Washington Post Fact Checker Awards Obama 3 Pinocchios for His Kansas City Speech

On 6 December 11, President Obama gave a fairytale of a speech in the Kansas City suburb of Osawatomie, Kansas where he unsuccessfully sought to rebut Republican arguments that he is waging class warfare. Here was the “enduring’ sound bite from the speech that earned the Prez 3 Pinocchios from the Liberal Washington Post Fact Checker:

“I mean, understand, it's not as if we haven't tried this theory. Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history. And what did they get us? The slowest job growth in half a century.” - President Obama – Dec 6, 2011

Granted, this was not up to his 4 Pinocchio standard but here is how the WaPo judged the accuracy of Obama’s facts:

Inserting the words “for the wealthy” was interesting phrasing by the president, since he suggests these tax cuts were intended to only benefit the rich.

The bulk of the 2001 tax cuts were marginal rate cuts, which extended to all taxpayers and the 2003 tax cuts included a reduction in taxes on dividends and capital gains but the 2001 tax cuts also included tax changes that benefited the middle class, such as a reduced marriage penalty and expanded tax credits, along with an instant tax rebate. While benefits also flowed to the wealthy, let’s not forget they still pay 90% Federal income taxes. The WaPo chided Obama for suggesting that the Bush tax cuts were only aimed at the wealthy since that is NOT correct.

To compare tax cuts over the decades, it is best to focus on the size of the tax cut as a percent of national income and under that measure, the John F. Kennedy tax cut of 1964 (-1.90 percent) and the Ronald Reagan tax cut of 1981 (-1.40 percent) were larger than Bush’s 2001 tax cut (-0.80 percent.) but all of Bush’s tax cuts in 2001, 2002, and 2003 combined together would equal –2.00 percent.

The WaPo and said that is a stretch for Obama to blame slow job growth on the tax cuts and that it was silly to directly link the ten-year-old tax cut to today’s job growth. Also, Obama’s claim of the “slowest job growth,” in fact, includes the loss of jobs under his administration. The White House “evidence” for his claim was a New York Times blog report based on Gross Domestic Product data through 2010 which included the first 2 years of Obama’s administration! The White House also cited a Center on American Progress report on job growth through 2007, which showed monthly job growth of 68,000 jobs during the Bush business cycle. But, since the recession ended, job growth has been even more anemic under Obama—just 40,500 jobs a month.

Obama might have inherited a poor economy but blaming poor job growth on the Bush tax cut is bogus when Obama himself pushed through a nearly $1-trillion stimulus and took other actions that have affected the economy – Obama owns this economy for better or for worse!

Then, Obama blames the Bush tax cuts for “massive deficits” but according to the WaPo the biggest contributor was increased spending and incorrect CBO estimates. The Bush and Obama tax cuts were responsible for just 24% of the deficit so it is simply wrong to only blame the Bush tax cuts for the deficits now, especially three years into another presidential term. And what does the White House offer of evidence of their bogus claim? A TV clip off the left-leaning website Think Progress. Gimma a break! An administration official even had to conceded to the WaPo they had no actual data to back up the president’s assertions!

When it comes to taxes, let’s not forget the legendary statement of Judge Learned Hand—as long as it is not illegal, people can try to lower their taxes as much as possible. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.“

The WaPo found the top 400 taxpayers--all billionaires for 2008 paid an average tax of nearly $50 million each!

The Pinocchio Test – What earned the Prez 3 Pinocchios:

The president larded his case with such suspect data that is impossible for him to justify blaming tax cuts for being mostly responsible for today’s slow job growth, especially when he wants to retain a good chunk of those tax cuts. Then to bolster his case about unfairness, the president relied on a suspect statistic about billionaires paying as little as one percent in taxes. Seems the President pulls his “facts” out of thin air and then convinces himself it's the truth.

What’s the difference between President Obama and a used car salesman? The used car salesman normally knows he’s lying!

To see the entire Washington Post Fact Checker article, enlarge the below graphic.

Biden Ties President's Washington Post Four Pinocchios with "Absurd Claimes About rising Rape & Murder Rates"

Appears Joe Biden is trying to upstage his boss by at least tying him for the Washington Post (WaPo) Fact Checker Biggest Whopper Award - FOUR PINOCCHIOS!

