Showing posts with label argument. Show all posts
Showing posts with label argument. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Debunking Conservative Arguments is Fun



I came across this post through a friend.  He is actually one of the people who is honestly looking for the truth about the candidates in this election.  That is why things like this upset me so much.  Using lies and misleading information to win over voters should not be a way to win a campaign.  As I enjoy doing in the many debates in which I find myself engaged, I have debunked much of what this post claims to be true.  I have included the entire post (as it was shared by my friend) with my responses below each section (original post in red, my comments in blue).

AS PROMISED - Something that REALLY struck me the other night, and caused me to really start researching the "facts" that we are being fed by our President, and his campaign.

This train of thought has been percolating in my head for a few days. I started thinking about it after I watched the first Presidential debate, it came more into focus after hearing the remark made by Paul Ryan about how Romney helped a family that had been the victim of a serious car accident, and really started to crystallize after listening to Charles Krauthammer.

The Obama camp has painted Romney as a person that the working class should despise.... Someone who doesn't care about anyone but himself. An "Evil rich person". Someone who will
"Raise taxes on the middle class, and give millionaires a 250k tax break." (That claim has been exposed as pure crap. The economist that the Obama camp used to come up with that has completely contradicted that. It is a LIE, plain and simple.)
Well, the numbers used here are inaccurate.  The truth is that an independent organization, The Tax Policy Center, did an analysis of Romney’s goals in his tax plan.  They admitted that they could not do any exact analysis because, as many of us have been saying for months, the man has not presented a true plan with facts and figures.  However, using his goals and the few numbers that his campaign has supplied, the Tax Policy Center came to the conclusion that it was impossible to remain revenue neutral and meet the goals.  They concluded that, given the information provided by Romney’s campaign, there would be an $86 billion shortfall of revenue.  To make up for this shortfall, taxes on the middle and lower income population must be raised.  So the answer to this is, yes Romney is rich.  Yes, his plan will raise taxes on the middle class.  And yes, his plan will give people making more than $200,000 per year a tax break that will add up to approximately $86 billion per year.  http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001631-FAQ-Romney-plan.pdf


They painted him as a corporate raider, as someone who shipped jobs overseas, and even as someone who KILLED SOMEONE'S WIFE. (That disgusting commercial was also proved to be a complete
load of crap.)
Let’s be clear on this.  The commercial was blaming Romney for the loss of a guy’s job and health care benefits which were supposedly the reason his wife’s cancer was not found earlier.  While the problems of GST Steel, the plant that laid off this worker, can be traced back to Romney, the ad went too far.  But please note that this ad was not put out by the Obama campaign.  It was created and run by the Priorities USA Action Super PAC.  Just as there are many conservative Super PAC’s that support Romney and don’t get his approval on their commercials, this organization did the same. 
“If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.” (Sen. Barack Obama, “Remarks,” Denver, CO 8/28/08)

Why has the Obama camp done this?? Because of the quote above. The Obama administration has been in control for almost 4 years, and has managed to do almost nothing.
We’re going to dissect this blatant lie piece by piece.  We’ll start with things that Obama has done during his administration.  Here are some links to hundreds of things that have been accomplished.

And here is the reason that the Republican congress is responsible for much that hasn’t been done during his term.

Unemployment is horrible, economic growth is at a standstill, and most people are worse off than they were 4 years ago.
Not true.  Despite the ridiculous claims of conspiracy, the unemployment rate is lower than it was when President Obama took office.  This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that the President shouldn’t be credited with many of the job losses.  See this ling for further explanation. 
The Middle East is LESS stable, the Iranians are much closer to having a nuclear weapon, the Russians are pushing us around, and Al Qaeda is still killing our people.
Well...the Middle East has always been unstable.  It’s simply a matter of degree at this point.  Of course Iran is closer to having a nuclear weapon...more time has passed.  Should we just send our troops into every corner of the world and wage war on every sovereign nation that does something we don’t like?  It seems that is the answer for Republicans, but we’re not everyone’s parent.  We can’t police the world.

