Once upon a time, a friend of mine posted a facebook status that intrigued me but I never commented on. I didn't because I didn't want to cause a war and I didn't have the most amazing thing to write, anyway. Well, I think I have an answer - but first, the post.
(It was something to this effect...) I just want to know what exactly has President Barack Obama done to you, personally, to make you hate him so much? He made it so I could have a house and a few other things. Frankly, I think he's done fine by me!
I really wish I could find the original post. But you get the picture.
I have a few answers and then some questions.
1. President Barack Obama has openly lied to the American people, one of whom happens to be ME.
a. Benghazi?? Lie after lie after lie.
i. He told America that all he knew was that there was trouble and they weren't sure of what nature. We have since found that he and several others in the white house had intel saying that there was an attack, that navy seals had been begging to save their fellow Americans and been ordered not to do so, that it was a pre-planned terrorist attack, and other such things. And what did he tell Americans? AND the UN?? It was because of a video made to mock Islam. FALSE.
b. Did you watch any of the debates?
i. He told American voters that the reason that gas prices were $1.87 when he entered office was that the economy was on the brink of collapse. How does that even make sense??
ii. He lied about oil and energy. He has shut down refineries and plants and put many out of work and made us dependent on foreign oil and energy sources.
c. You didn't build that.
d. Where are those shovel - ready jobs?
e. Make it easier to go to college? My eye! I fought hard, worked 2 - 3 jobs while working on a double major and still have student debt that I am desperately trying to get rid of, but since there aren't many jobs around it's even worse!
f. Why WON'T he release his college transcripts?
i. Either he is lying about his citizenship...or...
ii. He is lying about how he received college aide.
2. He said when he was running for office last election that if he didn't fix the economy and all of that jazz in three years, that this would be a one term proposition. I'm just holding him to his own standard he set for himself 4 years ago.
3. He thinks that hiring more math and science teachers will help the economy.
a. Where will the money come from to pay these people? We are already trillions in debt.
b. Teachers don't grow the economy. Don't get me wrong, I AM a teacher. And I am passionate about education. But making more teachers will not boost the economy. Yes, it will train our children (future leaders, if you will) in math and science, but then what?? It just puts more people in the work force without money to pay them.
4. He said four years ago when he was running for office that attacking your opponent on small issues shows a weak campaign. he said that is what happens when you have no record to run on. Hmmm......
a. Big Bird.
b. Romney is going to push grandma off a cliff.
c. Voting for Obama should be compared to losing your virginity.
d. Imaginary 5 trillion dollar tax cut.
e. Republicans are going to magically take away all birth control.
5. "I will have more flexibility after the next election...transfer that to Vladimir..." Uh...Vladimir Putin? NO THANK YOU!!
This is just a sampling of what he has personally done to me. Mostly, I do NOT appreciate being flat out lied to. And neither should you. I don't think we're heading in a good direction.
Now, my questions for you ...
1. What has Governor Romney done to you PERSONALLY to make you hate him so much?
2. What do you really think Republicans believe in? Ask me, I'll let you know!
3. What do you really think Mormons believe in? Ask me, I'll let you know!
Election day is coming so quickly! PLEASE...think responsibly before you vote.
If you post anything rude, hateful, or combative, I will delete it. If you have a different opinion and state it in a non-combative and well thought out manner, I will not delete it.
Thanks.
You know, it is very difficult to respond to a very angry, combative, and deconstructive post like this without also becoming so, but I'll do my best.
ReplyDelete1. If President Obama has lied, it wasn't about the two things you listed.
a. Benghazi was a mess, and no one knew exactly what had happened for awhile. The tapes of the attack weren't recovered right away, and in the absence of such definitive evidence, they had to do the best with what they had. Given the violent outbursts as a result of demonstrations in other parts of the world at the same time, it was a reasonable assertion. Occasionally our intelligence, no matter how skilled, is flawed. Remember the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Obama told us what he knew when he knew it. If there was a failing in the government, it would probably be in the State Department that lost or refused the request for extra security. That's a problem that could have happened to any president, and the real question is what they will do to fix that problem in the system. As for reinforcements, the CIA actually sent in a small group, but they had to fall back.
