July 19, 2011
One Obama Presser, 36 Obama Lies and Deceptions. Here are just 5 of them.
By Charlie P Brannan
Obama held a press conference last Friday, July 15 which turned out to be a purely partisan effort to increase taxes and increase the American debt. His speech and the answers he gave to cherry picked questions from the press was fundamentally dishonest: in all I counted three dozen lies, deceptions and misleading statements.?
Deception 1. “make sure that the United States does not default on our obligations, and that the full faith and credit of the United States is preserved.”
There is zero risk of a default to the creditors of US debt. The federal government takes in about $170 billion each month in revenues, but pays less than $29 billion each month in interest on the debt. The Bipartisan Policy Center has laid out a plan where the Treasury could pay: all debt interest, all Social Security obligations, all Medicare and Medicaid obligations, all Defense contractor bills, all Veterans payments, all active duty troops; and still have almost $7 billion left over every month for other items.
Obama is using pure political scare tactics to deceive uneducated voters into supporting his position. There is no risk to “the full faith and credit of the United States” unless Treasury chooses to default. Not raising the debt limit will cause a limited government shutdown, not a default, as Obama insinuates.?
Deception 2. “I think we should not even be this close to a deadline on this issue; this should have been taken care of earlier.”
The Obama administration created the present crisis with the introduction of his 2012 budget on Feb. 14, 2011. Obama’s budget had a $1.1 Trillion deficit and was defeated by a vote of 97 to 0 in the United States Senate. Obama’s own failure to submit a budget which could gain even a single vote directly caused the entire crisis.
Deception 3. “These are obligations that the United States has taken on in the past. Congress has run up the credit card, and we now have an obligation to pay our bills.”
There is plenty of government revenue to cover the obligations the US government has taken on in the past. The entire issue is the obligations the US government will take on in the future. Republicans in Congress want to reduce those obligations — they want to stop running up the credit card — and Obama is saying “No, continue to spend.”
Deception 4. “We could end up with a situation, for example, where interest rates rise for everybody all throughout the country, effectively a tax increase on everybody.”
Obama is painting a fundamentally dishonest scenario. His strategy to continue debt spending will saddle future generations of Americans with more and more debt which will eventually result in higher taxes in the future. He is advocating increased borrowing which in reality is “a tax increase on everybody.”
People globally invest in US debt because the United States of America is by far the strongest most vibrant and innovative economy on earth. The world economy is suffering and the result is demand for US debt, not a reluctance to lend. As long as Treasury chooses not to default on the US debt there will be little or no rise in interest rate. If anything, refusing to raise the limit debt would demonstrate to the world that we as a nation are finally serious about managing government spending and from a long term macroeconomic perspective the USA will be a much stronger nation.
Deception 5. “businesses that are trying to make payroll, all of them could end up being impacted as a consequence of a default.”
Obama is arguing that a default will cause increased interest rates, which will have “adverse consequences.” Putting aside the fact that failing to increase the debt limit will not result in a default unless Obama chooses to default, even a default and the increased interest rates will have little if any effect on most “businesses that are trying to make payroll.” Unlike the US government, the vast majority of businesses do not borrow money to pay their employees. Even if interest rates did rise, payroll payments for most businesses would stay the same.
