'Tis the Season for Some Reason

Let the Race Begin

Noting the fact that presidential campaigns seem to begin earlier and earlier each cycle, the silly season is once again upon us and it is starting out to be one of the silliest yet. With Michele Bachmann's announcement that she will run, Obama's people and local Democratic parties are already dusting off a tired mantra in an attempt to obfuscate their way back to the White House.

After Michele Bachmann formally announced her candidacy, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt had this to offer:

"[Bachmann] voted for a budget plan that would extend tax cuts for the richest Americans on the backs of seniors and the middle class while ending Medicare as we know it. Congresswoman Bachmann introduced legislation to repeal Wall Street oversight -- risking a repeat of the financial crisis -- and while she voted to preserve subsidies for oil and gas companies she opposes making the investments necessary to enhance America's competitiveness and create the jobs of the future"

There is so much wrong with every assessment made by Mr. LaBolt that reflects the Goebbels-like methods of the left in this country today. They have seized upon the notion that if they lie boldly and often, the lie will become the accepted truth.

His first point is the attack on "the wealthy", and the notion that they got that way by virtue of stealing from the poor, combined with the equally asinine idea that tax breaks are somehow a "gift" from the government. I'm sure that many of you would not consider a carjacker's sudden change of heart as a gift. He didn't give you your car, he simply decided not to steal it. Why is that concept so hard to understand for a liberal when the same principle is applied to taxation?

Mr. LaBolt also infers that Wall Street -- and a lack of interference by the government --  was the reason for the financial crisis we faced in 2008. As we should all be aware, the "benevolence" of the Democrats -- through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the insistence that poor people own homes knowing that eventually they would default on the mortgages -- is what caused the problems we now face.

Finally, Mr. LaBolt demonizes the oil and gas industries as some form of welfare recipient black hole, sucking money away from ordinary, poor and suffering people. The truth of the matter is this, however; if the government received the same amount of taxes and staple products from actual welfare recipients, this countries economy would be in far better shape.


Let's be clear; Wall Street didn't cause the financial crisis, the reasons for which we will explore shortly. For the time being, let's examine another fallacy of the left. The Iowa Democratic Party also issued a statement regarding Ms. Bachmann, in which they bludgeon another deceased equine. They claim that a President Bachmann would lead us back to "the flawed economic policies that cost us millions of jobs and almost sent us into a second Great Depression", and repeat the drumbeat that this economy is actually improving.

Unemployment Rates Since Bush 

Barack Obama himself keeps blaming his predecessor for the sad state of our nation, but history indicates otherwise. As indicated in the graph, unemployment was edging downward for most of George W. Bush's administration, and only began to rise when the Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006. To further complicate the Democrat talking points of today, then-President Bush had been beseeching Congress for years to act on the impending crisis that Fannie and Freddie were about to inflict. Congress not only ignored the president's pleas, but firmly declared that there was no problem with those now failed institutions.

As far back as April of 2001, President Bush sounded the alarm over Fannie and Freddie:

The Administration’s FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is “a potential problem,” because “financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity.”

Bush would remind Congress many more times throughout his administration that those two institutions were headed for trouble, and that they would take a lot of others with them. Barney Frank (D-MA) would have none of it, and refused to increase oversight on them. By the end of Bush's second term, the damage was done, and it was all too easy to lay the blame at his feet, and Barack Obama, the Democrats and the media continue to do so.

Since 2003, Barney Frank has been adamant that there were no problems with either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Strange then, that as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2010, Frank began to say that Fannie and Freddie need to be abolished. Perhaps it's because he knows they have a problem, only this time it will affect his parties president.

From Heritage.org

Another problem caused the auto industry to suffer. That problem would be the unions and their staggering legacy costs to auto companies. From Heritage.org, the chart shows the average hourly labor costs of the Big Three Detroit auto makers compared with the rest of the private sector. The figures include benefits to current as well as retired employees. For a company to support former employees while paying current ones is simply unsustainable.

So as the campaign season begins to rev up, let's all remember what is causing the misery. It is the policies of the Democrats, and we must remind the electorate loudly, repeatedly and firmly. The Democrats must not be permitted to perpetrate the lie that they will eventually make things right if given enough time.

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