Words ‘Ring Hollow’ in Obama’s Error Filled Speech
Calvin Woodward and Jim Kuhnhenn fact checked President Obama’s non-State of the Union speech and found the speech so error filled that Obama’s words “ring hollow.”
Posted By Dan Spencer
I have already said I did not care for Obama’s the government will do every thing speech. Another reason the Obama speech failed to impress me were the many misrepresentations Obama made as he tried to sell his anti-Reagan bigger government vision.
These are just the examples the two Associated Press writers highlighted:
Obama’s Housing Bailout
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have launched a housing plan that will help responsiblefamilies facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly paymentsand refinance their mortgages. It’s a plan that won’t help speculatorsor that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hopeto afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are strugglingwith declining home values.”
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure moneyonly goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn’t said so.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal ReserveChairman Ben Bernanke said it’s important to save those who made badcalls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the firedepartment to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
“I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put outthe fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action butthen, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules aboutsmoking in bed.”
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggestedthis month it’s not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners whooverstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn’tafford.
“I think it’s just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysisof each and every one of these delinquent loans,” Sheila Bair toldNational Public Radio.
We know Obama’s housing bailout hit a raw nerve. Rick Santelli’s now infamous rant inspired a tea party movement that extended all the way to Obam’a Chicago base.Invention of the Automobile
OBAMA ASSERTION: “And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.”
THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. Accordingto the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobilewas probably Germany’s Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered byan internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S.,Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the firstsuccessful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Fordcreated the first assembly line that made cars affordable.
The Washington Times also called Obama to task for this error and uses the Library of Congress to show the President misspoke when he credited the U.S. with the invention of the automobile.
Oil Imports
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have known for decades that our survival depends on findingnew sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before.”
THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels,and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nationis on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and governmentprojections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over thenext two decades.
Fiscal Responsibility
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.”
THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, theydon’t mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to passon the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big taxincreases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.
Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of histerm. He may not be president after that and he certainly won’t be 10years from now.
This may be Obama’s most galling misrepresentation. He continues to say one thing while doing another. He calls for fiscal responsibility while encouraging outrageously massive deficit spending. As for that deficit Obama likes to say he inherited, nearly one-fourth of the national debt was created since the Democrats took control of Congress just two years ago.
Deregulation
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at theexpense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew theycouldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loansanyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisionswere put off for some other time on some other day.”
THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn’t only Republicans who pushed forderegulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administrationchampioned an easing of banking regulations, including legislation thatended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That ledto a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federalregulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. ClintonTreasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidateObama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.
There is plenty of blame to go around here, including Obama and ACORN.
Proposed Budget
OBAMA ASSERTION: “In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”
THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That’s all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama’s proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.
Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.
Doubling Renewable Energy
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.”
THE FACTS: While the president’s stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.
In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.
If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.
Jobs
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.”
THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.
The president’s own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, “It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error.”
Beyond that, it’s unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it’s clear when jobs are abolished, there’s no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.
I have written a good deal about Obama’s quest for a job goal he can believe in. He has finally settled on the “save or create 3.5 million jobs” over the next two years. Unfortunately it is little more than a stroke of political genius expediency because it begs the question of how to measure jobs beingsaved.
All things considered this was not a very good performance for a president widely perceived as a truly great orator.
Bravo gentlemen.
Posted By Dan Spencer
I have already said I did not care for Obama’s the government will do every thing speech. Another reason the Obama speech failed to impress me were the many misrepresentations Obama made as he tried to sell his anti-Reagan bigger government vision.
These are just the examples the two Associated Press writers highlighted:
Obama’s Housing Bailout
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have launched a housing plan that will help responsiblefamilies facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly paymentsand refinance their mortgages. It’s a plan that won’t help speculatorsor that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hopeto afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are strugglingwith declining home values.”
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure moneyonly goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn’t said so.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal ReserveChairman Ben Bernanke said it’s important to save those who made badcalls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the firedepartment to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
“I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put outthe fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action butthen, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules aboutsmoking in bed.”
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggestedthis month it’s not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners whooverstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn’tafford.
“I think it’s just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysisof each and every one of these delinquent loans,” Sheila Bair toldNational Public Radio.
We know Obama’s housing bailout hit a raw nerve. Rick Santelli’s now infamous rant inspired a tea party movement that extended all the way to Obam’a Chicago base.Invention of the Automobile
OBAMA ASSERTION: “And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.”
THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. Accordingto the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobilewas probably Germany’s Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered byan internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S.,Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the firstsuccessful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Fordcreated the first assembly line that made cars affordable.
The Washington Times also called Obama to task for this error and uses the Library of Congress to show the President misspoke when he credited the U.S. with the invention of the automobile.
Oil Imports
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have known for decades that our survival depends on findingnew sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before.”
THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels,and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nationis on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and governmentprojections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over thenext two decades.
Fiscal Responsibility
OBAMA ASSERTION: “We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.”
THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, theydon’t mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to passon the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big taxincreases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.
Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of histerm. He may not be president after that and he certainly won’t be 10years from now.
This may be Obama’s most galling misrepresentation. He continues to say one thing while doing another. He calls for fiscal responsibility while encouraging outrageously massive deficit spending. As for that deficit Obama likes to say he inherited, nearly one-fourth of the national debt was created since the Democrats took control of Congress just two years ago.
Deregulation
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at theexpense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew theycouldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loansanyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisionswere put off for some other time on some other day.”
THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn’t only Republicans who pushed forderegulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administrationchampioned an easing of banking regulations, including legislation thatended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That ledto a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federalregulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. ClintonTreasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidateObama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.
There is plenty of blame to go around here, including Obama and ACORN.
Proposed Budget
OBAMA ASSERTION: “In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”
THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That’s all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama’s proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.
Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.
Doubling Renewable Energy
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.”
THE FACTS: While the president’s stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.
In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.
If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.
Jobs
OBAMA ASSERTION: “Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.”
THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.
The president’s own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, “It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error.”
Beyond that, it’s unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it’s clear when jobs are abolished, there’s no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.
I have written a good deal about Obama’s quest for a job goal he can believe in. He has finally settled on the “save or create 3.5 million jobs” over the next two years. Unfortunately it is little more than a stroke of political genius expediency because it begs the question of how to measure jobs beingsaved.
All things considered this was not a very good performance for a president widely perceived as a truly great orator.
Bravo gentlemen.
posted by Northern Exposer at 16:40
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