“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers” ~ Neil Newhouse

Obviously! Every once in a while, the truth creeps out from behind their curtain of lies. Newhouse let one slip.


WASHINGTON — Laying out the first plans for his party's presidential ticket, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts Wednesday night when he attacked President Barack Obama's policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit.
Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, glossed over his own problems when critiquing Obama's trade dealings with China. A day earlier, the convention's keynote speaker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, bucked reality in promising that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will lay out for the American people the painful budget cuts it will take to wrestle the government's debt and deficit woes under control.
And former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum stretched the truth in taking Obama to task over his administration supposedly waiving work requirements in the nation's landmark welfare-to-work law.
A closer look at some of the words spoken at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.:
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RYAN: "And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. ... So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama."
THE FACTS: Ryan's claim ignores the fact that Ryan himself incorporated the same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipients directly, but rather reduce payments to hospitals, health insurance plans and other service providers.
In addition, Ryan's own plan to remake Medicare would squeeze the program's spending even more than the changes Obama made, shifting future retirees into a system in which they would get a fixed payment to shop for coverage among private insurance plans. Critics charge that would expose the elderly to more out-of-pocket costs.
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RYAN: "The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal."
THE FACTS: Ryan himself asked for stimulus funds shortly after Congress approved the $800 billion plan, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ryan's pleas to federal agencies included letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis seeking stimulus grant money for two Wisconsin energy conservation companies.
One of them, the nonprofit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp., received $20.3 million from the Energy Department to help homes and businesses improve energy efficiency, according to federal records. That company, he said in his letter, would build "sustainable demand for green jobs." Another eventual recipient, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, received about $365,000.
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RYAN: Said Obama misled people in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could be saved. "A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: `I believe that if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another hundred years.' That's what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year."
THE FACTS: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants — though not the Janesville facility — to stay in operation. Ryan himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed through by Obama that has been widely credited with revitalizing both GM and Chrysler.
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RYAN: Obama "created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing."
THE FACTS: It's true that Obama hasn't heeded his commission's recommendations, but Ryan's not the best one to complain. He was a member of the commission and voted against its final report.
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CHRISTIE: "Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and burying our economy. ... Tonight, our duty is to tell the American people the truth. Our problems are big and the solutions will not be painless. We all must share in the sacrifice. Any leader that tells us differently is simply not telling the truth."
THE FACTS: Romney has made a core promise to cut $500 billion per year from the federal budget by 2016 to bring spending below 20 percent of the U.S. economy, and to balance it entirely by 2020.
His campaign manifesto, however, is almost completely devoid of the "hard truths" Christie promises. In fact, Romney is promising to reverse $716 billion in Medicare savings achieved by Obama over the coming decade and promises big increases in military spending as well, along with extending tax cuts for everyone, including the wealthiest.
The few specifics Romney offers include repealing Obama's health care law, cutting federal payrolls, weaning Amtrak from subsidies, cutting foreign aid and curbing the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.
But it'll take a lot more than those steps for Romney to keep his vague promises, which are unrealistic if he's unwilling to touch Medicare and Social Security in the coming decade. Even the controversial budget plan of his vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., largely endorsed by Romney, leaves Medicare virtually untouched over the next 10 years.
What's left for Romney to cut is benefit programs other than Medicare and Social Security, which include food stamps, welfare, farm subsidies and retirement benefits for federal workers. The remaining pot of money includes the day-to-day budgets of domestic agencies, which have already borne cuts under last year's budget deal. There's also widespread congressional aversion to cutting most of what remains on the chopping block, which includes health research, NASA, transportation, air traffic control, homeland security, education, food inspection, housing and heating subsidies for the poor, food aid for pregnant women, the FBI, grants to local governments, national parks and veterans' health care.
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PORTMAN: "Take trade with China. China manipulates its currency, giving it an unfair trade advantage. So why doesn't the president do something about it? I'll tell you one reason. President Obama could not run up his record trillion-dollar deficits if the Chinese didn't buy our bonds to finance them. Folks, we are as beholden to China for bonds as we are to the Middle East for oil. This will end under Mitt Romney."
THE FACTS: Portman is an expert on commerce, having served as President George W. Bush's trade representative from May 2005 to May 2006. But he didn't fare particularly well in stemming China's trade advantage, either.
Under Portman's watch, the U.S. trade deficit with China soared by 25 percent in 2005, and the next year it climbed more than 15 percent. By contrast, the deficit rose 10 percent over the first three years of Obama's presidency, according to U.S. government figures.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have launched unfair trade cases against China at the World Trade Organization, but neither has been able to rebalance the relationship.
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SANTORUM: "This summer (Obama) showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare. Now, I helped write the welfare reform bill. We made a lot crystal clear. No president can waive the work requirement, but as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law."
THE FACTS: The administration did not waive the work requirement. Instead, it invited governors to apply on behalf of their states for waivers of administrative requirements in the 1996 law. Some states have complained those rules tie up caseworkers who could be helping clients directly.
In a July 18 letter to congressional leaders, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that to be eligible for a waiver, governors must commit that their plans will move at least 20 percent more people from welfare to work. Moreover, states must show clear progress toward the goal within a year, or lose the waiver.
"We will not accept any changes that undercut employment-focused welfare reforms that were signed into law fifteen years ago," Sebelius wrote.
Ron Haskins, a former senior Republican House aide who helped write the welfare-to-work law, has said "there is merit" to the administration's proposal and "I don't see how you can get to the conclusion that the waiver provision undermines welfare reform and it eliminates the work requirement."
Haskins, now co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families, says the administration was wrong to roll out its proposal without first getting Republicans to sign off on it. But he said the idea itself is one both parties should be able to agree on, were it not for the bitter political divisions that rule Washington.

