Everyone wants to tell a good story about themselves. Nobody wants to be the bad guy in a story, or the one who screwed up. We all would like to be the hero. In this way, there’s a little bit of Baron Munchausen in all of us. Don’t know about Munchausen? Terry Gilliam made a pretty good movie about the guy in the late 1980′s. Baron Munchausen was a German man who made up a ton of stories about himself, putting himself in the middle of history. Trouble was, none of it was true–even though he believed every word of it.
I think Obama is a bit like Munchausen.
We know that he has blamed President Bush for everything that is happening or has happened to the country. After a year in office, he is still hesitant to accept responsibility for anything, pegging nearly every issue, trouble, or crisis as being inherited by Bush. But let’s put a few things into perspective:
During the Bush years, despite the 2000 Recession, the attacks on 9-11, the stock market scandals, Hurricane Katrina, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration was able to reduce the budget deficit from 412 billion dollars in 2004 to 162 billion dollars in 2007, a sixty percent drop. In 2004 the federal budget deficit was 412 billion dollars. In 2005 it dropped to 318 billion dollars. In 2006 the deficit dipped to 248 billion dollars. And, in 2007 it fell below 200 billion to 162 billion dollars. During the Bush years the average unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, the economy saw the strongest productivity growth in four decades and there was robust GDP growth.
Was Bush perfect? Hardly. He spent like a liberal, he wanted to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, and other than his strong stands on life and national security, he was hardly the picture of conservative fiscal responsibility. But the record is very clear.
Obama vs. Bush Deficit
Today, President Obama told an outright lie. Unlike George Washington, who was reported to have said, “I cannot tell a lie,” it seems pretty obvious that President Obama, like Munchausen, can’t help but lie. He’s lied about his record, lied about the Republican record, lied about George Bush’s record, and he lied about not raising taxes on the middle class, not wanting to strong arm health care, and a myriad of other things. He has to do so, because any other option would not have him as the main character, the hero, of the story and narrative he has created for himself.
Today, however, I think he went a little too far. Today, President Obama actually blamed Bush for something that belongs to him and the Democrat-controlled Congress–something that the record is pretty clear on. Today, the president blamed George Bush for leaving him with a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, or nearly all of his $1.4 trillion 2009 budget deficit. This is worse than just recreating the narrative. This is a flat-out lie, and Barack Obama knows it. (One almost needs Joe Wilson to shout, “You lie!” right there.)
Obama also talks about being responsible with money today in his address yet the Democrats just blew a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus plan. He talks about being responsible just one day after authorizing $1.9 trillion more federal debt. He says that Congress must pay for what it spends, just like everyone else. But does anybody really believe that anymore? When you can vote to raise how much you can borrow (yes, that’s what raising the debt ceiling means), when you can decide it’s better to raise taxes than just stop spending, or lower spending? Can you believe that he, and the other liberals in Washington, truly want to “live within their means?”
The Speaker of the House uses a jet, at the taxpayers’ expense, to fly her kids and grandkids around. The First Lady, after she and her husband tell America it’s time to sacrifice, wears $500 tennis shoes and $3000 coats. Come on. Why should they live in their means when they have our money to spend?
The man appears to have Munchausen syndrome. Baron Munchausen, like President Obama, was passionate about painting himself in a great light, always casting himself as the hero of every story–even if it meant rewriting the historical record to fit his version of how things really happened.
Good Post! Ahh!! yes! we should call him Obama the Rabbi, he tells a good story and makes a good one too. Question though, are any of those stories true at all? You can’t blame people too be doubtful because it is not new to us all that Obama has been known to lie.
So if Obama is lying about the $1.3 trillion structural deficit he inherited, then what is the number he actually inherited. What was the real deficit, for 2009, that should be attributed to Bush?
Keep in mind, the deficit is not just a funtion of spending. It’s also a function of decreased receipts from an economy that has been decestated by a recession.
So you make I clear that you believe he’s lying. What are the correct numbers, in your view?
Hi John, the actual number of the Bush deficit? $800 billion. Yes, it’s not small potatoes. I don’t think that’s any better $1 trillion! I don’t approve of Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility any more than I approve of Obama’s.
However, to outright lie about what the amount was? Yes, I find that inappropriate and irresponsible. For further information, may I suggest reading this article:
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/79359-these-are-the-true-deficits-bush-800b-obama-14t
People lie. Facts don’t.
Found it!
OK, so Bush left the $800 billion structural deficit…and there was a yet-unrecovered $500 billion from TARP, right? So we were in the hole $1.3 billion when Obama took office. Then they got the $300 billion back from the banks in 2009, an the Dems spent $400 billion on stimulus, etc. That’s pretty much what happened in 2009. We ended up with a $1.4 billion deficit, which is mind blowing.
But, don’t you think your M. Syndrome theory is a bit extreme? First of all, I’m not sure it even applies very well to the situation. But more importantly, isn’t the issue about spending, not whether Obama counted the $500 billion from TARP as structural deficit? Seems like that’s really missing the forest for the trees.
In 2009 Bush was “responsible” for $800 billion and Obama was “responsible” for $400 billion, and the other $200 billion of un-recovered TARP funds belongs to….whoever.
I think political critique is more effective when it’s less obviously partisan.
Hey, would love to have you contribute to my blog. I need some right-wingers to spar with! http://www.ideologykills.wordpress.com.
Oh yeah, forgot to ask…are you against pay-go? The President’s message here is about fiscal responsibility. If Reagan had said these same words we would cheer, right? So are you against pay-go?
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/81405-pay-go-gets-passed-then-it-gets-bypassed
And I don’t think you can call me overly partisan when I make clear that I think Bush screwed up, too.
Your own graph shows that the downward trend started during Bush’s administration, and the tripling happened before any of Obama’s new policies had taken effect; we were still being affected by Bush’s policies, like his tax cuts for the people who need it the least. Tell me how the economic crisis could have been the top issue of Obama’s election campaign if he supposedly caused it after being elected? http://youtube.com/watch?v=qBG0kadtCPE
Wow, a long-delayed response. Thanks for reading. A year later, now that S&P has downgraded the outlook of our nation’s credit, as the job market has not improved, as his own party failed to pass a budget last year when they controlled Congress and the White House, and with his pledge to spend even more–gotta stay with my original analysis. The fact that for his budget to even begin to equal the proposal of Senator Ryan’s requires him to use a 12 year plan instead of 10 shows that being “less than truthful” is what he is really good at.
“Thanks for reading. A year later, now that S&P has downgraded the outlook of our nation’s credit”
Yes, because republicans refuse to allow for revenue increases, which is the main reason for our debt.
http://www.obamaftw.com/blog/obama-stimulus-package-fail
“”Democrats just blew a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus plan”
It was $800 billion and 1/3 of the “spending” came in the form of tax cuts. What’s more is, the economy stopped losing jobs shortly thereafter
“something that belongs to him and the Democrat-controlled Congress–something that the record is pretty clear on. Today, the president blamed George Bush for leaving him with a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, or nearly all of his $1.4 trillion 2009 budget deficit”
Actually, the 2009 fiscal budget was set in 2008. That’s how budgets work. Whether or not we want to use the word “fault” (GWB did the right thing in spending to help fight the down turn, so I wouldn’t say the spending is his “fault”), the budget was set months before Obama was inaugurated. And the ensuing debt has more to do with lowered revenues from the downturn and lowered taxes than from any increased spending.
http://www.obamaftw.com/blog/deficit-and-debt/obama-vs-bush-deficit-debt-revenue
.
For the record, it’s Reagan who ushered in the era of deficit spending.