Does anyone really believe Joe Biden, the quintessential political idiot, is qualified to be Vice President? Every time Joe speaks, I listen with anxious anticipation confident he will commit some “world-class” gaffs to provide comic relief. He is the reason every American should pray each evening for Obama's good health as he will surely go down in history as the dumbest and most inept vice president of all times; by comparison he makes Bachmann appear cerebral, Palin intellectual, and Dan Quayle absolutely brilliant. I suspect Obama keeps him around partly because it makes him look good by comparison.

Hence, true to form Joe has been telling some real whoppers (in the WaPo's words, not mine)in an effort to sell another failed stimulus package and read this Fact Checker for the details. Click on it a couple of time to enlarge it if you're having trouble reading it.

For a fuller picture of how dumb Old Joe “the Gaff-mister” really is, I have posted a compendium of "Dumb Biden-isms” on my Blog so scroll down a bit because some of them are a real hoot.

ENJOY

Washington Post Fact Checker Award Harry Reid 3 Pinocchios for His False Claim That the GOP Won’t ‘Do Anything That’s Constructive’

Once again even the Liberal Washington Post (WaPo) had to call Senator Harry Reid to task for his 17 Oct bold faced lie falsely accusing Republicans that: “… they don't want to do anything that's constructive.”

It should be noted the Republicans tried to bring the President’s exact Jobs bill as submitted to a Senate vote immediately after he submitted it but Reid used the “nuclear option” to procedurally kill it because he knew it would embarrassingly fail not even getting a majority of Democrats to vote for it. Dems have to run for reelection too! Reid did bring up his modified version of the Obama Bill last week but even that failed to advance to a vote with some Democrats voting against it. Now Senate Democrats plan to bring Obama’s bill up in pieces.

The WaPo Fact Checker examined Reid’s assertion that Republicans in the Senate “don’t want to do anything that’s constructive” and concluded it warranted 3 PINOCCHIOS – just one short of their Max but still a pretty big Whopper!You can read the entire WaPo Fact Checker article by clicking on the below image to enlarge it but here is the “Readers’ Digest” version:

The Facts - The President asked Congress to:
-- Pass trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia
-- Pass trade adjustment assistance
-- Pass patent reform
-- Pass Federal Aviation Administration authorization
-- Pass an extension of the highway transportation bill.

…and here is what Congress has done:

On 15 Aug Obama said: “You know, trade deals haven’t always been good for America. There have been times where we haven’t gotten a fair deal out of our trade deals. But we’ve put together a package that is going to allow us to start selling some Chevys and some Fords to Korea so that — we don’t mind having Hyundais and Kias here, but we want some ‘Made in America’ stuff in other countries. That’s something that Congress could do right now.”

The trade bills were approved by Congress last week. In fact, Obama hosted the president of South Korea and traveled with him to Michigan, making the case that this bill will mean more American jobs. It should also be noted that these agreements were negotiated by George Bush but Obama did even submit them to Congress until just before they passed. When Obama made his 15 Aug statement, he hadn’t even submitted the legislation to Congress. It should also be noted that Reid opposed the trade deals, believing them to be job-killers.


On 20 Aug Obama pushed for trade adjustment assistance for workers who lost their jobs to free trade: “Let’s pass trade deals to level the playing field for our businesses. . . .These are common-sense ideas – ideas that have been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The only thing holding them back is politics. The only thing preventing us from passing these bills is the refusal by some in Congress to put country ahead of party. That’s the problem right now. That’s what’s holding this country back. That’s what we have to change.”

That bill passed in September, paving the way for the trade deals.

On 15 Aug Obama demanded action on patent reform: “Patent reform is something that a lot of folks don’t talk about, but our entrepreneurs, when they come up with a good idea, if we could reform how that system works and cut some of the red tape, we could have entrepreneurs creating businesses like Google and Microsoft right now, all across the country. But we’ve got to make this investment, and Congress could make that decision to make it happen.”

The patent bill also passed in September.

On 31 Aug Obama called for a deal to avert another FAA shutdown: “So I’m calling on Congress, as soon as they come back, to pass a clean extension of the surface transportation bill, along with a clean extension of the FAA bill, to give workers and communities across America the confidence that vital construction projects won’t come to a halt.”

An extension of FAA funding through January was passed in September.

On 31 Aug Obama called for a renewal of the transportation bill: “This transportation bill has been renewed seven times in the last two years alone. That’s why my Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood — a Republican — is with me today, along with David Chavern from the Chamber of Commerce, and Rich Trumka of the AFL-CIO — two organizations who don’t always see eye-to-eye on things — because they agree on how important it is for our economy that Congress act now.”

A bill providing for highway funding through March passed in September too.

So what the bottom line that got the Dems the Big 3 Pinocchios?

