Obama Demonizes GOP For Wanting Unemployment Benefits To Be Paid For Using His Precious Porkulus

Obama is at it again, falsely demonizing and demagoguing his opponents and deliberately misrepresenting their position for cheap political points.

Obama says:

“They say we shouldn’t provide unemployment insurance because it costs money. So after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, including a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, they’ve finally decided to make their stand on the backs of the unemployed.”

First of all, Obama is flat-out misstating the facts when he demagogues Republicans for being the party of fiscal responsibility.  Please read this article on the subject if you have any doubts about that.  The basic bottom line: it was a Republican Congress following the 1994 Republican landslide that imposed fiscal responsibility.  It is CONGRESS that has the power to spend; and the Republicans’ number one platform in their Contract with America was fiscal responsibility.

The last Republican-passed budget in 2006 contained a $161 billion deficit; Democrats are now passing budgets with deficits in excess of a TRILLION dollars as a matter of routine.  Democrats’ monthly deficits are now far exceeding Republicans’ annual deficits.

Next, Obama is flat-out lying when he says that Republicans say we shouldn’t provide unemployment insurance because it costs money.  That is a lie.  Obama is a liar.  And it is immoral of him to slander people like that.  The fact of the matter is that the Republicans have no objection to providing unemployment insurance; all they demand is that it be paid for.  And they want it to come out of that $862 billion stimulus that didn’t create any jobs.

“The fact is, an extension to help American families was passed unanimously in the House before it was blocked by a handful of Senate Republicans,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The only point some Senate Republicans have succeeded in making is that they are out of touch with the harsh reality that some families all across America are facing today.”

Republicans respond that they’re not opposed to extending unemployment benefits but want to offset the $9 billion cost with spending cuts elsewhere.

“We both want to extend unemployment benefits,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the GOP‘s No. 3 leader. “The Democrats want to do it by adding to the debt. Republicans don’t want to add to the debt.”

All the Republicans want is for the unemployment benefit extension to be paid for with $1o billion in unused stimulus funds.  If that is tantamount to wanting the unemployed to die, then Obama is telling the truth.  Otherwise, he is a demagogic liar without shame or conscience.

Which is why we have Senator Mitch McConnell expressing the bottom-line fact:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that Republicans were trying to prevent adding tens of billions of dollars of debt at a time when Americans are growing alarmed at its rate of growth.“So the only reason the unemployment extension hasn’t passed is because Democrats simply refuse to pass a bill that doesn’t add to the debt,” McConnell said. “That’s it. That’s the only difference between what they’ve offered and what we’ve offered.”

But Obama isn’t done with his lies.  He’s ALWAYS got more lies.

Obama continues his demonization by saying:

“Some Republican leaders actually treat this unemployment insurance as if it’s a form of welfare. They say it discourages folks from looking for work.  Well, I’ve met a lot of folks looking for work these past few years, and I can tell you, I haven’t met any Americans who would rather have an unemployment check than a meaningful job that lets you provide for your family.”

But, first of all, as we prepare to extend unemployment from 99 weeks to 123 weeks, it should be pointed out: this IS welfare.  You show me the employee who paid for what is currently running over 2 1/4 years’ worth of benefits.

And then you answer the question that no Democrat will answer: Is there any point at which you will agree that an employee has had enough unemployment benefits?

Shouldn’t Democrats just be honest for once in their lives and say, “We don’t think any of these people should ever be forced to get a job.  If they keep voting Democrat, we intend to keep extending their unemployment until America implodes and there isn’t a country for us to exploit for our partisan political ambitions any more.”

We’ve already covered THE FACT that Republicans have been willing to vote to extend unemployment provided the funds be paid for; particularly from the stimulus.  So Obama now seizes upon some Republicans’ legitimate concern that the unemployment merry-go has no end to falsely demonize the entire Republican brand.

What Republicans are saying is not “vilifying” out of work families; it is expressing a fact of human nature.

Looking for work sucks; particularly in a heinous job market where they may well have to accept something less than what they want.  People tend to put off unpleasant tasks until forced to do so.  And even if they go out and look for work, they tend to do so in a half-assed manner.  So if you keep providing a benefit that allows them to forestall the unpleasantness of trying to find a job, they’ll tend to put off looking for work.  That’s not vilification; it’s human nature.

I once lost a job, and I put off looking for work until I was on the verge of running out of benefits.  I was a little depressed, I was tired, and I took a few months’ break.  If I’d had several years’ worth of continually-extended ad infinitum benefits, I frankly can’t tell you what I would have done.

Fortunately I didn’t.  Circumstances forced my hand, and I got another job and moved on with my life.

Obama depicted himself as a candidate for president who would transcend the political divide and govern in a bipartisan manner.  Instead, he lied, and became the most polarizing and partisan demagogue in American history.

Obama is a documented and proven liar; even the New York Times is acknowledging that Obama – who pledged that no American making under $200,000 a year would see any tax increases, and then swore that the ObamaCare mandate did not constitute a tax increase – is now arguing that in fact ObamaCare is a massive tax on the backs of the middle class.

Now we’re back to the actual naked truth; ObamaCare amounts to a $6 trillion tax and spending increase.  It will destroy this country.  And it was passed through one despicable lie after another.

And now, thanks to Obama, we also have the man who favors the very sort of death panels Sarah Palin rightly accused ObamaCare of favoring put in charge of Medicare (see also the WSJ article here).

Obama is the kind of monster who constantly attacks and demonizes the other side and then demands they “put aside partisan differences” and vote for a hard-core partisan liberal agenda or face further demonization.  His constant “they oppose change” attack is quintessentially fascistic; it is identical with the “they oppose change” attacks of Hitler, Stalin, and other tyrants throughout history.

The sooner this man is out of the White House, the sooner America will have a chance to finally recover.

An article by economist John Lott is very much worth a read on this issue.

Tags: demagogue, extension, form of welfare, jobless benefits, massive deficit, Obama, on the backs of the unemployed, record surplus, stimulus, They say we shouldn’t provide unemployment insurance because it costs money, unemployment, unemployment benefits, vilifying