I read a story about Paul Krugman that on the show "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" he told Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson the his facts were, in fact, non-facts. I had to laugh, because I had been thinking about almost the same phrase. I generally agree with Mr. Krugman on issues, and when I saw the segment I agreed with his take.
There is a promotional ad for the show "House" where Dr. House says, "You're wrong. Again." With that in mind, and in consideration of the previous paragraph, I would like to say to the Right, as Arianna Huffington noted, Right is wrong. Now, I intend to prove it.
I'll begin with the economy. This weeks jobs numbers, 236,000 shattered expectations. Now, it is true that the economy in terms of jobs is not performing as people would like. Sure, the DOW is back at record levels, but Ann Coulter and many on the right are still talking about the failure of the Obama economy.
As Monk would say, "Here's the thing." As President, Obama gets the credit for gains and the blame for failures whether he deserves it or not. He does not deserve the blame for these failures for one simple reason. This is NOT the Obama economy. He has proposed numerous bills which he claims would help the economy grow faster than it is. These bills have been filibustered in the Senate and ignored in the House. Fair enough. These are the rules of the game.
However, you cannot stymie the President's proposals and then say that they didn't work. You may have the right to do it, but that doesn't mean it is right to do so. FACT: The stimulus bill worked. It should have been bigger, but most independent analyses agree that millions of jobs were saved or created as a result. At the same time, though, states were engaged in anti-stimulus, which mitigated the positive effects.
Let's talk about Bengazi. FACT: A movie trailer defaming Islam was posted on Youtube. FACT: It pissed people off. FACT: Terrorists attacked the facility in Bengazi. FACT: The White House said as much the very next day. FACT: The Muslim nation that sent the most insurgents to Iraq from abroad was Libya. FACT: The city in Libya that sent the most insurgents to Iraq was Bengazi. FACT: The reason I know this is because Ambassador Stevens wrote a report saying so. FACT: There were protests in neighboring nations outside US facilities about the Youtube post. FACT: It was September 11. FACT: Dates hold significance to terrorists just like they do to us.
Do you care about entitlements? FACT: Medicare is going broke in 12 years. FACT: Over the entire lifetime of Medicare (over 40 years) the previous statement is an average fact. FACT: Social Security will only be able to pay 75% of its obligations in 25 years. FACT: The Social Security fix agreed to by Tip O'Neil and President Reagan was supposed to affect 90% of income. FACT: It currently covers less than 85%. FACT: If it covered the agreed upon 90% threshold, it would be solvent for 75 years.
How about Iraq? FACT: Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. FACT: Iraq had no programs to develop WMD when we attacked and had halted them no later than 1994. FACT: Saddam did not kick out the weapons inspectors, President Bush did. He said we are going to attack so you'd better leave.
Osama Bin Laden- FACT: Bush doesn't deserve any credit. FACT: President Bush said he wasn't concerned about him. FACT: President Bush dismantled the CIA team tasked with finding him in 2006. FACT: Even if they had gathered valuable intel, it would have been worthless in 2009 when President Obama reconstituted the task force. ergo FACT: Waterboarding had nothing to do with killing Bin Laden.
Pick a topic and I will cite facts that show the Left's position to be the correct one. Not a single Republican voted for President Clnton's tax hike because they said it would wreck the economy- FACT: The economy grew at a rate of 225,000 new jobs per month for 8 years.
You may not like my facts. You may disagree with them. The problem you will still have to deal with, though, is that they are, in fact, facts.