Reid is being untruthful when he accuses the Republicans of not wanting “to do anything that's constructive.” The fact is that a number of major bills demanded by the president have passed with bipartisan support and several of the elements of the Obama jobs bill have Republican support but the disagreement between the parties is how to pay for it.

Reid may disagree with the GOP stance on tax increases, but it is misleading to suggest that Republicans have blocked legislation of importance to the president.

DNC Chairwoman Rep Wasserman Schultz Falls Short with Only 3 Pinocchios for Her Latest Whopper Accusing Romney of Wanting to Privatize Social Security

Debbie has always had a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction so most people wouldn’t believe anything she says, even under oath, but lately she must be living in an alternative universe.

After consistently achieving Four Pinocchios, the highest rating for lying on the Washington Post (WaPo) Fact Checker scale, I’m sure Debbie will be “throwing the Red Flag” to ask for an official review after only achieving three on the 6 Oct 11 Checker for her falsehood laden 5 Oct rant accusing Romney of wanting to privatize Social Security.

I’m sure she will be redoubling her efforts because she is falling behind her nearest competitor, Nancy Pelosi. Debbie scored a huge FOUR for her 12 June 11 NBC “Meet The Press” appearance where she claimed Obama had created 2.1 million private-sector jobs since he’s been in office when the Facts, according to the WaPo, are he has lost 2.5 Million. According to the WaPo, “Obama is on track to have the worst job record of any U.S. president since World War II. He may even become the first president in the modern era with no net jobs created during his first term — which, by any stretch of the imagination, is a stunning statistic.”

Then her Dem rival Pelosi earned Four Pinocchios on 29 Sep 11 for her “Really BIG” whopper that GW Bush raised the National Debt by 115% while Obama only raised it 16% when The Truth (according to the WaPo) is GW Bush raised it 5.6% while Obama increased it 24.6%. Nancy never has been good at Math… witness the fact she never even bothered to bring up a Budget Bill during her abbreviated House Speakership! But, come-on Debbie, we're rooting for you to maintain your Pinocchio preeminence!

Below is Debbie's Whopper verbatim from the WaPo so read it and see for yourself the lengths Debbie and her minions will go to distort the truth and twist fact. Drill down on it to enlarge it for easier viewing. Also, scroll down below for latest Nancy’s Four Pinocchio effort as well as Debbie’s previous Four Pinocchio “Meet The Press” moment. Thrown in as a Bonus below is President Obama’s 5 Sep Four Pinocchio Whopper for the president’s Detroit Labor Day speech where he made several fallacious assertions, most notably his claim he passed the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history.” The word the WaPo used to describe this claim: “ridiculous!” Click on the actual article below to enlarge it for easy reading if you want the full text.

Turns out the only thing “historic” about Obama’s claim was the audacity it took to make it. As the WaPo put it, “anytime a politician claims he or she has done something historic… that’s usually a dubious claim.” And what exactly was the source for Obama making such an outlandish claim (that incidentally the WaPo proved untrue), a report based on a White House fact sheet. Furthermore, The WaPo states they “found evidence that Obama knew he was saying a whopper” when he made the untrue claim.

Pelosi Again WINS FOUR PINOCCHIOS for Lying About Who Increased the National Debt Most - Bush or Obama!

The Truth: GW Bush 5.6%; Obama 24.6% -- The Pelosi Lie: GW Bush 115% ; Obama 16%

Know how you can tell if Nancy Pelosi is lying? Her lips are moving!

You can’t make this stuff up but when the Washington Post Awards House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi FOUR PINOCCHIOS two times in a row, you got to wonder if her nose is actually beginning to grow. This time is was a whopper of such magnitude one has to wonder if she is even capable of distinguishing fact from fiction. I suspect she is just so gullible she believes and posts on her website anything liberal lie organs like MoveOn.Org tells her. Regardless, we should expect more from all elected officials and especially those in the leadership.

To read the full expose as printed in the Sunday/2 Oct 2011 WaPo, double click on the above graphic to enlarge it but here is the Readers Digest version:

A chart was originally created by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office that said: “Who Increased the Debt? President Reagan 189%. President GHW Bush 55%. President Clinton 37%. President GW Bush 115%. President Obama 16%.”

The ONLY PROBLEMS was, the chart is (according to WaPo) “as phony as a three-dollar bill.” Despite the fact PolitiFact exposed it as a lie way back in May (4 months ago) awarding it their worst rating: “pants on fire,” Pelosi shows she has NO sense of shame because she still has links to this chart from her websites. If she is still deluded into thinking it to be correct — she is doubly shameful.

