Democrat Emotional Scare Tactics: Harry Reid Is Right on Cue, Will Close Schools if Debt Ceiling Not Raised, Jackson-Lee Once Again Says We’re Racists (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 17, 2011
The Dishonorable Harry Reid threatens the funding of American public schools and paying our troops if the debt ceiling limit isn't raised
As has been predicted by many, including conservative talk radio show host Mark Levin, the Democrats will choose their emotional scare tactics for the greatest amount of impact, greatest amount of pain on the American public.
If the Obama administration and the federal government won’t demonstrate a shred of fiscal responsibility and restraint by cutting back on out-of-control spending and if the debt ceiling isn’t raised causing “default,” you’ll notice that Democrats never lament that funding to ACORN/SEIU will have to be cut. Or funding for Planned Parenthood, or the NEA, or PBS, or NPR, or fuel for Air Force One. The greens fees for POTUS are never on the table, nor are Sen. Harry Reid’s beloved cowboy poetry events.
Democrat members of Congress never threaten that their own paychecks, or those gigantic salaries of White House staff, will be affected or that the exploding budget of the EPA be cut back. ObamaCare, the leviathan of all outrageous, crippling costs to taxpayers, is invisible when it comes to imminent government defunding. Pres. Obama and the Democrats never suggest selling off surplus federal government lands to bring in revenue nor reducing the platinum benefits of unionized federal government workers.
Nope, it’s always the sick and elderly (Medicare, Social Security), the military (paychecks), and/or children (schools, school lunch programs) who will suffer. And this is meant to figuratively rip the hearts out of Americans — slashing the salaries of Congress, on the other hand, would be applauded and supported.
Sen. Harry Reid is right on cue.
From Doug Powers @ Michelle Malkin, The Latest ‘If We Don’t Raise the Debt Ceiling’ Scare Tactic:
Harry Reid has decided to ratchet up the scare tactics a notch. We’ve already been told that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised and taxes increased, government checks might not go out, but now the schools will close:
To fall for these scare tactics you have to believe that refusal to raise the debt ceiling means that the government will suddenly stop taking in revenue, which obviously isn’t true (you’ll notice that at no point have Dems tried to frighten Americans by telling them that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised there won’t be enough money to fund the IRS — but on second thought maybe that should be the Republican talking point).
From Washington Examiner, Reid falsely claims failure to reach deal means “no schools for our children”:
Continuing to ratchet up his rhetoric, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid falsely claimed on Thursday that a failure to raise the debt limit could mean “no schools for our children.”
But in reality, federal funding only pays for 8.5 percent of the cost of the nation’s elementary and secondary schools, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education (for 2006 to 2007). Federal and local funding comprised the remaining 91 percent and change.
Reid made the claim on Twitter, where he wrote, “If we don’t reach agreement, it could mean no Soc Sec checks, no paychks 4 troops, no schools for our children.”
Add the reality of the funding and the fact that schools will generally be on summer break come August 2, it’s hard to see how Reid’s statement could come anywhere close to being true.
From Commentary Magazine, More Dem Fear-Mongering: Schools Will Shut Down!:
Yesterday, the president told us he might have to cut off Social Security checks for seniors unless a debt deal is reached by August 2. And today Sen. Harry Reid turned the fear-mongering up a notch, declaring that failing to come to an agreement by the deadline will mean “no schools for our children.”
“If we don’t reach agreement, it could mean no Soc Sec checks, no paychks 4 troops, no schools for our children,” Reid wrote on Twitter.
At the Washington Examiner, Phil Klein writes Reid’s claim is nothing but pure fantasy and hyperbole…
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And in case that’s not convincing enough for Reid’s supporters, Phil also points out public schools won’t be open on August 2 anyway, because of something called summer vacation. Indisputable logic.
Obama’s and Reid’s attempts to mislead and gratuitously frighten the public not only make them seem desperate, but also undermines any trust they may have built with the other party. If they’re actually interested in reaching an agreement, it might help if they at least start making good faith arguments.
Nevada, why do you keep voting this disgraceful man into office?
Chuckleheaded Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee is also right on cue… whenever she can, Sheila whips out that overused, dog-eared race card she carries with her at all times, because you just never know when Sheila will encounter insidious raaaaacists:
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) informed us all that her Republican congressional colleagues are only uneasy about raising the debt ceiling and allowing the president to spend more money we don’t have without any Democrat concession to a balanced budget amendment… because he’s black.
And it is not The Onion reporting this. Those who are familiar with Lee are aware that this insatiable impulse to carve open the long-healing wounds of America’s racially divided past is merely her signature leitmotif.
