Posted on 08/29/2011 2:48:46 PM PDT by ozarkgirl
Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law Monday 29 August 2011 by: Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed
Federal spending dramatically increased under former president, George W. Bush and it has not increased much under President Obama. (Photo: Eric Draper / White House)
Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "Stimulus" just made things worse.
Solution: Here are three "reality-based" charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened.
Spending
Government spending increased dramatically under Bush. It has not increased much under Obama. Note that this chart does not reflect any spending cuts resulting from deficit-cutting deals.
Deficits
Notes, this chart includes Clinton's last budget year for comparison.
The numbers in these two charts come from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012. They are just the amounts that the government spent and borrowed, period, Anyone can go look then up. Peoplewho claim that Obama "tripled the deficit" are either misled or are trying to mislead.
The Stimulus and Jobs
In this chart, the RED lines on the left side -- the ones that keep doing DOWN -- show what happened to jobs under the policies of Bush and the Republicans. We were losing lots and lots of jobs every month, and it was getting worse and worse. The BLUE lines -- the ones that just go UP -- show what happened to jobs when the stimulus was in effect. We stopped losing jobs and started gaining jobs, and it was getting better and better. The leveling off on the right side of the chart shows what happened as the stimulus started to wind down: job creation leveled off at too low a level.
It looks a lot like the stimulus reversed what was going on before the stimulus.
Conclusion: THE STIMULUS WORKED BUT WAS NOT ENOUGH!
More False Things
These are just three of the false things that everyone "knows." Some others are (click through): Obama bailed out the banks, businesses will hire if they get tax cuts, health care reform cost $1 trillion, Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme or is "going broke", government spending "takes money out of the economy."
Why This Matters
These things really matter. We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse. If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble.
1055 Email DAVE JOHNSON Dave Johnson (Redwood City, CA) is a Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, writing about American manufacturing, trade and economic/industrial policy. He is also a Senior Fellow with Renew California.
Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience including positions as CEO and VP of marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. And he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.
“Conclusion: THE STIMULUS WORKED BUT WAS NOT ENOUGH!”
That’s always the answer whenever socialism fails. It’s always “never enough” or “didn’t try hard enough”.
This is why it would be a horrible mistake to vote for Romney or any RINO if he is the nominee.
When did we start plugging “truth-out” bullshit on FR?
They are claiming that Bush was the bigger spender?
Well for one, spending under Dubya wasn’t that bad until January of 2007 when the dems took the house. There’s plenty of charts around that show that very fact. Also, that’s when gas prices started shooting upwards.
Spending is controlled by congress according to the constitutuion. (something Dems conveniently forget) The Dems under Pelosi used the troops in Iraq and Trashcanistan as hostages to prevent a Dubya veto of their outrageous budgets.
Your first mistake was joining Facebook.
Your second mistake was accepting this e-mail then trying to refute it with the obviously demented and tortured soul who sent it to you.
Finally, you should fear nothing that comes from the Trufers....that reference alone is sufficient for most rational people to move on....
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I’ve seen the third one before, the rate of change in private sector employment. It’s always nice that they only focus on the last year of Bush’s presidency and not the previous 7 years! It was bound to change no matter what. If the number of jobs kept falling, we’d be in a revolution right now.
Liberals prefer this chart rather than the one that shows the unemployment rate over time compared to other economic downturns in history. That’s the one that has real impact on people’s lives.
Rush refuted this today. I don't know if this article had anything to do with it, but he refuted it today.
The first chart I’d have to consider further.
One thing I note to my liberal Facebook friends is that the real ramp up in spending occured when Democrats took control of congress in Dec 2007. And the spike in spending in Bush’s last year was in the month just before the election; TARP. I make note that TARP was fully supported by then Sen. Obama and the rest of the Democratic party. Conservatives didn’t want it and were mad at McCain for supporting it.
All you need to do is point out that dims were in charge of the purse strings starting in 2007-2009. Look at the jobs chart. Republicans took control of the purse strings (the House) in 201
Democrats always try to ofuscate the issue. Who cares what President Bush did. Maybe we can blame the economy on my Grandma because she didn’t buy enough when she was alive. The Democrats are responsible for this economy. “Elections have consequences” - President Obama. “Stupid Democrats in positions of power have consequences like high unemployment and a failing economy.” - Me
Read the fine print on the chart. This is based upon budget, not actual figures and they give Bush credit for O’Bummers first year of spending as the fiscal year began under Bush...
Figures don’t lie, but liars figure!!!
A picture to email your left-wing sister-in-law explaining how to keep the deer out of her garden.
The second chart is a total joke.
I like how the deficits were on their way down until the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in Dec 2007. Then TARP was passed and the deficit shot up. Ask your friend if he supported the TARP bill.
I also like how FY2011 and on show the deficit decreasing. Not only is that unlikely, it’s only even possible because Republicans control the house.
Tobacco Taxes are Increasing
In April of 2009, the federal government significantly increased tobacco taxes. Below is a chart with those tax increases:
http://www.nocigtax.com/tax-facts/federal
I went to the site and now I need to take a shower.
When we have friends who believe this crap and need to provide facts to make them look like a fool...again
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