President Obama invoked the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis while criticizing cuts to infrastructure in the Republican budget plan at a town hall meeting on Tuesday.
“According to the Republican budget that was passed, for example, we would have to eliminate transportation funding by a third,” he said. “…You remember when that bridge in Minnesota collapsed with all those people on it and there was a big hue and cry, how could this happen in America?”
Obama pointed at the Republican agenda to reign in the utterly out-of-control federal spending that will be absolutely 100% guaranteed to implode America’s economy unless that spending is reigned in, and then demonized the Republicans for a previous bridge collapse.
But as happens far too often in the mainstream media propaganda that often gets to pass for “news,” CBS didn’t fully report the facts.
You see, Obama lied. Because that’s what he does. And that collapsed bridge he demagogues to demonize Republicans for – claiming that their budget cuts would eliminate maintenance – didn’t actually have anything whatsoever to do with maintenance:
NTSB: Design errors caused Minn. bridge collapse
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadly collapse of a Minneapolis bridge last year began at steel plates in a main truss, attributable to a design flaw and not corrosion, federal safety investigators said Thursday.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the bridge collapse was unavoidable once U-10 steel gusset plates failed at the U-10 connection, near the center of the bridge. Investigators also ruled out any pre-existing cracking as a factor in the accident.
A hearing into the collapse quickly focused on the U-10 gusset plates on the Interstate 35W bridge. The safety board as far back as January had identified design flaws in the plates as a critical factor in the collapse.
CNS actually does a little investigation and reports the facts in an article entitled, “Obama Misstates Cause of Minn. Bridge Collapse–Falsely Blames Insufficient Federal Spending“:
Contrary to Obama’s townhall speeech, the bridge did not collapse because of “deteriorating” infrastructure. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the collapse was due to a design flaw, not to a lack of maintenance.
“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the inadequate load capacity, due to a design error,” the NTSB states in its 2008 report on the incident.
In fact, the NTSB reported that on the day of the collapse, the bridge was in the process of being refurbished, further contradicting Obama’s claim that the collapse was evidence of a lack of infrastructure spending.
“On the day of the collapse, roadway work was underway on the I35W bridge, and four of the eight travel lanes (two outside lanes northbound and two inside lanes southbound) were closed to traffic,” reads the NTSB report.
If Obama were a halfway honest man, he would apologize for his vicious demonization that is entirely based on a lie. But he’s not a halfway honest man. And so he will count on the fact that the mainstream media will report his lies and not bother to correct them. Because they are leftwing ideologue propagandists, and that’s how they roll.
You want to know something else I don’t understand? It’s why we still need so much money for mainstenance projects. Remember Obams’s so-called “stimulus” and how it was all going to go to such “shovel-ready projects”? According to the CBO, Obama’s stimulus will cost $3.27 TRILLION.
Where did that money go, Barry Hussein? Why is it that if Republicans cut so much as a dime, bridges across America will collapse?
Then there’s Obama’s demagogic remarks about border security and immigration:
“The question is going to be, are we going to be able to find some Republicans who can partner with me and others to get this done once and for all instead of
using it as a political football?”
But Obama had total Democrat control of Congress for TWO YEARS. And he utterly failed to make any kind of serious bipartisan overture whatsoever on immigration reform during a period when Republicans had little chance of stopping much of anything. He is simply lying and blaming Republicans for his own failure. Which is to say, the only one using this issue as a “political football” is the guy demonizing others for doing what he himself is clearly doing.
You can again see just how utterly and vindictively partisan and demagogic Obama is in this exchange over the fact that Obama had a major meeting on immigration reform, and refused to invite so much as a single governor from one of the border states:
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you hear what is going on in Washington? President Obama is talking about immigration reform. The president held a meeting today at the White House to discuss the broken immigration system. He met with a bipartisan group. Guess what, he didn’t invite any governors from border states. Why not?
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer joins us live from Phoenix. Governor, did you miss your invitation? Did you decline your invitation? Why weren’t you here at the White House to talk about immigration reform?
GOV. JAN BREWER, R-ARIZ.: I wish I would have been invited. No, I do not — I did not get an invite. You would have thought one of the governors would have been invited since we are on the frontlines fighting for security there. It was a little bit of a snub, if you will. I think that on behalf of myself, I think I could have added insight to the situation that Arizona certainly is facing.
