Lifetime Achievement Award - Barack O'bogon

[FletchforFreedom]

Okay, I'll be the first to concede that virtually every politician belongs in this category so the bar has to be set very high but Obama ("80% support a balanced approach to deficit reduction" - only off by about 50%) and his speach last night deserve special recognition.

When he stated "This is not class warfare" it got the only response possible - stunned laughter:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/08/obama_jobs_speech_this_is_not_class_warfare.html

The whopper-meter went off the scale so many times, I - trying to find roads in central PA that weren't underwater - nearly drove of the road:

"But for decades now, Americans have watched that compact [If you did the right thing, you could make it in America] erode." repeating the canard that the middle class has stagnated since the 1970s (Econbrowser did an excellent debunking of that all the way back in 2005 ( http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/12/declining_real.html)

"There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation." when, in fact, everything is the same old failed stimulus nonsense.

"And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything." - CBO math anyone?

"The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work..." - an impossibility on a net basis.

"Pass this jobs bill, and thousands of teachers in every state will go back to work." - until the stimulus money dries up, which is why they were laid off the last time.

"Pass this bill, and hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people will have the hope and dignity of a summer job next year. And their parents, low-income Americans who desperately want to work, will have more ladders out of poverty." - except I saw a repeal of the minimum wage nowhere in his proposed legislation.

"If the millions of unemployed Americans stopped getting this insurance, and stopped using that money for basic necessities, it would be a devastating blow to this economy." - except, of course, unemplyment insurance keeps unemployment higher and thus harms the economy.

"If we allow that tax cut to expire — if we refuse to act — middle-class families will get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time."  Is this the same guy who vehemently denied that letting the Bush tax cuts expire was a tax increase?!?!

"The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years." - spending continues to increase.  Only growth in CBO math grown was tweaked.

"This approach [stabilizing the debt level] is basically the one I've been advocating for months." - Fortunately, I was at a stop light.

"...and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share." - largest corporate taxes in the industrialized world (paid for by consumers; percentage of taxes paid by high income groups well documented.

"Right now, Warren Buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary – an outrage he has asked us to fix."  - not THAT canard again!

"This isn't political grandstanding. This isn't class warfare." 'nuf said

"I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety."  False dichotomy anyone?

"Ask yourselves — where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways and our bridges; our dams and our airports? What would this country be like if we had chosen not to spend money on public high schools, or research universities, or community colleges?"  Uh, examples of the private sector meeting these needs (of consumers) in a manner far superior to government abound.  Just how ignorant is this guy.  Wait, rhetorical question.

"How many jobs would it have cost us if past Congresses decided not to support the basic research that led to the Internet and the computer chip?"  Al Gore was lying and basic computer technology was developed privately.

"What kind of country would this be if this Chamber had voted down Social Security or Medicare just because it violated some rigid idea about what government could or could not do?"  A significantly stronger economy and less susceptibility to financial shocks, why?  The lie is in the premise of the question.

Okay, I'm sure that an analysis of the speech is already in the offing.  Just wanted to add my two cents worth.

[Virgil0211]

I second this nomination. :-D

[Ibrahim90]

I second this nomination. :-D

thirded.