I apologize in advance for the dog bites man nature of this diary. I realize that the diary list could easily be filled with the disingenuousness of actual elected republicans, much less their talking heads on Fox News. But I saw a clip of Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on Fox, and I was so incredulous at her audacity that I just had to share. Watch and be stunned with me:
For those who couldn't see the video, the topic of the discussion is whether or not Obama inherited a shitty economy from George Bush. Or more accurately how does she feel as a member of the Bush administration when Obama points out the obvious. Instead of trying to make an argument that people don't want to hear the current administration point fingers at the previous one. She decides to argue that Obama didn't inherit a bad economy. Now anybody with a pulse knows that this is absurd. Heck to hear John McCain tell it, Sarah Palin had practically gotten him in the White House when the economy melted down. It's not even debatable, right? Well apparently it is to Elaine Chow. So how does Chao make the point the Bush passed on a rock solid economy? By citing the unemployment rate... in 2007. Wha-? I'm sorry, I didn't realize that Obama became president in 2007. In my version of reality he didn't take office until 2009, when the unemployment rate was 7.6%. Further it's not as if unemployment was stable for months at 7.6%, it's not as if everything was stable and then Obama came into office and said, "hey I'm going start spending money", and then business immediately decided to lay people off in response and unemployment jumped to 10%. When Obama took office unemployment was climbing month after month, increasing at a faster and faster rate since it was at 4.7% in 2007 that Chao cited. Throwing out the 4.7% unemployment rate is an outrageous cherry picking of data. Further, it's widely acknowledged that Bush economy, was built on a massive real estate and speculative bubble. So it should be kind of hard to brag about numbers that were always unsustainable. Chao then proceeds to give the usual republican talking points about spending, taxes, and regulation, and a gratuitous shot at community organizers, but by that time she had completely destroyed whatever shred of credibility she may have once possessed.
She could have made an argument that Obama's policies haven't done enough to stem job losses (although we're seeing some slightly positive signs this morning), some democrats have made that argument, and this is currently Obama's economy. However we got here, the president rightly or wrongly has always been held responsible for the economic state of the country. But you CANNOT cite the unemployment numbers in 2007 and pretend that everything was peachy until Obama started spending money, not with any credibility at least.
That's where the video cuts off, I would love to think that after the clip fades out, the anchor/moderator made the points I just did (or at least the token democrat on the panel). But Fox being Fox, I wouldn't bet on it.