Conservative Tactic # 9

“Obama’s spending is out of control”

 “This president has added almost as much debt to this country as all the other presidents combined.”  - Mitt Romney

Some more of those funny things called:

FACTS:

Reagan:    Tripled the debt (and cut taxes for the rich)

Bush:        Doubled the debt (and cut taxes for the rich)

Obama:     Increased the debt by half as much (.50%)

Many people don’t even really understand what the National Debt is, or think it is the same thing as the National Deficit.  A deficit occurs in any year the government spends more money than it takes in. The country then has to borrow funds to make up the difference.  The total amount of money owed by the United States is the National Debt, which is also referred to as the Gross Federal Debt.  The Federal Debt was created most recently by Bush 2.0, when he cut taxes for the wealthiest 1% (actually 1.4%) of Americans to 35% from the outrageous rate of 39.6%.  He then cut the capital gains tax from the already low 20% to 15%.  This benefited wealthy investors who moved their money into securities and used the capital gains as their income, thus effectively paying a lower annual tax rate than many struggling families.  And just for good measure Bush simultaneously expanded the Federal Government more than any president in history, with creation of Department of Homeland Security.  Not to mention the unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq, costing the U.S. economy three trillion dollars. 

It’s simple math, when the government spends more than it takes in, we add to the national Debt. The only president that has done a stellar job handling the debt in the last thirty years is Bill Clinton, second to him is Obama, and no Republican is even close. 

As with so many other blatant lies from the right, this conservative tactic is repeated to every audience at every opportunity until the point that many people now actually believe it to be true.  It’s been a constant talking point on talk radio, right wing networks, and blogs.  Conservative candidates, pundits, and politicians regurgitate this in their precision crafted blubs, interviews, and speeches.  What’s crazier than blatantly lying about such an easily disprovable allegation?  No one in the media is even bothering to fact check this, and even if they announced it to be completely untrue, the Republicans would just keep saying it.  It’s no wonder Karl Rove, who famously said, “we create our own reality,” is one of the guiltiest culprits of this mass manipulation.