HIDING THE TRUTH

When President Barack Obama assumed office, Democrats controlled the Senate, 59-41, and the House, 257-178.  Not since 1977 did a president’s party have so large a majority.  Democrats could do whatever they wanted.

What they did was pass an $819 billion "stimulus" bill, and Obamacare.

If the stimulus passed, unemployment would decline to 5.8 percent this year, the administration said.  But for 43 straight months, it has exceeded 8 percent, the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Depression.  From 1948 to 2008, there were just 39 months in which unemployment was 8 percent or more.

Obamacare would cut premiums for the average family by $2,500 by the end of his first term, and reduce the rate of growth of federal health care spending, the president said.  Obamacare won’t increase the deficit, won’t raise taxes on those who earn less than $250,000 a year.  If you like your private insurance plan, you can keep it, he said.

Premiums for family coverage are $3,000 more than four years ago. Obamacare will increase health care expenditures $311 billion in the first ten years, Medicare’s actuary said.  It’ll boost deficits $500 billion.  Because of Obamacare, 14 million Americans will lose their private insurance, Medicare’s actuary estimates.

The economy is growing at less than half the average rate for the 10 previous recessions.  Median household income has fallen 8 percent.  Obamacare and other new regulations are chiefly why they’re not hiring, business leaders say.

The national debt has increased by $5.4 trillion during the Obama presidency — $500 billion more than during President’s Bush’s two terms. We’re at the precipice of a "fiscal cliff," say CBO and the Federal Reserve.  It’s the president’s fault there’s no deal to reduce the deficit, says liberal icon Bob Woodward.

His foreign policy "reset" has floundered, too.  Iran is still pursuing nuclear weapons.  The war in Afghanistan is all but lost.  The victory in Iraq is being frittered away. A tilt toward the Palestinians produced only an escalation of their demands.  Respect for America around the world has plummeted. Then came 9/11/2012.

Barack Obama has the worst economic record since Herbert Hoover, the worst foreign policy record since Jimmy Carter.  He can win only if Mitt Romney is made the issue.  So Democrats have spent more than $240 million on ads sliming him.  It wouldn’t be enough, were it not for a critical addition to Team Obama.

In politics, the truth matters only to the degree to which it influences what people think is the truth.  It doesn’t matter much if people aren’t told the truth.

Journalists have been putting their thumbs on the scales for a long time.  According to his formula for measuring it, media bias has boosted Democrats by about 8 percentage points, said UCLA Prof. Tim Groseclose. 

In the past, journalists would slant news to help Democrats out. but the news would be reported. This year, news unhelpful to the president is suppressed. 

"There hasn’t been one major political story line pushed by the mainstream press that hasn’t been perfectly in sync with the Obama campaign’s strategic messaging plan," said Investors’ Business Daily.

We face the greatest fiscal crisis since the Depression, but the television networks have devoted more air time to Mitt Romney’s tax returns.  For 20 years, Mr. Romney has paid an effective rate of 20.2 percent, the same as President Obama did last year, nearly double the average of 11 percent for all taxpayers.  There was no basis for Democrat charges, journalists knew, but repeated them anyway.

On their evening newscasts the day after 9/11/2012, ABC, NBC and CBS devoted 25 seconds to the implications for America of the bloody collapse of President Obama’s Mideast policy — and 9 minutes and 28 seconds to the media-generated flap over Mr. Romney’s criticism of that policy.

President Obama lies brazenly, confident his friends in journalism won’t call him on them.

More scandals swirl about this administration than any before it, but few Americans know this.  Nor do they know this president has spent less time actually doing his job than any modern predecessor.

"When the media voluntarily take on the role of propagandists, a genuine threat to our democratic system of government is posed," Investors’ Business Daily said.