b.
i. It makes sense because when no one has money to spend, prices on several items tend to drop. When the economy collapsed, oil prices dropped drastically, as did house prices and a few other items. When so many people lose homes and jobs, there is little money for long drives. That mean fewer people buy, which means prices drop. As the economy has recovered, prices have risen again.
ii. Oil Production, with the exception of the time of the Deepwater Horizons oil spill when offshore drilling was temporarily halted, has actually gone up, not down. Even during that time, oil production rose for onshore drilling by almost 4%.
c. "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet." That's the full quote. As you can see, he said nothing about people not building their own businesses, he was talking about the "roads and bridges" and the "American system." Most people who start a business in this country do tend to have the advantage of roads built by someone else that allow them to get products to their costumers. To say that he was merely saying that no one can claim any credit for their business is not true, and was purposely taken out of context for campaign adds and a party convention.
d. The economy has added jobs for 31 straight months. We might not have added jobs as much as it could have been hoped, but we still did well considering the economic problems in Europe and Asia, both big markets for us.
e. This is a promise of both parties, not just his. It's also not something he can do by himself. When the Republicans and Democrats get along well enough to get anything of value through both houses of Congress, we'll see progress.
f. This is really a bad argument. This is like saying that the only reason Mitt Romney won't release his tax returns for more than just the past year or two is because he either didn't pay taxes or hid it all in the Cayman Islands. Is it possible that in this day and age of professional political attacks that both of them simply want to maintain some semblance of privacy? Anything that either of them release will be picked apart for every flaw, and neither of them wants that. Besides, technically, the whole citizenship question was answered when he released his long-form birth certificate.
2. Please note that I mentioned that there has been 31 straight months of job growth. The economy is still not great, but he improved it greatly from when he got it.
ReplyDelete3. I don't know enough about this issue to comment, so I won't.
4. Some of those are true (Romney cutting PBS for a few million instead of closing a loophole on oil companies for a few billion, the very real $5 trillion over ten years revenue loss that will result if he really cuts everyone's taxes 20%). Of course, neither side is innocent in this, and I think anyone who is saying that Romney is going to push grandma off the cliff or Obama is an Indonesian Kenyan Marxist Muslim Atheist is really hurting discussions about politics.
5. All politicians say things like this. No politician will say or do anything to alienate voters at election time. That is why Romney has switched views from governor to Republican contender to presidential candidate. I think that you'll see the same thing in almost every political race. It's not right, but to say that it's uniquely Obama is untrue.
1. Bain Capital, under Romney, donated a great deal of money to Congressional campaigns in order to keep the tax code as it is, allowing wealthy people like Romney to pay less than half of the effective tax rate that my family does. That's not fair. The same rate, okay. But half? Not so much.
This was post was not meant to be rude, hateful, or combative, but instead states why I feel the way I do about each of the points you brought up. Some of the things you mentioned sounded a lot like FOXNews things. I would recommend using a non-partisan fact-checker like politifact.com, factcheck.org, or the Washington Post's Fact-Checker.
Let me qualify the combative thing.
ReplyDeleteIn the past if I write anything political I am often called "stupid", "an idiot", "ridiculous", and other things of the like. It is often quite personally combative. That is what I meant. I admit some things I wrote were strong but I stand by them.
I know that a lot of these things came from listening to FOXnews, but it seems like the only place that I can feel like I am getting more than just a liberal side of things. And, even liberal news media is finding a lot of the Benghazi information and finding that the white house really knew within a few hours of the attack and we were still lied to, but you can take that as you will.
I agree, those things are unacceptable. I think people treating people like you like that is part of the reason the country is at a standstill - if we can't hear a different point of view without instantly demonizing that person, how are we supposed to work with them? I'm sorry people do that to you. I will give them wedgies.
DeleteAlso, FOXNews occasionally.... stretches the truth. Some of the reports they have made in the past have been quite sketchy. That said, I also know that some sources like MSNBC and the NYTimes do the same thing on the liberal side. I like NPR and the BBC. Both tend to give both sides fair and equally. NPR especially takes great pains to research facts and provide rational people on both sides to discuss important issues.
