Deceitful Steve Scalise

I got a letter from Rep Steve Scalise today, maybe you did too. Here is an excerpt:

"As you may know, the House of Representatives recently passed a measure that would raise the debt ceiling. While this legislation included some reductions in federal spending, the cuts were simply not enough to get my vote for the final bill. Unfortunately this debt ceiling deal did not do enough to reverse the reckless Washington spending spree that has been accelerated by President Obama. The President has implemented an extreme tax, spend, and borrow agenda that has crippled our economy, and now, under President Obama’s watch, caused the U.S. to have our credit rating downgraded for the first time in American history."

You must know that the President cannot raise taxes, nor can he cut taxes--only the Congress (specifically the House) can do that. Taxes have decreased under the current Administration to the lowest level in more than 50 years. As for the debt ceiling, that is paying for money already spent by Congress, by Scalise and his colleagues! 

And the downgrading of our credit rating was entirely the fault of the House threatening to default on debt payments.

I can forgive the Congressman's equating a family's need to balance their budget with that of the US government because economics are hard to understand. But surely he has a staffer who studied the subject and knows that the Federal Budget does not now nor has it ever functioned like a family's budget. That same staffer knows that nearly every family above the poverty level carries a huge amount of debt and most could not get by without the ability to spend what they do not have. Just think of mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

It is time to be honest with the American people.

Steve Scalise Lies with the Republicans

I got this email from Rep Scalise on the 20th:
Reform starts with repeal
On Wednesday the House voted overwhelmingly to repeal President Obama's health care law and sent it to the Senate.  The health care law that passed last year rations care, raises health care costs for families, and will actually push thousands of doctors out of the practice of medicine. in addition, when you remove all their budget gimmicks, the health care law adds more than $700 billion to the national debt. With the exception of liberals in Congress, only an Enron accountant would suggest that Obamacare will actually reduce the deficit.

This job-killing law is not reform. We need to start over by repealing this law and replacing it with real reform.  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to say that there are good things contained in Obamacare.  When this law was moving through Committee, I cosponsored an Amendment that would require all Members of Congress to join the government run healthcare option. Our amendment did not pass, and every single Member who voted for this law also voted to exempt themselves from it. Clearly if someone is not willing to put their money where their mouth is and vote to join that plan themselves, then they should not be so eager to force that upon American families.



This is utter hogwash. 
Anyone who has been paying just a little attention knows he is lying. Why do I keep hearing this crap about Scalise being a great guy, one of the most amiable and smartest Repubs in the House? He is working to hurt ordinary (not Rich) Americans and is willing to lie to do it. This is more than a farce, it is a misuse of office and it is hurtful and deceitful. 

Lying Vitter, Continued

3 cheers for family values, Vitter style. If you think that David Vitter is not a lying, hypocritical Republican, watch this:

Republican Phony Math Skills

VP Biden was in New Hampshire yesterday to laud the project to weatherize homes with economic stimulus funds. The occasion was the completion of the 200,000th home finished.
“So we are picking up the pace. We are weatherizing 20 to 30-thousand homes each month. At that pace we will hit our goal of weatherizing 600-thousand homes. Look folks, weatherizing is a no brainer,” he said.
The stimulus set aside $5 billion for weatherization. Biden says besides conserving energy, the investment has also created 13,000 jobs.

New Hampshire GOP chairman John Sununu immediately took a crack at Biden and the stimulus using very deceptive math. He told reporters the Vice President’s math translates to $385,000 spent for every job created, which he said is unsustainable.

What he didn't say is that he pretended the money was spent only on wages, not materials, and the work was done by one person per house. He further pretends the entire $5 billion was spent on those 13,000 new jobs.
Those 13,000 jobs were created by existing contractors who hired new people to work with existing employees.

The actual cost of weatherizing 600,000 homes is an average of $8,333 per home, if all $5 billion is spent. Confusing apples with oranges is an old Republican trick--they know that most people will hear the mind-numbing figures and not check the phony math. Remember the wild calculations done by Bush and friends about Social Security back in 2000? Check this as well