Obama's Ten Big Lies

If President Obama were a wooden puppet, his nose would be longer than Pinocchio's olfactory organ. His administration and his accomplices in the Democrat Party have told one whooper after another since the president's was sworn into office. Exposing the lies is the role once played by the news media, but a compliant press has repeated the untruths without bothering to challenge the claims. Here are just a few of the big lies:

1. Lie: Republicans and President Bush are to be blamed for the record deficits. The facts say otherwise. The year 2006 was the last time that the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. The budget deficit that year totaled $161 billion. That's not exactly chump change. However, the Democrat controlled Congress and President Obama ended 2009 with a $1.09 trillion budget deficit. That's nearly ten times worse than the Republicans did. Projections call for the current federal budget year to end with a $1.3 trillion deficit. That's nearly $2.5 trillion in red ink over a two-year budget cycle. It dwarfs the deficit spending in the Bush years.

2. Lie: Bush and the Republicans' persided over the the highest number of bank failures since the Great Depression. In the last year of President Bush's second term, 25 banks failed. In Obama's first year in office, a total of 140 banks went belly up, despite massive bailouts and regulatory interference. So far this year, there have been 90 bank failures. At the current pace, 2010 will be a recording-setting year for bank failures. Not only are more banks failing, but scores are being added each month to the FDIC's watch list.

3. Lie: President Obama and Democrats have created and saved millions of jobs. When President Obama was sworn in as president in January of 2009, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent. The latest Bureau of Labor statistics show that unemployment ended June at 9.5 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (27+ weeks) has increased dramatically over the same period, growing by 33 percent. There are more unemployed and fewer jobs for people looking for work. The numbers don't lie.

4. Lie: The country needs another stimulus package to jump start the economy. This untruth is made even more odious because the government has spent only 53 percent of the original $787 billion stimulus package approved a year ago. According to its own figures, the government has doled out $420 billion as of the end of June. Although the figures are readily available on the government's website, no news media outlet has bothered to check to find out what has happened to the remaining $367 billion. It seems a tad disingenuous to be asking for increased spending on stimulus packages when the government is sitting on billions of dollars that were supposed to help "bring us back from the brink."

5. Lie: President Obama has arrested the rate of home foreclosures with government programs.. In President Bush's last year in office, about 750,000to 1,000,000 homes were repossessed. Since Obama took office, foreclosures have skyrocketed, despite a failed plan to help homeowners avoid bankruptcy. Home foreclosures rose 60 percent in February of this year. It marked the 26th consecutive month of year-over-year monthly increases in foreclosures. Property owners were unable to unload their homes, despite the largest drop in home prices in 20 years. Most real estate experts predict foreclosures will continue to grow in the coming months as $460 billion of adjustable rate mortgages readjust.

6. Lie: Arizona's new law is an example of states taking federal matters into their own hands. Arizona's law, in fact, mimics the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 passed by Congress. Federal law makes it illegal for non-nationals to enter or attempt to enter the United States. The federal act also prohibits people from eluding inspection by enforcement officials. Arizona's law does the same thing. Meanwhile there are 22 cities in the country that have adopted ordinances instructing police "not to cooperate" with federal officials in the apprehension of illegals. Some cities have gone so far as to forbid law enforcement as well as businesses from asking people about their immigration status. These so-called "sanctuary cities" include, Austin, San Francisco, Houston and Portland. The attorney general has been silent on these municipalities' circumvention of federal law.

7. Lie: President Bush's tax cuts hurt the middle class and benefit the rich. Under Bush's plan, a family of four earning $50,000 incurs no income tax liability after taking the standard deduction and child tax credit. Every year since 2002, the number of people paying no taxes has risen. In 2008, 36.3 percent of the people who filed tax returns paid no taxes, a record. That percentage equates to 51.6 million people who contributed no money to the federal government. Another telling statistic: Nearly 60 percent of taxpayers in the bottom 20 percent of earners moved to a higher bracket in the Bush years. What about the rich? Nearly 40 percent of taxpayers in the top 20 percent moved down. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire in December.

8. Lie: President Obama pledged not to sign health care reform legislation unless the cost was less than $1 trillion over 10 years. Long after the hoopla over the legislation faded from the front pages of newspapers, the corrupt Congressional Budget Office issued a revised estimate of the cost of the legislation. The latest guesstimate is the price tag will easily top a staggering $1 trillion. The original estimate was $940 billion. Once the implementation begins for health care reform, most experts think the cost will approach $2 trillion.

9. Lie: The border has never been more secure than it is now. In the last year of the Bush administration, more than 792,000 illegals were apprehended by law enforcement. Eighty-eight percent of those were Mexican nationals. The number included 97,000 people with criminal records. The Department of Homeland Security has not published comparable figures for 2009. President Obama claims apprehensions have dropped 54 percent from 2005 to 2009. This does not mean the border is better guarded. It may signal that fewer illegals are entering the country because the United States' has fewer jobs. However, it is clear that kidnappings, drug seizures and arrests are all increasing. In one year, kidnappings in Phoenix have jumped 40 percent. The city now ranks second in the world in reported kidnappings. Drug seizures have risen 40 percent since 2006 along the border. Arrests of illegals crossing the Mexican border into Arizona have climbed six percent from last October to this April. The border is neither safe nor secure.

10. Lie: President Obama is not anti-business. The administration's first 18 months in power are replete with examples of laws designed to increase government regulation, raise taxes and crimp investment. For the sake of brevity, just consider one aspect of Obama's attack on business. With the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and new Medicare taxes on investment income in the Health Care Reform Act, the top effective tax rate on dividends in the U.S. will zoom to 68 percent in 2011. That will make it the highest among all industrialized nations. This double tax on corporate profits discourages capital investment, which in turn, negatively impacts job growth. Still unconvinced? Forture 500 firms are sitting on a record $2 trillion cash horde, reluctant to expand or invest in their businesses because of the uncertainty created by Obama's tax and spend agenda.

Unchecked by a vigilant media, there is no end in sight to the president's lack of truth telling. At least it's becoming easier to spot the lies. If the president's lips are moving, it's a good bet a falsehood is about to escape.