Last February, Lee took to the House to condemn a perfectly funny Super Bowl Pepsi commercial featuring a woman aggressively reprimanding her husband over his unhealthy diet yet surprising him with her lenience over his drinking Pepsi Maxx–only to throw the can at him after catching his pass on another woman and accidentally hitting the woman. Not that this would have consciously occurred to anyone other than Lee, but the couple happened to be black, thus the ad was obviously implying that all black people, you know, throw soda cans.
[...]
While Lee certainly has a reputation for screaming at her black staffers with such charming epithets as “stupid idiot,” “foolish girl” and “stupid motherf*cker,” at least none have claimed to have had cans thrown at them.
Insightful interview on Mark Levin’s radio show last week with black conservative and respected economist Dr. Walter E. Williams as they discuss the fallacies of the debt ceiling and the downfall of raising taxes during a recession. Williams wants the GOP to “play hardball” and that our founding fathers would hold our current government in utter contempt.
Mark Levin Speaks with Dr. Walter E. Williams on the Debt Ceiling | July 2011
Obama Purposely Creating Panic Over Debt Ceiling
From Reason TV, 3 Reasons Why the Debt-Ceiling Debate Is Full of Malarkey:
After a decade in which spending increased by more than 60 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and the debt limit was raised no fewer than 10 times, the government is about to max out its $14.3 trillion credit line, leading to fears that Washington is going to default on its bonds, stop cutting Social Security checks, and destroy the economy more than it already has.
But the current debate over the debt ceiling is full of malarkey for at least three reasons.
1. August 2 is a phony deadline. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has pushed back the drop-dead date when the U.S. finally reaches its limit a bunch of times already: March 31, April 15, May 31 were all cited as deadlines before August 2 was inked in as Armageddon. But this time, he means it, man, really.
2. Reaching the debt ceiling is NOT the same as defaulting on our debt – which would indeed be catastrophic.
Think about it: You can max out your credit cards but as long as you keep paying the minimum amount due each month, your creditors don’t go crazy. Interest on the debt is a small fraction of total outlays and the government has a series of tools – from using cash on hand to selling assets to scrimping on nonessential payments – to make sure interest payments are made and seniors aren’t put on an all cat-food diet.
3. Legislating-by-Panic is no way to run a country. The reason we’re in this mess is because government can’t stop spending. And the government can’t even pass a budget on a year’s notice. But we’re expecting them to come up with a good plan for the country’s borrowing in a couple of weeks? Trying to force through an expansion of the country’s credit line by promising cuts in spending down the road is exactly why we’re in this situation to begin with.
It makes far more sense to do something like sell some TARP assets — the government is sitting on $320 billion in outstanding direct loans and equities investments — to cover interest payments through the end of the fiscal year than to force Congress and the president to come up with a budget that cuts spending — and borrowing — for real, next year, not is some distant future.
Reason TV: 3 Reasons Why The Debt-Ceiling Debate is Full of Malarkey
Excellent post at Big Government by Dan Mitchell, Mr. President, Here’s That Balanced Approach You Keep Demanding:
I want to know why America’s fiscal situation is so out of whack. I’m willing to take a dispassionate look at the numbers. And if those figures show that the President is right, and that “unaffordable tax cuts” have caused higher deficits, then I’m willing to support higher revenues (after all, I am a pragmatic, middle-of-the-road guy).
My first step was to go the White House website and track down the historical data from the President’s Office of Management and Budget.
Those numbers show that federal spending, on average, consumed 19.8 percent of GDP from 1950-2000.Tax revenues, by contrast, have consumed an average of 18 percent of GDP.
If my math is correct, that means deficits averaged almost 2 percent of GDP over that period.
To determine why deficits are higher today than that long-run average, I decided to look at what spending and revenues will be over the next 5-10 years. I could have picked this year, but that seemed unfair since the economy is still weak, which causes abnormally high spending and unusually low revenue.
Moreover, the spending figures would be artificially high because of wars that we are told are soon coming to an end.
Additionally, everyone is talking about 10-year plans, not fixing the problem overnight, so looking at the 5-10 year figures makes sense.
And, to expose any smoke-and-mirrors by the GOP, I also will assume the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are made permanent. That way, we’ll know the degree to which Bush’s tax cuts are responsible for additional red ink.
So I went to the Congressional Budget Office and found the relevant data (Tables 1.1 and 1.2, along with Table 1.7).
Congressman Pearce on Fox Business: Taxes and Debt Ceiling
Obama wants us to “eat our peas.” Read it and weep…
Federal Budget Surplus/Deficit: Pres. Obama tripled the deficit his first year in office with the failed Obama-Pelosi stimulus plan. In Obama’s second year the deficit topped a trillion dollars again. It was unprecedented in all of American history.
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