millions of jobs. He cut taxes in 2001 and 2003 to extremely low levels and by 2007 the economy was in the dump. No president since Herbert Hoover lost more private sector jobs than George W. Bush.

 

Bush's overall record on job growth is ZERO. He created not one single new job in 8 years. That means for every new job, one was lost.  It's the worst record since the Great Depression.

But then, as we all know, George Bush is a Very Serious fiscal conservative who believes in balanced budgets and disciplined spending so he couldn't give a speech without mentioning how to fix everything.

Bush said that the majority of the political debate today focuses on federal spending, and rightly so. “When you look at the debt to GDP it’s pretty high,” said Bush. “Or you think about entitlements – the overhang is daunting.” Bush said in order to reduce the debt, the focus of the federal government should be on increasing the private sector to broaden the taxpaying base.

Incredible.  Almost three-quarters of the federal debt we have today comes from Reagan and George W. Bush.  Nearly $7 trillion alone comes straight from George W. Bush.  He is the very reason why "debt to GDP" is high.  He did it.  His policies of huge spending increases, huge tax cuts, two endless wars and no job growth created the debt to GDP ratio we have today.  Take a look:

This is quite insane.  The debt ratio we have today is directly derived from Republican policies. There's no getting around it.

The very policies that tripled our federal debt (Reagan) and then more than doubled it again (Bush), that ultimately led to millions of job losses and doubling the unemployment rate, that created a $1.4 trillion budget deficit and sent us into an economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression, are the very same policies George Bush touted again yesterday as being the saving grace for our country.

It's absolutely absurd to think that George Bush has any credibility when talking about creating a robust private sector, or about solving debt ratios, or about how lower tax rates create a thriving economic engine for our future. Nothing in his 8 years of setting American policy demonstrates he knows anything about such stuff.

More Proof Republicans Love Big Government

Part of an ongoing current conversation here at The Fold Blog.  Other entries can be found here, here, here, and here.

If I were a tough guy, macho Conservative Republican I would be really peeved knowing the states that get more tax money back than they pay in (welfare) are predominantly Red States.

Of course, if I were a tough guy, macho Conservative Republican I would never know that the party I vote for has done nothing they claim to stand for because I would be watching Fox News constantly, listening to Rush Limbaugh and Neal Boortz and the occasional Alex Jones video here and there and I would have no clue that Red States are the biggest moochers in the Union.  I would instead think only Democrats have created a system where people are reliant on government while True Super Patriots in Alabama and Mississippi hold the whole country together by constantly sticking it to the libs.

Now, how is such hypocrisy possible you might ask?  It's quite possible because the modern GOP is built around total fallacy.  It's a delusion where Reagan shrunk government, cut spending and reined in the deficit.  An alternative universe where Iraq had something to do with 9/11, George Bush never once told a lie, the economy was doing fine until January 2009, tax cuts never have to be offset or paid for, where Endless War is small government at its finest and where Bush deserves all credit for killing bin Laden (two years after he left office).  It's as if God is playing a horrible trick on humankind.

What Once Was, Still Is

For the Bush administration’s entire second term, the Department of Justice failed to tell Congress how many intrusive wiretaps (i.e., eaves dropping without warrants-- direct violation of the 4th Amendment) were carried out by law enforcement, despite a legal requirement that it produce an annual report detailing the practice, a security researcher has learned.

Sounds pretty bad doesn't it?

For its part, the Obama administration has dealt with this issue in the worst way possible: extending provisions in the Patriot Act; allowing telecom immunity for participating in the illegal wiretaps; and even continuing to keep Congress in the dark about the federal government's role in spying on its citizens.  Not that Congress cares or would do anything about it even if the president told them.  I'm just saying, 2008 candidate Obama sure didn't live up to this promise of change.

Huckabee Says TARP Should Have Been Called CRAP

I love this.  I just absolutely love this.  This is how the GOP takes reality and skews it to match their Fantasy World-- a world where they are small government, fiscal conservatives who are the only Patriots left in the nation.

The Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) is nothing but an unequivocal Republican piece of legislation.  It was written by the Bush White House, passed with majority Republican support via a huge crying fit by John Boehner.  It is, without a doubt, the only successful Bush policy in his 8 years as president.  It has been widely successful beyond anybody's expectations, costing far less than originally planned.  More than that, it saved the economy from total collapse-- hardly something to scoff at.  Yet that's exactly what Republicans want to do.

Republicans, with great help from Fox News, try their hardest to pass TARP off as more proof of Obama's big government takeover.  Yet the whole thing has nothing to do with him.  The whole thing instead smells of George Bush and the GOP from top to bottom.  But oh no, since TARP is the epitome of European Socialism it must be from the Democrats and Barack Obama.  History and reality tells us otherwise.  Who needs facts when you have preacher man and Republican, and don't forget he's also a Fox News employee, Mike Huckabee, telling his fellow Republicans that TARP should have been entitled "Congressional Relief Action Program. 'I'll let you figure that one out,' he said."

Only in the Republican Fantasy World could something so successful, that actually saved America from collapse, that is the only successful piece of legislation from your last president, that is for all practical purposes your party's legacy be called CRAP and get applauded by your base.  They are a delusional people right down to their rotten cores.

Boehner Cries Like a Baby To Pass TARP (none of this ever happened though)

Something Republicans Would Have Called Treason

While this photo is going viral, I would just like to point out that had a Democratic governor confronted George Bush like this with a finger in his face, the Republican-controlled media machine would have blasted that governor as being un-American, un-patriotic and a terrorist sympathizer.  Now that Bush is out of power, nut slapping Republicans cheer on governors publicly chiding a president.  For instance, just look at these comments on from a Fox News article.  They're insane.  They are everything they claim to hate.

Mitch Daniels Is a Bald-Faced Liar

Bush's budget director, aka the least credible guy to talk about budgets and economics

Not surprisingly the GOP selected a man that knows nothing about sane economic policy to deliver their SOTU rebuttal.  In other words they selected George Bush's budget director.  In it, Mitch Daniels claims:

"When President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true," Daniels said. He added that while Obama did not cause the country's economic and budget problems, "He was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse."

Nothing could be less true.

Set aside for a moment that Mitch Daniels was George W. Bush's budget director that signed off on making the budget surplus a multi-hundred billion deficit within a few quick months after taking office.  Just set aside the fact Daniels presided over the largest increase in budget deficit history.  Never mind that that alone should make him completely non-credible when talking about sound budgets ever again.  But in the GOP Fantasy World, it only makes him a budget and economic genius that gets to go on teevee pretending he's got all the answers.

Instead let's focus on the huge lie that Obama has made things worse.  The amazement that such a sentence can be spoken with a straight face only proves just how out of touch the GOP really is.  When Obama took office in 2009 the economy was bleeding almost a million jobs a month. In the last year alone, the economy has added 1.9 million jobs.  Since 2010, total job creation is 2.9 million.  In no way, shape or form is that "worse."

Again, consider the Dow is up 85% since Obama took office.  Bush presided over the largest monetary loss in the history of the Dow.  It's no longer in free fall.  It's gaining value again.  In every sense of the word, that means it is not "worse."

The budget deficit, which Republicans now claim to care about since they are out of power, has shrunk under President Obama.  Not to mention, the largest contributor to the budget deficit (and our federal debt) are the Bush tax cuts that Daniels instituted when he was Bush's budget chief, along with other left over Bush policies.

Things aren't great.  But they are no way "worse" than they were when George Bush was president.  You would have to be mentally retarded, just waking up from a 3 year coma and lacking all your chromosomes to think the economy is worse. Or be Republican, because really there is no difference.

Quickies

• Rick Santorum says he's the only person that will talk about the dangers of contraception in this country as he again voiced his support for states being able to outlaw birth control.  Atrios has a good point about this.  Essentially, Atrios says, the whole abortion debate is really more to do about controlling sexual encounters/practices than about controlling the number of abortions.  I think that's true.  I'll add, though, that it's not just about controlling sexual practices but nothing short of another sad, sorry version of legislating what Republicans believe to be morality.  Their perceived morality for others that is. 

