Despite a lot of intentional misinformation put out by the GOP and their propaganda ministry at Fox or partisan radio shows like Rush Limbaugh, it seems the actual numbers say something completely different about the nature of the economy. On the subject of both the deficit and government spending, they are similarly incorrect/deluded in part because they listen to a relentless droning of rightwing media nearly exclusively.
The actual RAW DATA from the non-partisan OMB communicates something completely different however.
Per AFP via Raw Story:
- The U.S. deficit actually SHRANK 9% in the last fiscal year, down 122 billion dollars over the previous year.
- Democrats also brought down the cost of the financial “rescue” of the banks by $240 billion.
- 2010 marked the largest DECLINE in government spending since 1984.
- And thanks to cutting corporate loopholes, revenue increased by 3%.
Of interest in the article as well, is this statement by Republican Judd Gregg, who said, “Just a few years ago, the deficit was under 500 billion dollars.”
That’s quite correct Judd. A $500 billion dollar deficit would place us at about 2002, just before the GOP started off-budget financing two wars (and literally shipping palates of $9 billion dollars of cash to literally throw at the Iraqis off the back of trucks), and increasing the federal bureaucracy by creating whole new departments like the utterly worthless 4th Amendment-violating Homeland Insecurity Dept., and while giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy who didn’t need it.
What that also says is that in the two years PRIOR to 2002, the GOP had already wasted nearly $1 trillion dollars — because BEFORE they walked into the door, we had a $300 billion dollar SURPLUS under Clinton.
Now the economy’s still not great. Nobody sane would argue that. But after the drunken frat boy spends 8 years driving the country off a cliff, it takes a while to get the tow truck, hoist it back up again, and fix the friggin’ national car. Not to mention turn it into an electric vehicle. And it’s doubly difficult with the reckless obstructionism by the Republicans in the Senate who are quite willing to just let the country rot if they think it’ll put them back into power.
And it’s working for them. They are proving that Goebbels was correct when he said the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it, if it is simply repeated often enough. The Tea Party (the insane wing of the GOP) is a group of people supposedly organized around reducing taxes, who are so out of touch with reality, that they’re angry at a President that LOWERED taxes for 95% of America.
The GOP and the sycophants in the corporate media have confused these poor rubes so much, that they now actually believe that somehow THEY get burned, unless the ultra-rich have-mores get to hoard more of the nation’s treasure. It’s like three card monty on acid. The ultimate long con — run by NeoCons.
