Beware

“We built it,” was the theme around which the entire Republican National Convention (RNC) revolved. From Republican House Speaker John Boehner to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, to Anne Romney’s “Mitt wasn’t handed success; he built it”, “speaker after speaker made reference to Barack Obama’s statement that “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
What the Republicans didn’t say in their campaign slogan is the part that will reverse completely their spin on the truncated Obama statement. This was what President Obama said, “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. The point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
Politics is never a good source of facts. Politicians are known to say things that are not completely true or to make promises they know they cannot fulfill. And people know that for the sake of winning, politicians and their handlers will not hesitate to do anything and tweaking facts to favor themselves or bring down their rivals is just one of them. It is the duty of the public, the media and the voters, to pick out the better, if not the best candidate.
However, to build their party’s campaign theme and slogan on a lie, and then follow it through with more lies, only shows these people’s lack of respect for facts. And if they don’t respect the facts, is it too hard to see that they might not respect fairness and justice either?
If they lie about simple things, doesn’t it follow that they will also lie about big things? Ryan, in his speech, told one lie after another and wouldn’t budge to correct himself despite the fact checkers and the media calling him out.
Let the people choose whom to believe seems to be the Republican attitude now about twisting facts to gain political advantage. And with an arsenal of corporate money to allow repeating their lies in the airwaves and in print, they knew they had a fighting chance and people would eventually get hooked in their lies.
Ryan lied about the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin closing under Obama’s watch, reneging on his promise to save the auto industry. The plant closed in 2008 under George W. Bush’s watch.
Ryan boldly claimed, “And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. … So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.”
Ryan’s claim ignores the fact that Ryan himself incorporated the same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipients directly, but rather reduce payments to hospitals, health insurance plans and other service providers.
In addition, Ryan’s own plan to remake Medicare would squeeze the program’s spending even more than the changes Obama made, shifting future retirees into a system in which they would get a fixed payment to shop for coverage among private insurance plans. Critics charge that would expose the elderly to more out-of-pocket costs.
In his speech, Ryan declared, “The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal.”
But the facts are that Ryan himself asked for stimulus funds shortly after Congress approved the $800 billion plan, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ryan’s pleas to federal agencies included letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis seeking stimulus grant money for two Wisconsin energy conservation companies.
One of them, the nonprofit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp., received $20.3 million from the Energy Department to help homes and businesses improve energy efficiency, according to federal records. That company, he said in his letter, would build “sustainable demand for green jobs.” Another eventual recipient, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, received about $365,000.
But the Republicans made it known that they wouldn’t let their campaign be dictated upon by these fact checking organizations. They have no regard for the truth. And they who don’t respect the truth cannot be expected to wield justice, fairness or equity for all.
Beware.