VAN SUSTEREN: I looked at the White House press release. Of the people who were invited — the category of those — it says stakeholders expected to attend. I looked up stakeholders to see whether you might be a stakeholder or Governor Rick Perry. It says a person or group that has investment share or interest in something as in the business or industry. I guess it is someone who has a strong interest in the topic. He must think you don’t have any interest in the issue or you would have been invited.
BREWER: That is very unfortunate if that’s what he believes. I feel Arizona, I believe I and Rick Perry and certainly the governors on the border have been leading the fight. We’ve been bringing the message to America. And I think that we should have been afforded that opportunity to be at the table to help him understand the situation that we want straightened out.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me tell you who he did think was a stakeholder and has a huge interest in this partial list — Mayor Bloomberg, who of course is the mayor who sent investigators down to Arizona to investigate you about guns, your state, the former police chief of New York Bill Brown, Secretary Michael Chertoff, former secretary of Homeland Security.
Then he invited Senator Mel Martinez, former United States senator. Here’s another interesting one, Greg Page chairman and CEO of Cargill. I thought that’s an odd one. I understand why, because Cargill was raided in 2007 by immigration and ice for violations having to do with immigration. They probably have the inside scoop on that one.
Al Sharpton was invited. The CEO of Facebook, another one. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California not the current governor, and Richard Trumka, who is AFL-CIO union leader. Those are some of the people that the president thinks has a greater interest than you do.
BREWER: That’s an unfortunate list as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t know he had extended the invitation that this meeting was going to take place.
But it seems by the list and what has been reported back to me this afternoon, it is people that looking at that wonderful word “comprehensive immigration reform.” It has nothing to do with what we really need to have done, and that is to get our borders secured.
I think they are looking to try to talk about amnesty and all these other issues and the dream act. None of these things in my opinion are going to take place until we get our borders secured. I don’t think the American people want to address anything until we feel secure. Our citizens need to feel secure in their homes. It just continues to grow with the issue of people coming across our borders illegal, the drug cartels.
VAN SUSTEREN: I may disagree with you a little bit. I would like a solution that is complete and which protects our borders, protects Americans and handles all the issues. I would like to see it put behind us. I to the president’s speech at American university last summer to hear it. I did want to hear what he said he was going to do.
We haven’t heard anything. He a Democratic house and Senate we don’t hear anything until now as he gets ready to launch his campaign. And now things have changed. Now we are hearing it again. I’m deeply disturbed. I think this is talk. I think his guest list supports that because this is not bringing people to the table who have real interests in this.
BREWER: I absolutely agree with you. The bottom line is that he has a different agenda than what the American people have. Unfortunately, we keep talking and we keep contacting him with our concerns, really no response, no concern. Of course now we are in the election period so we now he’s going to be standing up and talking about he’s going to do this and that. He’s had two years to deliver what he promised two years ago and hasn’t delivered.
So we want our borders secured. I truly believe that the majority of us are not going to discuss anything else in regards to what his agenda is, until we get satisfaction with security at our borders.
This is beyond ridiculous. If you have any intention whatsoever of coming to some kind of agreement, you invite the major decision makers. But Obama doesn’t want solutions; he wants to prevent solutions and then blame Republicans for the well that Obama personally poisoned.
Last week Obama gave a hateful speech in which he blasted Republicans as the party that wanted to kill old people and children with autism. During a point in the health care debate, when Obama needed to appear bi-partisan, Obama said:
“We’re not going to be able to do anything about any of these entitlements if what we do is characterize whatever proposals are put out there as, ‘Well, you know, that’s — the other party’s being irresponsible. The other party is trying to hurt our senior citizens. That the other party is doing X, Y, Z.”
And then he proceeded to do the very thing that he himself had said would undermine and poison the process. Rep. Paul Ryan said correctly:
“What we got yesterday was the opposite of what he said is necessary to fix this problem.”
And, again, Obama doesn’t WANT to fix problems. Obama wants to demonize and demagogue and lie and accuse and blame.
We can and should go back to 2006 remarks made by Obama when he personally demonized George Bush for raising the debt celing. Obama demagogued:
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
Now the same weaselly demagogue is saying that anyone who acted like Obama himself acted would be an un-American traitor.
It just never ends with this guy.
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