• Did you know growth takes time?

• Steve Benen makes a good point.  Not one single Republican candidate is talking about George Bush.  It's almost like he never existed.  There's obvious reasons for this.  He's pathetically unpopular.  He left office with the lowest approval rating in history.  He turned over a country that had almost collapsed.  There just isn't much to want to invoke from his 8 years.  The flip side of this is Democrats are not ashamed one bit to talk up Clinton or even Obama.  Returning to Bush policies now would be disastrous-- again.

• The best summation of Ron Paul I've read yet.

• And let me stress again, I'm glad Ron Paul is running for president.  He's talking a lot about things Democrats, liberals and progressives have supposedly cared about for years but done very little at achieving once in power.  So, yeah, I'm glad to see him running.  

Dow Is Up 85% Since Obama Took Office

Don't look now (careful Fox News viewers but this will defy your Fantasy World) but the Dow is up 85% since Barack Obama became president.

Any president would love an 85% gain in the Dow in 3 years time.  Yet this president barely gets a mention of such great news.

The Dow lost value under 8 years of George Bush.  He became the first president since Herbert Hoover to have the Dow lose money on his watch.  In fact, the Dow lost almost 2,700 points under George Bush.  But an 85% increase under Obama gets nary a mention.

Things aren't great.  But they are way better than when George Bush and the Republicans were in power.

Who Wouldn't Make the Decision to Kill bin Laden? George W. Bush That's Who

Birther and former GOP candidate for president Donald Trump tries to deride President Obama and his successful operation that killed the most wanted terrorist in world history by asking Fox News "who is not going to make that decision?".

As if Trump needs to look very long or hard for that answer.  George W. Bush flinched when he was put to the task of tracking down Osama bin Laden.  When the U.S. military had bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora in the Fall of 2001, George W. Bush refused to let our troops finish the job.  In 2005, because Bush was not concerned the least bit about bin Laden, he fully dismantled the anti-terrorist unit tasked with tracking him down.  It wasn't until 2009 when Barack Obama took over the White House did the United States revamp its efforts at finding and killing bin Laden.  Last May the president and his operation was successful.  George Bush failed.  Get over it.

*Update:

How much more amazing can the Republican Fantasy World really get?  In their world it was George Bush that led the charge in killing bin Laden.  Fox News and Sean Hannity make sure history gets rewritten to fit their very messed up narrative.

In Sean Hannity’s world, President George W. Bush succeeded in killing terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The Fox News host on Thursday noted that bin Laden was dead “thanks to George Bush.”

During a segment on Time magazine’s top 10 news stories of 2011, Democratic consultant Joe Trippi lamented that the death of the al Qaeda leader didn’t make the list.

“Thanks to George Bush,” Hannity interrupted, ignoring the fact that bin Laden had been killed under President Barack Obama’s watch.

“You’d give credit to Bush?” he asked Trippi. “Because if Obama had gotten his way we wouldn’t have gotten bin Laden, you know that.”

In no world where oxygen is breathed is Hannity's interpretation of history even remotely valid. Bush had been out of office for two years.  As noted above, in 2005 he ordered the anti-terrorism team tasked with hunting and killing Osama bin Laden disbanded.  In 2003, he ordered an American invasion into Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 forcing us to officially take our eyes off bin Laden.  In 2001, Bush ordered a halt in the execution of Tora Bora where the U.S. military had cornered bin Laden, officially allowing him to escape.

Bush's actions did anything but lead to the killing of bin Laden.  His actions (invading Iraq, dismantling units tasked to kill him, and allowing him to escape in 2001) all helped bin Laden to live a life of luxury in a mansion in Pakistan.  But not in the Republican Fantasy World.  Bush is responsible for all that is good in the world.  No one with all their chromosomes would ever watch Fox News and trust it.  Yet this kind of make-believe talk by Sean Hannity gets touted in GOP circles as tough guy, Super Patriot talk.  It's scary that the Republican Party is even a major national party in any country let alone America.