What are the real Numbers – and to be fair, Kudos to President Clinton!
Reagan: plus 14.9 percentage points
GHW Bush: plus 7.1 percentage points
Clinton: down 13.4 percentage points
GW Bush: plus 5.6 percentage points
Obama: plus 24.6 percentage points

How Many Jobs Has Obama Really Lost!

UPDATE:
According to the 22 Sep 2011 Washington Post Fact Checker: "....the number of overall jobs has declined by 1.9 million since Obama’s stimulus bill was passed into law more than two years ago. Moreover, Obama is on track to have the worst job record of any U.S. president since World War II. He may even become the first president in the modern era with no net jobs created during his first term — which, by any stretch of the imagination, is a stunning statistic.

When the Washington Post awards a Liberal like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, a Pinocchio award – she must have told a World Class lie! You can't make this stuff up! Here unedited is what the Washington Post had to say (Published: 18 June 2011):
The Fact CheckerBy by glenn kessler

“When President Obama took office, the month before he was inaugurated, the economy was bleeding 750,000 jobs a month, David. . . . You fast-forward 2 1 / 2 years later now, and the economy has created 2.1 million private-sector jobs.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” June 12, 2011

“The Chairwoman is living in Fantasyland. . . . We have lost 2.5 million jobs since Barack Obama has been president.”
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, moments later on the same program

A reader who watched NBC’s “Meet The Press” one week ago found his head spinning as the DNC and RNC chiefs battled with dueling factoids about the employment record under President Obama. He was particularly amused that Wasserman Schultz said there were 2 million more jobs and Priebus asserted there were 2.5 million fewer jobs.

Whew, that’s a swing of nearly 5 million jobs in just a few seconds! They can’t both be right, can they?

Amazingly, they are. Priebus is on more solid ground, rhetorically, but both are cherry-picking the statistics to make the best possible case for their side.

The Facts
The recession that greeted Obama when he took office was one of the worst recessions since the end of World War II. It started in December 2007, but the bottom fell out in late 2008, after the investment firm Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The common source of statistics for U.S. employment is the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics current employment survey, which is where Wasserman Schultz and Priebus derived their statistics.

Priebus crafts his figure by starting with employment when Obama took office, which he signals with the phrase “since Barack Obama has been president.” There were 133.56 million people with non-farm (private sector and government) jobs in January 2009; there are 131.04 million people with jobs today. Subtract one from the other and that shows 2.5 million fewer jobs.

So, yes, it is accurate, but is that fair? After all, it took weeks for many of Obama’s polices to be passed by Congress — and months to take effect, while about 2.5 million jobs were lost in the first four months of Obama’s presidency.

Wasserman Schultz, meanwhile, starts from a different point — when employment hit rock bottom in February 2010. That was 13 months after Obama became president. It is also eight months after the recession officially ended in June 2009, as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

That would yield an increase of 1.8 million jobs, but then Wasserman Schultz greases the skids by slipping in the phrase “private-sector jobs.” When government jobs are removed from the statistic, suddenly the job growth is 2.1 million since February 2010.

Wasserman Schultz is taking a page from the other team’s playbook. Republicans have used this kind of job accounting in the past, such as President George W. Bush in his 2006 State of the Union address.

DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse said that looking at the growth of jobs in the past 15 months is the best reflection of the impact of the stimulus package, which he said took months to work its way through the economy. He added that private-sector jobs are the “most accurate reflection of where the economy is going,” especially because government employment was artificially boosted in 2010 because of census hiring.

RNC spokesman Joe Pounder, not surprisingly, disagrees and defends starting the job count from the beginning of the president’s term. “The president’s major economic policy — the stimulus — was signed into law on February 17, 2009,” Pounder said. “The president and his administration were cited far and wide saying it would have an immediate impact. If the stimulus had worked as the administration intended, I’m sure they would have no problem counting jobs over the course of his entire term.”

We actually think a more logical place to measure job growth would be from the end of the recession — June 2009. That would give the new president time to take ownership of the economic situation, and yet remove some of the job losses that clearly did not happen as a result of his policies.

Counting from June 2009, job growth over two years is 600,000, which is still fairly grim. No wonder the DNC does not use it as a talking point.

Priebus is on more solid ground rhetorically because, like it or not, presidents often are measured by job growth during their entire term. For instance, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), when he was running for president in 2004, frequently charged that Bush was the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs in his term.