Where to begin? Let's see... Benghazi. Whether tapes were available immediately or not, there was immediate communication with the people in Benghazi during the siege and they still didn't help. It was a 7 hour siege, leaving plenty of time to respond, but there was no help. There was no breakdown in communication, just and order to "stand down". There were plenty of military resources available to help within that 7 hour window.
ReplyDeleteOil. Fact is, the number of leases on federal lands (the ones that reflect the administrations policies) are almost half of what they were. Any increase in oil production is due to companies drilling on private land - in spite of the federal government. See: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-fact-check-presidential-debate-drilling-20121016,0,5755460.story
Also, overall fossil fuel production is still at it's lowest and falling. It's simply a supply and demand issue. When there is insufficient supply and high demand, the prices go up. If Romney does what he is saying and opens up federal lands for drilling more liberally, then it will increase supply.
Jobs. This is really the big issue of the election. The issue with Benghazi is sad. Issues surrounding birth control, education or whatever else are all important, but not the big factor. What I'm going to vote on is what's going to actually affect my wallet and the government's intrusion into my life.
So, let's look at the jobs numbers first. You can find the actual jobs report here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
And a good article covering it here: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/11/01/holding-pattern-prevails-in-jobs-market/
First, it's important to note that while the economy may have added jobs for 31 months in a row, the employment ratio hasn't been so stable. From the jobs report, "The employment-population ratio increased by 0.4 percentage point to
58.7 percent, after edging down in the prior 2 months." Next, I want to point out that the unemployment rate alone doesn't give us the whole story. That number only tells us how many people are out of work that haven't given up searching yet. For a VERY detailed analysis of the actual numbers, to get a better picture of the real jobs situation, see this article: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-unemployment-rate-has-fallen-in-2012-2012-10
This is by far the slowest recovery ever and Obama's policies are inhibiting the recovery. Obamacare is a huge economy and jobs killer. My medical expenses have already gone up significantly because of it - and we haven't even seen the full effect yet.
And don't get me started on taxes. Over a quarter of my paycheck is gone in taxes before I ever see it. That hurts! To sum it up, Obama's plan is for people to pay more taxes; Romney's plan is for more people to pay taxes. In the end, both plans produce more revenue for the government, but one hurts me less. The lifeblood of the economy is money. When money changes hands, the government takes a piece. Money changing hands means the blood is flowing. That's what's good for an economy.
When taxes are so high that people can't afford to spend that money with businesses, the money doesn't change hands as much and the government receives less revenue. Money in governments hands doesn't produce money for the government - it needs to be in the hands of people and businesses.
The end.
There was no order to stand down. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/11/02/164140811/u-s-offers-new-details-of-deadly-libya-attack
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you read that LATimes article? I read it, and it says at the bottom that oil production under Obama has increased 2 out of 3 years (10.6% net, according to the article) with the biggest drop in permits coming during the Deepwater Horizons oil spill. In fact, it also points out that under the policies of Republican George W. Bush, over-all oil production fell 16.8%.
If you look at what I posted, you'll note that I actually acknowledged the slow recovery. However, it simply doesn't work to look at the United States as a closed system. How well the economy recovers also depends on how many other countries are buying American products, and with economies slowing around the world (even in juggernaut China), there hasn't been as many customers. And if you look at what happened to jobs in the Great Recession, it becomes clear that we were pulled out of a nosedive by the successful policies of Obama.
Do you realize that, as a whole, hospitals treating uninsured people raises medical costs for regular people quite a lot? When someone doesn't pay or can't pay, that cost gets handed off to those who can. This individual mandate plan was developed by Republicans as an alternative to the "socialized medicine" of the single-payer system, and has been used to great effect in other conservative countries. Every one that I've read about has seen healthcare costs drop. Obamacare isn't fully in effect yet, so we haven't seen what it will really do. One positive thing it does is allow many who could not get insurance to get it. For example, without Obamacare, I could not get health insurance privately because my father has cancer. Because cancer can be genetic, they would not insure me. Obamacare fixes things like that.