The magical health plan that was supposed to save families 2,500.00 per year has ended up RAISING health care costs by about 2,500.00 per family. Many employers are getting ready to dump employee health care. And....it was passed before anyone really knew what was in it.
First, the ACA has not cost anyone more.  The insurance companies have raised prices.  Many of the provisions of the ACA have not yet taken effect.  An academic study of the effects of the ACA determined that the results of the changes will be lower health care costs.  The idea of companies dumping health care is a ludicrous scare tactic.  Finally, this is the age of information.  Congressional bills are available online during the entire process.  No one needs to hold this writer’s hand.  He needs to get online and look up the information.  If his representative didn’t do that then he needs to bring it up with the representative...it was available. 

The average family has lost lost a median amount of 4,000.00 per year in income. Gas prices have skyrocketed, as have grocery prices. Our national debt is RIDICULOUS.
WE ARE WORSE OFF THAN WE WERE FOUR YEARS AGO. FAR WORSE.

Okay...the median income based on reports by Sentier Research is down about $4,000.  However, this is due to the recession.  As the President has a limited amount of control over the economic forces in play, one cannot blame him for this.  Gas prices!  This argument drives me crazy.  I will repeat this one more time for all of the conservatives out there.  THE PRESIDENT DOES NOT CONTROL GAS PRICES!  These prices are controlled by supply, demand, and Wall Street.  The supply is controlled by organizations like OPEC.  The President does not control these organizations.  The only factor that he controls is the federal tax on gas, which hasn’t changed since the late 90’s.  Finally, grocery prices.  There are two factors that have caused the rise in grocery prices.  First is the aforementioned rise in gas prices and recession, neither of which were caused by President Obama.  Another factor is the droughts that we have gone through at the end of last year and throughout this summer.  They have caused a reduction in supply which has led to higher prices.  Unless the President can be blamed for the drought there can be no blame for grocery prices. 

Now, alot of people buy into the "Obama inherited a mess" routine. WRONG. He VOLUNTEERED for this, he did not "inherit" anything. He told us that he could fix this mess, that he would get unemployment UNDER 6% by spending a ton of money (That our kids will have to pay off.), he told us that he could handle the Iranians by negotiating, he told us that he
would lower our health insurance costs. He told us that he would repair the economy.
He has FAILED. Pure and simple.

Yes, he volunteered for the job.  But he took the job as our country was spiraling towards a depression and managed to pull us out of this spiral and into a period of recovery.  And, regardless of the fact that conservatives don’t want to hear that Bush caused this mess, it is true.  And the fact that Romney plans to take our country back to the policies and practices of the Bush administration are terrifying because they will lead to the same disaster that we just experienced.  The President has done what he can to improve all of these areas, but his plans are long-term fixes.  They are not something that can be achieved overnight. 

The Obama camp has also done this because of Obama's hatred for Romney on a personal level. Why does Obama despise Romney? Because Romney embodies everything that Obama seems to sneer at. He is an example of Someone "Who built that". An example of someone who has succeeded without government making things "fair". He has shown that private enterprise does a BETTER job than government. He is everything that Barak Obama has despised, and fought against. Romney represents the American Free Enterprise system. He represents capitalism, and how well it works.

Everything in this paragraph is just ridiculous.

After watching the debate and realizing "Hey, Romney isn't the insensitive tool that the commercials say he is.", I decided to do some of my own research (PLEASE....IF you want to make an informed decision, do your OWN research.) What I found was rather astonishing. It completely contradicts everything that the Obama camp has been spouting. Remember, Romney is supposed to be an uncaring profiteer who will take advantage of people, the guy who will put "rich" people ahead of everyone, who will insure the wealthy profit at the expense of the "common man".....Here are a few things that most people do not know:

