UPDATED WED 2:45pm EDT We got our 11-member investigative team together (see comments) to look into the Obama speech on the economy given today at the liberal think-tank, the Brookings Institution. They found 16 pieces of solid Brookings Bull. Here’s the updated list.

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By Peter Andrew
ConservativeAmerican.org
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Brookings Bull from Barack! Taken from the Official Obama Administration Scandals List…

1. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 1 – Deficits are Bad 12/8/9 OBAMA: And Peter Orszag, my incoming Budget Director, closed out the proceedings with an entirely dismal report on the fiscal health of the country, with growing deficits and debt stretching to the horizon. FACTS: Barack Obama and Peter Orszag quadrupled the budget deficit in one year. When Orszag worked at the Brookings Institution (where Obama gave the speech today) he wrote that “deficits will gradually harm the future income of Americans. At worst, they could trigger a fiscal crisis which could accelerate and possibly exacerbate the damage.”


Obama Liar-in-Chief

2. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 2 – A Great Depression 12/8/9 OBAMA: The fear among economists across the political spectrum was that we were rapidly plummeting toward a second Great Depression…We can safely say that we are no longer facing the potential collapse of our financial system and we’ve avoided the depression many feared. FACTS: That is not the case. The only “economist” on some political spectrum that used the D-word was Joe Biden! From ABC News (See Scandal # 758)News’ Karen Travers: “In recent weeks, Vice President Joe Biden has said that the U.S. economy has been in what he calls “a great recession” and has stressed that it is not a depression, echoing the general consensus of the nation’s economists. But today the vice president took some liberty with the economic terms to illustrate the continuing struggles of the unemployed in the United States. For the millions of Americans without a job, “it’s a depression,” Biden said. “My grandpop used to say — there was a suburb of Scranton called Minooka. He said, ‘When the guy in Minooka’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother- in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression,’” Biden said. “Well, it’s a depression — it’s a depression for millions of Americans, through no fault of their own,” he said.
3. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 3 – Republicans Caused this Mess 12/8/9 OBAMA: We were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve. FACTS: While republican George W. Bush was president, democrats like then U.S. Senator Barack Obama, were in charge of Congress and came up with the decision-making that led to this crisis. Obama ignores this fact in his description. There is plenty of blame to go around and it is foolish to suggest it is all the republicans fault.
4. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 4 – We Got Lending Going! 12/8/9 OBAMA: We acted to get lending flowing again FACTS: Countless news stories have discussed how loans are not flowing again despite the Obama Stimulus plan. The president chooses his words carefully. They did take some action they said was an attempt to get lending flowing. He just ignores the fact it did not work!
5. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 5 – We Had No Choice! 12/8/9 OBAMA: We were forced to extend assistance to some of the very banks and financial institutions whose actions had helped precipitate the turmoil. FACTS: No one was “forced” to do anything. The institutions could have been allowed to fail. Instead, the Obama administration helped out Wall Street…not main street as his campaign rhetoric suggested. His friends at Goldman Sachs appreciated the gesture. Many of them now work for Obama.
6. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 6 – Deliberately Misleading the American People 12/8/9 OBAMA:
   Less than one month after taking office we enacted the most sweeping economic recovery package in history: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Recovery Act was divided into three parts. One-third went for tax relief for small businesses and 95 percent of working families. FACTS: This is a deliberate attempt to mislead the American people. The president knowingly implies that one-third of the $787-Billion “went” for tax relief for small businesses. The liberal Huffington Post (see scandal dated 12/3/9 above) “The Obama Administration is claiming they have allocated $17.4 billion of the $785 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) to small businesses.” – Do the math, $17.4-billion is not even close to HALF of $787-Billion!
7. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 7 – More Saved & Created Jobs Nonsense 12/8/9 OBAMA: We provided assistance that has saved the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers and public school workers, firefighters and police officers… the Recovery Act has created jobs and spurred growth FACTS: The president has claimed 600,000 jobs were created or saved, then he said 640,000 then 1-million and today 1.6-million. These jobs creations claims have been widely dismissed as nonsense. There is no way to count a saved job, and of those he said were created, many thousands were made up and never happened. Despite this coming to light, the President continues to use the fraudulent numbers.
8. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 8 – We “Need” Wind Power 12/8/9 OBAMA: put Americans to work doing the work America needs done: doubling our capacity in renewable energy like wind and solar FACTS: All attempts to make wind and solar technology into efficient sources of power have failed to date. Nuclear power works now. Clean burning coal technology works now. Obama thinks nuclear energy is good enough for Iran, why not for us? American doesn’t “Need” work on wind and solar power right now. Research can be done by private industries.
9. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 9 – Proposes Tax Cuts Without “Paying” For Them 12/8/9 OBAMA: we’re proposing a complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment along with an extension of write-offs to encourage small businesses to expand in the coming year…(later) Folks passed tax cuts and expensive entitlement programs without paying for any of it – even as health care costs kept rising, year after year…This fall, I signed into law more than $30 billion in tax cuts for struggling businesses…we’re proposing a complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment along with an extension of write-offs to encourage small businesses to expand in the coming year. FACTS: The President failed to explain how HE will “pay for’ the tax cuts HE proposes while criticizing others for doing the same! ConservativeAmerican.org notes it is nonsense to even suggest tax cuts need to be “paid for.” We have dealt with that topic numerous other times.
10. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 10 – Only Government Can Solve These Problems 12/8/9 OBAMA: Of course, there is only so much government can do. Job creation will ultimately depend on the real job creators: businesses across America… FACTS: On January 8th, 2009 Obama said that both government and business will create the jobs, but “only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe,” Obama said. “Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy — where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.”
11. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 11 – TARP was Flawed…Oh, uh, Did I Mention My Guy Wrote It?! 12/8/9 OBAMA: Launched hastily under the last administration, the TARP program was flawed, and we have worked hard to correct those flaws and manage it properly. And today, TARP
    