Unless you make $250,000+, Obama isn't going to be raising your taxes at all. In fact, he wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for people in all but the top tax bracket. What he wants to do is try and make people like Romney (effective tax rate near 14.1%) pay at least as much proportionally as the rest of us (for you, apparently, 25%+). Making them pay a more proportional share will not destroy their ability to spend money. I realize that some reports have come out about CEOs telling their employees that there will be layoffs if Obama is reelected, but this is closer to extortion than an actual economic concern. Obama has suggested cutting corporate tax rates, which should help alleviate actual job concerns. I agree that money needs to be in the hands of businesses and people, but a millionaire who brings home $1 million instead of $1.3 million still has money to spend.
Romney's plan has some problems. The problem isn't that he hasn't given specifics, but that the specifics he's given simply don't work. If he gives everyone a 20% tax cut and doesn't plug the loopholes he has said that he wouldn't plug, there is simply no way to make the tax cut revenue neutral. Ryan cited some studies, but none of the fact checkers were able to find any with actual hard data.
I think you got this idea from my facebook post. And I'd first like to say that I believe you misrepresented what I said, and took the defensive angle, when that's not what I was trying to accomplish in the very least. I was getting sick of both democrats and republican friends just re-posting political propaganda that was substantiated by any real fact. Here was my post "I have a political question I'd like answered. It's easy to "share" "copy and paste" "repost" etc etc political ideas that we see.... but I want to know real tangible evidence that has effected YOU as to what research you've found on your own, or experiences that have happened to YOU. I'll start. I really don't understand why there is so much hatrid towards Obama. Since he took office, as a direct result from policies he initiated, my taxes went down, I was given $8,000 that I did not have to pay back when I got my house, another $6,000 grant towards my house as a stimulous, and I've been able to get amazing interest rates. My health benefits however have decreased with my premium increasing. All in all, I feel that how I have been directly effected by Obama has been very positive. This is my EXPERIENCE. Not an opinion given to me by others..... So let's hear it. I really want to know how YOU have been directly effected by Obama. Good, bad, or ugly. Let's hear it!"
ReplyDeleteAgain, I was directly effected by policies President Obama initiated, mostly for the positive, however I am VERY displeased in the health insurance issue. I really hate how politics bring out the dirty and defensive nature in people. I think you missed the point of my post completely. I wanted to hear how he effected everyone, good, bad, and ugly, because all I know was from my experience, I wanted to hear others who have been effected in ANY way. I feel you misrepresented my post completely. I know what mormons believe, I grew up one. I know what Republicans believe, because I grew up in a very Republican household. I know what Democrats believe, because I had been lightly associated with that party. The one thing I KNOW about everyone.... people aren't perfect. People make mistakes. Whether you're mormon, democrat, republican, whoever you are- people make mistakes. ESPECIALLY politicians. And just a little FYI, I didn't vote for President Obama this go around, nor did I vote for Mitt Romney (I disagree whole heatedly with Mitt's moral beliefs on gay marriage, pro-life, equal rights, and quite a few other "MORAL" values he possesses) I actually voted for Gary Johnson. Why? Because I don't believe the government has any right to tell me how I need to spend my money on health insurance, who I can marry, if I can make decisions regarding my own body, and if I contribute to all of the horrible government spending. This is all opinion, and I only commented because I feel you misrepresented my original post.
Amanda, I didn't mean to misrepresent your post. I truly couldn't find it. I apologize that that happened in any way. I was going off of memory from a few months ago when it was posted. I, like you, am sick of all of the political garbage going on, but I felt like I needed to say something.
ReplyDeleteI know people make mistakes. I also know, though, that sometimes that is because of misunderstandings. That was why I asked the questions at the end. Many people come up to me or people I know and tell me what they have heard about Mormons and Republicans and often those things are completely untrue. That is all that was.
This post wasn't meant to misrepresent anything you said. I hope you can believe me on that note.
I definitely believe you, and respect your search for true research and discussion. I think it's very important to view all sides of the story (no matter how cloudy they are), which makes politics even worse- because most of it is heresay, and people stuck in their party blinders. I stayed away from most political "sources" meaning fox or cnn, and tried to do my own research into each of the candidates without the cloudiness of opinion tied it- it's next to impossible.
ReplyDelete