- Romney donated over 30 percent of his income (BEFORE taxes) to charity.
Easy to do when you are making millions of dollars each year.  And don’t forget, these donations are tax deductible.
- He refused to TAKE A SALARY as Governor of Massachusetts, and even paid for his own travel expenses. (That's right, he worked for free.)
I would turn down a small six figure salary if I made millions of dollars in other investments and could use it as a political tool too.
- When the Olympics were in trouble, he left Bain Capital, and made them a success. And, he worked for free there, too.
See previous comment.
- As Governor, he got rid of a 1.5 billion dollar deficit, through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and the closure of corporate tax loopholes.(Not quite the corporate stooge he is presented to be, Huh?)
That’s funny...the plans that he has presented show that he will be responsible for adding $86 million to the deficit if he wins the presidency.  That or he has to increase middle class taxes.
- He presided over a state government whose schools are number one in the nation. The best.
I’m sure that this had much more to do with the school systems and staff then anything Romney did, but I’ll give him this one.
- He worked with a legislature that was 87 percent Democrat, and successfully got things done.
Mostly because the legislature was 87 percent Democrat.  The only option he would have would be to veto the bills and that could be overridden by the legislature.  In fact, Romney had approximately 844 budget line-item vetoes and over 700 of them were overridden.  It’s easy to work with the man when you can just ignore his protests. If you want a truly telling measure of his home state, look at the polls.  Obama is expected to win Romney’s home state by almost 20 points!  These are the people that have lived with his governance already. 
- When a Bain Capital employee's daughter went missing in 1996, he shut down the entire office, brought all of the employees to New York.....and made sure that she was located.
Good for him.  There’s something good.
- When his father died, and he inherited his father's money, he donated ALL of it to charity.
He was already super rich.  Who cares?  And again...tax deduction.
- He owner financed a house for a "less than wealthy" family in Texas.
So he has hundreds of millions of dollars and he financed a house for them?  How about just give them a house?  Will.I.Am gave over $350,000 of his own money to help two families that were facing foreclosure pay off their homes.  This makes Romney’s owner financing look pretty insignificant. 
- He paid for the college tuition for children of a family that had been devastated in a car accident.
Another good thing.  But it seems in contrast to his platform on student debt.  Not only does he not plan to increase the grants available to students, his running mate created a budget that sent student loans back to private lending institutions.  This reverts the recent change in student loans originated by the government and would cost the government a fortune in subsidies to the lending institutions.  Just another way to get money into the hands of private organizations at the expense of the rest of the country.

- He helped subsidize the food for a veteran's homeless shelter for years....and didn't tell them.
Tax deduction.
- When fire destroyed numerous homes in a neighborhood in San Francisco, Romney and his son showed up and helped people clean out their homes...for hours.
Good.  I hope it was better than the work Ryan did at the soup kitchen recently. 
- He helped build a playground (Not writing a check, physically helped build it) to honor a boy who died of Cystic Fibrosis.
Good.  See my last comment.

Have I made my point? He really doesn't look like a rich, greedy corporate raider, now does he?? Cold and unfeeling bastard who is responsible for the death of someone else's wife?
Nope....You've been lied to. Repeatedly.

This paragraph at least has some truth to it.  You have been lied to.  Repeatedly.  By both the writer of this and the Romney campaign. 

Now, let's look at his life as a businessman. Ever heard of companies like: Staples, Sports Authority, Dominoes Pizza, Bright Horizons, Steel Dynamics, Sealy Mattresses, Brookstone?

Romney either funded, rescued, or helped start those companies. OVER 100,000 jobs created.

The jobs outsourced under Romney’s tenure as Bain’s CEO is debatable.  Mostly because the date he actually let go of his role is in question.  He says one thing, but legal filings show something different.  Either way, he created the company and instilled the principles on which the company runs.  This means he is ultimately responsible for the actions of the company, including the outsourcing of jobs that is still going on today. 

After doing all of this research, I have to say that I am pretty pissed. Obama has managed to lie to America, and paint a very decent man as a villain.....simply because Obama has accomplished virtually nothing.


My thinking is this.....We have about 3 weeks until we vote. We can vote for a decent man, who does good things; who has accomplished alot both in private industry, and in government .....or vote for someone who has completely lied to us, manipulated us, twisted the truth.....but, above all....has been a FAILURE. Someone who has left us WORSE off, and will continue to do so.

Your choice - Success versus failure, Decent and generous versus dishonest and misleading. Up to you.

Like I said before.  This poster is full of lies and misleading statements.  Starting with the lie that Obama has accomplished nothing.  Do I think Romney is evil?  No.  I think he is a corporate puppet in this election that is meant to take office and improve the lives of corporations and the rich at the expense of the middle class.  I think he will further an agenda of hate with homosexuals and women by writing his religious beliefs into law.  I also think he is an opportunist who will take every advantage available including placing his money in off shore banks to avoid tax liability and hide his returns to keep us from finding out the truth about his unethical, though likely legal, practices.  Speaking of manipulation, this post is very full of exactly that. I find it interesting that I rarely hear liberals call Romney evil, but I routinely hear conservatives talk about President Obama as the anti-Christ and call his supporters cult members and similar derogatory terms.  How could we possibly elect a man to run our country who has only lies and misleading statements to defend his position?  How can anyone attempt to defend policies that have been proven impossible and harmful to our country?  Fortunately, it is up to us, and we can choose to vote for President Obama and forget that Romney ever had a chance. 

