politics

Reasons to re-elect: Part 2. The lies.

I frequently say that the way to tell whether a politician is lying is that his mouth is moving and words are coming out. Remember those Joe Isuzu car commercials(hes lying). The Romney campaign has adopted a line of attack that involves telling big lies, repeating them early and often. They are clearly betting on the American people being stupid. I find it very insulting. So should you.

Cases and points:

• The Romney campaign launched an advertisement on television in Ohio claiming that the Chrysler is planning to move Jeep production to China. The facts are that they are restarting a venture in China suspended during the Great (Bush, Republican) recession. Chrysler releases two statements in two days denying the facts in the ad. The ad continues to run. Repeat the lie, early and often hope enough people believe it.
• The Romney campaign and the candidate himself claim that he was in favor of the auto bail out as the Obama administration did it, managed bankruptcy. In fact in 2008 he wrote a New York Times Op-ed piece advocating for a bankruptcy using private financing. There was in fact no private financing available and his plan would have resulted in the liquidation of the companies, the loss of over 1 million jobs and a ripple effect that could have triggered an economic depression. This is the man who says he can do a better job than Barack Obama? Yet the lies go on, this as in the last case continuing to flow out of the candidates mouth.
• Welfare reform. The candidate and his well fueled ad machine claim Obama ended the welfare work requirement. Again major news outlets have made clear that this is a lie. The ads however continue to run.
• The candidate talks about lowering the top tax rate for everyone to 20%. Those that have tried to score the cut based on the scanty information provided by Romney that the tax cut would cost $5 Trillion. The candidate says its revenue neutral. Well maybe in his head, we don’t know what he is going to do to the tax code to make it revenue neutral.
• The candidate claimed that Obama cut Medicare by $700 billion. In fact Obamacare projected saving $700 billion in over payments written in the law for Medicare Advantage, which pays insurance companies (can you spell republican contributors) a bonus of 12% over what other insurance providers for the program get.

There are dozens of lies just like these running all over the air, internet and flowing out of the mouths of Romney and his campaign staff. I will not deny there have been lies from the Obama camp. It is irritating and frustrating for certain. But the size of the lies from Romney and the number of lies from Romney in my mind disqualify him. He is not honest with the American people. He seems to feel he must lie to get elected.

If he believes his own lies, I think he should have an Alzheimer’s examination right now. If as I suspect he knows he’s lying then I believe this disqualifies him for office. I wish neither side lied, but the size and the scope of the problem make this reason #2 for voting Barack Obama back into office.

Remember the Romney response when journalists pointed out their factual errors. “We will not let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” I guess they won’t let their message be determined by actual facts either.

Tags: barack obama, Lies, Presidential election, Romney, romney campaign lies