Obama doesn\'t lie? Pfft...
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090429/D97SCPI00.htmlFACT CHECK: Obama disowns deficit he helped shape
Apr 29, 5:55 PM (ET)
By CALVIN WOODWARD
(AP) President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at Fox Senior...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - "That wasn\'t me," President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One.
It actually was him - and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years - who shaped a budget so out of balance.
And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.Obama met citizens at an Arnold, Mo., high school Wednesday in advance of his prime-time news conference. Both forums were a platform to review his progress at the 100-day mark and look ahead.
At various times, he brought an air of certainty to ambitions that are far from cast in stone.
His assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating.
He promised vast savings from increased spending on preventive health care in the face of doubts that such an effort, however laudable it might be for public welfare, can pay for itself, let alone yield huge savings.
A look at some of his claims Wednesday:
OBAMA: "Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit.... That wasn\'t me. Number two, there is almost uniform consensus among economists that in the middle of the biggest crisis, financial crisis, since the Great Depression, we had to take extraordinary steps. So you\'ve got a lot of Republican economists who agree that we had to do a stimulus package and we had to do something about the banks. Those are one-time charges, and they\'re big, and they\'ll make our deficits go up over the next two years." - in Missouri.
THE FACTS:
Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama\'s last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush\'s final months - a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.To be sure, Obama opposed the Iraq war, a drain on federal coffers for six years before he became president. But with one major exception, he voted in support of Iraq war spending.
The economy has worsened under Obama, though from forces surely in play before he became president, and he can credibly claim to have inherited a grim situation.
Still, his response to the crisis goes well beyond "one-time charges."
He\'s persuaded Congress to expand children\'s health insurance, education spending, health information technology and more. He\'s moving ahead on a variety of big-ticket items on health care, the environment, energy and transportation that, if achieved, will be more enduring than bank bailouts and aid for homeowners.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated his policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years, even accounting for his spending reduction goals. Now, the deficit is nearly quadrupling to $1.75 trillion.
Obama is going to kill this country and has already gotten off to a great start.
clips - Ford didn\'t take the bailout money. None of the automakers should have. Ayers is not a good guy and never will be clips. The Chicago education system is still horrible. Obama is out of his league with his numerous gaffe\'s and screw ups when it comes to foreign policy. He embarrasses the US on a consistant basis on the world stage - even the President of France thinks he is a light weight and lacks substance. Guess he can\'t bring his teleprompter to closed door meetings eh?
Kennedy - I warned you what the kool-aid drinkers like Coredweller in this forum where like, now you see.
CORE - is that link good enough for you???? AP? Woodward??? I am sure you have read it yourself, but were too dazzled by Obama\'s swagger, the Portuguese Water dog and Michelle\'s fat ass to let it fully process.