    Rush Hudson Limbaugh (mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmm!)

    has served its original purpose and at a much lower cost than we expected. FACTS: From Rush Limbaugh today, “He dumped all over the Bush administration. TARP was flawed, his treasury secretary designed it! His tax cheat secretary designed it! It was flawed? My God, it is unbelievable what an immature little kid this guy is, bumping and blaming everything on prior administrations. I tell you, folks, it is breathtaking to watch this.”
12. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 12 – Fiscal Responsibility 12/8/9 OBAMA: One of the central goals of this administration is restoring fiscal responsibility. FACTS: Where do we start? The largest federal budget ever, huge increases in the debt, a quadrupling of the federal deficit in less than one year! This is just a lie to say this is a central goal. If it is, he is a monumental failure! He has spent more money than all previous Presidents combined!
13. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 13 – Audacity of Waxing Political!!! 12/8/9 OBAMA: One of the central goals of this administration is restoring fiscal responsibility. The deficit had been building dramatically over the previous eight years. Folks passed tax cuts and expansive entitlement programs without paying for any of it, even as health care costs kept rising year after year. These budget-busting tax cuts and spending programs were approved by many of the same people who are now waxing political about fiscal responsibility while opposing our efforts to reduce deficits by getting health care costs under control. It’s a sight to see. FACTS: First he waxes political about fiscal responsibility. Then he tries to tell you about Bush doubling the deficit in 8 years but completely ignores the fact he took that Bush deficit and quadrupled it in just a few months!! “Spending programs were approved by many of the same people who are now waxing political about fiscal responsibility.” Is he looking in a freaking mirror or something?!! HE approved these spending programs as a Senator! HE voted for them. HE is now “waxing political!” Give us a ‘Rev. Jeremiah Wright shouldn’t have said that’ Break! The audacity of this man is out of control!….Wait, what’s that smell? Oh…nevermind. Just my blood boiling!
14. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 14 – Expanding Economy?! 12/8/9 OBAMA: Our economy is growing for the first time in a year, and the swing from contraction to expansion since the beginning of the year is the largest in nearly three decades. FACTS: The number of people unemployed has improved a bit. However, this only means the loss of jobs has slowed. We still have losses every week. There is no expansion. We are still contracting, not expanding.
15. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 15 – Taxpayers “Reap Billions in PROFIT?!” 12/8/9 OBAMA: And the assistance to banks, once thought to cost the taxpayers untold billions, is on track to actually reap billions in profit for the taxpaying public. This gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street. FACTS: It’s obvious, I know, but it’s not a “profit” if he simply shifts funds to other new spending. That would just mean the government made a bit more than it thought it would but went and spent it all, leaving NO GAIN, no profit at all! Isn’t this a lie?
16. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 16 – Admits He Wants to Kill Free Market Capitalism! 12/8/9 OBAMA: We cannot simply go back to the way things used to be. We can’t go back to an economy that yielded cycle after cycle of speculative booms and painful busts. FACTS: As explained by Rush Limbaugh, “So that’s the official proclamation that capitalism is finished in this country. We’re going to end capitalism. We’re going to have no more risk-taking; we’re not going to have any up and down cycles; we’re going to have a straight line of mediocrity!”
17. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 17 – We Stemmed the Tide of Foreclosures 12/8/9 OBAMA: We enacted measures to stem the tide of foreclosures in our housing market, helping responsible homeowners stay in their homes. FACTS: RealtyTrac reports, “Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 937,840 properties in the third quarter, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from Q3 2008. One in every 136 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter — the highest quarterly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005.” The President also said home values are improving. While that was actually true, the national home values remain below 2008 levels.
18. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 18 – He Saved the Auto Industry! 12/8/9 OBAMA: We also took steps to prevent the rapid dissolution of the American auto industry, which faced a crisis partly of its own making, to prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs during an already fragile time. These were not decisions that were popular or satisfying; these were decisions that were necessary. FACTS: This one is up for debate. The key word seems to be “dissolution” and it would depend who you ask. Dissolution can mean separation. You could argue that Fiat’s involvement meant separation did take place. Dissolution can also mean to dissolve, fall apart or disintegrate. Union workers still employed would likely say that is true. GM and Chrysler continue to make cars. However, Obama took unprecedented (you know he loves that word) steps, without any legal authority to do so, to render contracts null and void between the car makers and the people who financed them. Instead, he followed President Bush’s steps into socialism and simply took over the car companies. He then demanded the authority to fire the GM CEO and gave away huge stakes in ownership of the two companies to the auto workers union! You and I, through our tax dollars, paid for these companies with bailouts. As “owners” of the government and these companies, why did our CEO (Barack Obama) simply give away this asset to his democrat-voting union pals?
19. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 19 – He Helped Companies Compete?! 12/8/9 OBAMA: In addition, we are working to break down barriers and open overseas markets so our companies can better compete globally, creating jobs in America by exporting our products around the world. FACTS: From the Scandals List # 653: “Obama Uses Tax Dollars to Bailout Captain Morgan Rum! 9/7/9 AND, the bailout hurts Puerto Rico, a U.S. Territory! The LA Times: “The U.S. taxpayer is basically being asked to line the pockets of the world’s largest liquor producer,” says Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog organization…With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary — the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum. Under the agreement, London-based Diageo PLC will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including the entire $165-million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory. Virgin Islands officials say the arrangement complies with the letter and spirit of tax law and will help the islands’ sagging economy. Captain Morgan is now produced in another U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, and critics say the Virgin Islands’ subsidy for the new distillery there, along with the other benefits, are so generous that they practically guarantees a profit on every gallon of rum produced there by Diageo, the biggest distilled spirits maker in the world.” — And from the Scandals List # 599 “Hypocrite-in-Chief Obama Finances Offshore Drilling…in BRAZIL!!! 8/18/9 – Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field…near Rio de Janeiro…White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount…this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas. But look on the bright side. If President Obama has embraced offshore drilling in Brazil, why not in the old U.S.A.? The land of the sorta free and the home of the heavily indebted has enormous offshore oil deposits.” — He may have helped companies compete, but they weren’t U.S. companies!
20. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 20 – Tax Break for New Hires (AGAIN) 12/8/9 OBAMA: And I believe it’s worthwhile to create a tax incentive to encourage small businesses to add and keep employees and I’m going to work with Congress to pass one. FACTS: Neither party likes this idea and he has very little chance of making it happen. From the Scandals List # 142: “The St. Petersburg Times says Obama promised a $3,000 tax credit for businesses that add an employee. His stimulus bill did not include the idea and it appears to be dead. It never got support in Congress, even from Democrats. Lawmakers were concerned the credit wasn’t enough of an incentive. Tax policy analysts said the credit would be an administrative nightmare.”
21. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 21 – Have Our Spending Cake and Eat the Deficit Too! 12/8/9 OBAMA: There are those who claim we have to choose between paying down our deficits on the one hand, and investing in job creation and economic growth on the other. But this is a false choice. Ensuring that economic growth and job creation are strong and sustained is critical to ensuring that we are increasing revenues and decreasing spending on things like unemployment so that our deficits will start coming down. FACTS: Interesting comments. His own budget director disagrees with him. Peter Orszag, liberal blogger from the Brookings Institution where Obama was speaking, once wrote for that organization that, “If we do invest more than two percent of our income, we must borrow the difference from foreigners – which would leave future generations of Americans increasing indebted to other nations…This borrowing from abroad, however, mortgages the future returns from domestic investment in the U.S.”
22. Obama’s Brookings Bull # 22 – TARP Flip-Flop 12/9/9 This one comes from the Wall Street Journal: “This time, however, Mr. Obama is also proposing to use funds repaid by banks to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. When Congress passed TARP a year ago, the Democrats who ran the joint vowed that the cash was intended to save the financial system and that any returns would promptly go to pay down the debt. As Candidate Obama put it, “every penny” would go “directly back to the American people.” That was then.”

Beyond those listed, the President wants to spend, spend and spend. He said, “boost in investment in the nation’s infrastructure beyond what was included in the Recovery Act…So adding to this initiative to rebuild America’s infrastructure is the right thing to do…And I’m proposing that we expand select Recovery Act initiatives…we should also extend the relief in the Recovery Act, including emergency assistance to seniors, unemployment insurance benefits, COBRA, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs. “

Beyond it? Adding to it? Expanding it? Extending it?

They haven’t even spent all the first one yet and they want another!

The President also repeated some old lies about cutting the deficit in half, eliminating government waste, changing the culture in Washington, etc.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. View Comments & Add Yours, or trackback from your own site.