 

The funniest line of Ryan's speech was the one about BO's "new normal" where so many recent college grads are forced to live at home (no jobs in his economy & a mountain of student loan debt he advocated) & stare at the faded Obama posters they hung up 4 years ago. Priceless!!

 

It was funny or sad when you consider that Ryan's budget cuts Pell Grants for students and his effort to end Obama’s Affordable Care Act throws college kids off of their parent's insurance coverage. Believe me, college kids know who is to blame unlike college dropouts like you.

 

What's funny is that they are "kids" when it fits your narrative but when the subject of them entering into massive, long-term student debt arises you bristle at calling them "kids". KInd of a double standard there, huh?
Seriously, though, I do agree it's a sad state of affairs that these young people who enter college, work hard to graduate & step out into the world face an economy like the one we have today. Like the joke goes, if BO thought he inherited a mess the first time he got elected wait til he sees what he gets if he's elected again!

 

I never "bristled" at calling them either kids or adults. You made that up. Legally they are adults but they still tend to depend on their parents for many things so they are like kids in that respect. It's not an either/or situation as many parents know.

Secondly, lets see how the job market was in 2008 compared to today so that we can see if only ignorant people will laugh at your joke.

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Given that you'd have to be absolutely ignorant of the facts, your joke must be killing at the RNC Convention.

 

oops

 

I need to apologize to lil joe moen, I simply didn't realize we were living in such a booming economy. I guess I'm guilty of believing the lies about a depressed job market, decreased annual income, etc.

 

Like I said, sometimes the truth creeps out from behind their lies. If only there were enough time to figure out all the things you didn't realize.

It used to be that in politics, one or the other party would stretch the truth a bit to gain political advantage. One day the GOP realized that they could actually stand up on a national stage and blatantly lie to their base and never worry about being seen as liars. They realized this when they figured out just how dumb their base was. Not only will their base not believe the truth when it is put right in front of them but will actually defend the lies that they were told. I have never been more convinced that I joined the right political party than I am today. Thank you GOP!

 

BTW, I did a little digging on your "facts". Guess what. They are wrong! Wonder of wonders!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/30/politics/pol-fact-check-ryan-gm/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

 

From your link:

June 2008: GM announces that the Janesville plant will stop production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, and stop production of large SUVs such as the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and the GMC Yukon in 2010 or sooner, depending on market demand.

Obama was not in office at that time. The plant was shutting down already.

 

The last time I checked my math, "end of 2009" occurred well after "December 2008", not "weeks before Obama took office", but months after, and not "well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout" but even after that. Now just which part of 2009 coming after 2008 do you not understand? And that still omits the SUV production to go on into 2010.

 

Oh! Drat! And I thought you were going to try to propose that 2010 also comes before 2008. I was looking forward to that discussion.

 

I simply don't have your time machine memory. Everything that happened during George Bush's term was either Clinton's fault post-presidency or Obama's fault retroactively. Good luck with that line of "reasoning".

 

The point being that Ryan has earned the nickname "Lyin' Ryan" after this laundry list of lies as assessed by everyone's estimation even Fox.

 

Interesting line of discussion there. You call a man a liar purporting facts and you later admit that you don't have an accurate memory of (and cannot be bothered to check them). That is often what happens when you only listen to one side's "facts". And then to mask you ignorance, you accuse me of passing the buck from Bush - without presenting any evidence of such and have zero basis for it.

BTW, I presented 7 counters (my thoughts only) to your copy of someone else's left wing talking points. Somehow, you managed to try to disprove one where you cannot even do the math to support your stance. Keep up the good work!

 

With you, I always reach the same point. I say to myself, "What the hell is this idiot talking about". Every interaction ends this way. If a coherent thought/argument ever entered your head, I think that it would run away screaming in fear and loneliness. Try to organize your thoughts into one coherent sentence some time and then come back and actually try to not sound like a blathering idiot. I can wait.

 

OK! Let's try this. See if this is not coherent enough for you.
Your original post of LW "facts" are all lies!
GM did not "halt production in December 2008" at Janesville. (And the Obama administration did tweet that the Janesville plant would be saved.)
2008 came before both 2009 and 2010.
Your definition of "cut" depends on whose reducing the spending.
You have offered zero proof of your allegations except to support my belief that you have zero clue what the real world is like except what the elitist left wants you to see.

 

When you cut to the chase, it was nothing more than BO being BO. He was pandering to a specific group, in this case displaced or soon to be displaced auto workers. He knew they were vulnerable so he promised something in order to gain their votes. Following through on the promise was of no consequence to the guy.