The Pinocchio Test
Both figures are technically accurate, but they don’t tell the whole story. We will give Priebus a pass because he used a relatively common measure of job growth during a presidency. Wasserman Schultz, by contrast, picked the data set that gave the most positive picture possible, thus distorting the record. It may be a snapshot in time, but it is not a full picture of the economy during Obama’s presidency since the recession ended.

Obama's Crony Capitalism – Solyndra, LightSquared, Who’s Next?

A “flattering pix” of Obama Bundler Philip Falcone, the majority owner of LightSquared (Kevin Wolf/AP)

First it was Solyndra and now it’s LightSquared, is there no end to the Obama Administration’s “Crony Capitalism” where Friends-of-Barack (FOB) Donors get favors at the expense of the rest of us. At least with Solyndra, it was only money – although it was $535 Million of our hard earned Taxpayer dollars – but with LightSquared the White House is gambling with our National Security.

According to a 15 Sep 2011 Daily Beast Article “White House Pressure for a Donor?”
General William Shelton, the Air Force Space Command Commander, gave classified testimony last week before the House Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces subcommittee that the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to Philip Falcone, a large Democrat donor. Seems Harbinger Capital, the hedge fund belonging to Falcone, is the principal owner of LightSquared. This seems to confirm that the Obama White House routinely politically intervenes in government matters affecting donors or fundraisers.

At issue is a conditional Federal Communications Commission waiver granted in January to LightSquared to build terrestrial wireless capacity in a section of the wireless spectrum close to the GPS bandwidth. The FCC license has come under scrutiny because technical experts have warned that LightSquared’s proposal would disrupt GPS signals thus threaten aviation safety, disrupt military and rescue operations, interfere with high-tech farming equipment and even render useless the everyday navigation devices used by millions. Obviously this would seriously affect National Security.

Not only was General Shelton’s prepared testimony leaked in advance to LightSquare but he was asked to revise it to suggest he supported the White House policy towards commercial broadband at any cost and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared in just 90 days. Obviously this administration doesn’t understand Military ethics and integrity – something they should have taken away from the General Eric Shinseki episode during the Bush Administration. Needless to say, it didn’t work this time either and Shelton gave his testimony on 8 Sep making the Pentagon concerns clear that the LightSquared project would cause significant disruptions to GPS with National Security implications.

According to Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the subcommittee chairman, “There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias (Shelton’s) testimony …. people who were involved in the process in preparation for the hearing included the Department of Defense, the White House, and the Office Management and Budget.” Even the White House had to admit that its OMB “suggested changes to the general’s testimony” but tried to downplay the interference as routine and that “OMB reviews and clears all agency communications with Congress …” (as an aside, I prepared Army HASC and SASC testimony for 3 years on the Pentagon ARSTAF and I NEVER had to staff testimony outside the Pentagon.)

Even LightSquared acknowledged it met with White House officials to push their project and according to White House emails dubbed “Lightsquared interference meeting,” the meetings took place at a conference center near the White House so that the Obama administration would not have to disclose names—especially lobbyists—in the White House visitors’ logs. On the very day the LightSquared CEO made a $30,400 contribution to the Democratic Party, two of his deputies appealed to the White House for the meetings with Obama’s top technology advisers.

Melanie Sloan, who runs the nonpartisan ethics groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said the White House LightSquared involvement seems to mirror the Solyndra case and it “sounds like a pattern of the White House improperly pressuring people at agencies involving decisions that affect companies tied to donors and fundraisers …. It’s always a problem when the White House is pressuring anyone’s testimony. I don’t care if you are a four-star [general] or a GS-15 [career employee], you should be giving your true opinion and not an opinion the White House is seeking for political expediency."

Although the White House maintains it has not tried to influence the FCC licensing process for LightSquared, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) stated “The FCC’s fast-tracking of LightSquared raises questions about whether the government is rushing this project at the expense of all kinds of other things, including national security and everyone who uses GPS, from agriculture to emergency medical technicians …. there’s no way to know whether the agency is trying to help friends in need or really looking out for the public’s interest.” In April, Grassley asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (a major Obama campaign “bundler”) to hand over all records of communications, including emails between Falcone and the FCC, and LightSquared and the FCC but Genachowski refused.

For a good unbiased report on the E-Mail exchanges showing meetings between White House technology advisers and LightSquared officials, go to The Center for Public Integrity (a nonprofit investigative journalism organization) article at: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/09/14/6458/emails-show-wireless-firms-communications-white-house-campaign-donations-were-made