Argument against Obama Debunked

Originally appeared on The American Complaint Department October 15, 2012

     Obama’s the worst President ever!  No, I don’t believe that.  That’s what I hear from everyone who is opposed to him in this election.  When I ask them what makes him the worst President in history, they only have a handful of answers.  Most of the answers center on how much money he has spent.  These people are in a panic about the debt of $16 trillion.  I don’t remember any of these people panicking about the $10 trillion debt that our country had when Bush left office.  Most of the other attacks are nonsense such as he is socialist, communist (because these people don’t know the difference), Muslim, and hasn’t done anything good for our country.  The last argument is the one that really gets me fired up. 
       There are two problems with that argument.  First, these people seem to forget that congressional Republicans have spent the last two years fighting every initiative that President Obama has supported.  This has led to very little progress (which was evidenced by the fact that this congress passed fewer bills into law than any congress in history), but the responsibility lies with congressional Republicans, not with the President.  If he were to issue executive orders to get these measures passed, they would be accusing him of abusing his authority. 
       The other problem I have is that, despite the best efforts of Republicans, President Obama has accomplished quite a bit during his term.  Here’s a short list of some of those accomplishments:
       • His economic policies have pulled us from a recession that was heading towards a depression.  The U.S. GDP has grown from 14.07 trillion when President Obama took office to 15.83 trillion in July of this year.  Unemployment was 8.3 percent when the President took office in 2009.  Shortly after he was inaugurated, this number topped out at 10 percent.  Even though he had initiatives such as the Bringing Jobs Home bill blocked by Republicans, he has brought unemployment down to 7.8 percent.
       • He worked to pass the Affordable Care Act, bringing the health care reform that people have been wanting for years.  Today, millions of Americans are now insured due to this bill.  Studies have indicated that this reform will decrease health care spending in the long run as well.
       • Reformed Wall Street with the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act which
       • After 9 years of war, the United States has finally pulled out of Iraq.
        • Under President Obama’s direction, the United States military found and eliminated Osama Bin Laden.
       •Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed for our military bringing more equality to our armed forces.
       • Benefits were extended to same-sex partners of federal employees.
      • Advocated for and signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
       • Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, furthering equal rights for women.
       • Ended the Bush-era practices of “enhanced interrogation,” which is a nice way to say torture.
       • Signed the Iran Sanctions Act, furthering the sanctions against Iran in an effort to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
       • He began the process of training Afghan troops to replace American troops so that the U.S. could begin withdrawing its troops.
        •Established a “Credit Card Bill of Rights” meant to protect consumers.
       • Increased funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs
       • Increased student financial aid.
       • Reformed the student loan program so that students could refinance their education at a lower rate.
       • Created the Race to the Top program, encouraging school reforms.
       • Furthered the opportunities for higher education by expanding the Federal Pell Grant program.
       • Worked with Michelle Obama to pass the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act to improve nutrition in schools and improve children’s health.


       There are hundreds more examples that I can give of the accomplishments that President Obama has made during his term in office.  In fact, there are websites out there like whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com that do just that.
       I don’t mind if someone doesn’t agree with the President’s policies.  The ability to have different perspectives and beliefs is a fundamental right of our nation.  However, ignoring the accomplishments of the President simply because members of the opposing political party have said that he has done nothing of value is pure mindless conformity.  Do not simply allow these people to ignore evidence and misconstrue the facts to gain power.  They are counting on your blind acceptance of their propaganda to put themselves in a position to improve their own lives at the expense of those who President Obama has spent the last four years protecting – the middle class.  We live in the age of information.  Don’t accept the lies and propaganda that Republicans have been using as their platform in this election.  Look at the facts and make an informed decision in November.  I believe that, if you do, you will cast your vote to re-elect President Obama.