Eight of the biggest Obama myths:
1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first reduced that to $1.29 trillion.
2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. Forty percent of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.
3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.
4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.
5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand.
Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business
that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.
6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.
7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality:
Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in
the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot
legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the
military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies
die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they
used to.
8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality:
Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the
People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the
roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the
soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government
spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small
part of the government's budget.
This stuff really matters. We need to be countering these myths--in letters to the editor, in conversations with friends and families, and in letters to our elected officials.