Freeper email.

[sellitman]

This is circulating through RW nut jobs emails. A friend sent it to me. I would appreciate it if these facts could be checked or commented on. The combined resources here on DU should be able to stop this re-writing of history cold in its tracks.

His email to me:

Can`t beat facts !!!!!!!!


NO ONE I’VE HEARD HAS A VIABLE ANSWER TO REDUCING FEDERAL SPENDING, AND AS A WISE PERSON ONCE SAID. “IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL, WE ARE GOING TO END UP IN THE DIRECTION WE’RE HEADED!”


The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.


The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this...


January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!


Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the
Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?


BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES! THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney ) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie MacFIASCOES!


(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).
Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy" (and the sky did fall!)
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!


So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"
Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving the economy into the ditch.
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is theDemocratic Party.
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.


In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.


For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running
until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.


And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and
he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:
If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years,
and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.


If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is "I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th."
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!


 "The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

[treestar]

1. Bush had veto power during that time

Did he use it?

As usual RW thinks they are really clever and have discovered something! Congress went to the Democrats in 2007, so we have found a way to blame the economy on them! They run on with that, so excited, that they forget to realize that Bush could have vetoed it all and avoided any spending.

[pkdu]

2. http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/votedforchange.asp

This was published in 2008 before the meltdown about similar crap circulating then... still true today.

[MADem]

3. You can't fix stupid. Best way to deal with this is hit the DELETE button, and block the sender

if you get too much of this stuff.

Anytime I see !!!!!!!!!!! and RUN-ON SENTENCES IN ALL CAPS ACCOMPANIED BY SCREWED UP PAGE BREAKS AND POOR PUNCTUATION, I realize that there's no point in confronting this sort of beast.

Put it this way: You're an intelligent person. Your time is surely worth something. Wouldn't you rather be using that time to communicate with like-minded people, or do something to help your family or community, or do something fun, rather than spending it wrestling with a pig?

You know what George Bernard Shaw said about wrestling with a pig, after all: I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

[sellitman]

9. The funny thing is this guy hates the current GOP field and probably will sit home on election day

Bet there are many of him on that side.

[MADem]

11. All the more reason to hit that delete button and/or reply to him with an inocuous joke.

Maybe he'll get the hint that you don't want political junk from him!

[LiberalAndProud]

4. There are some interesting facts here.

http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/eightyears-03.html

My favorite: To Establish Fiscal Discipline, President Clinton:

Enacted the 1993 Deficit Reduction Plan without a Single Republican Vote.

====================================================
There are many fun facts on that page that serve to debunk this tripe.

[rfranklin]

5. NY TIMES: [Bush] White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire

Lots of good info here--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?pagewanted=all

...Brian Montgomery, the Federal Housing Administration commissioner, understood the significance. His agency insures home loans, traditionally for the same low-income minority borrowers Mr. Bush wanted to help. When he arrived in June 2005, he was shocked to find those customers had been lured away by the “fool’s gold” of subprime loans. The Ameriquest settlement, he said, reinforced his concern that the industry was exploiting borrowers.

In December 2005, Mr. Montgomery drafted a memo and brought it to the White House. “I don’t think this is what the president had in mind here,” he recalled telling Ryan Streeter, then the president’s chief housing policy analyst.

It was an opportunity to address the risky subprime lending practices head on. But that was never seriously discussed. More senior aides, like Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s chief political strategist, were wary of overly regulating an industry that, Mr. Rove said in an interview, provided “a valuable service to people who could not otherwise get credit.” While he had some concerns about the industry’s practices, he said, “it did provide an opportunity for people, a lot of whom are still in their houses today.”

[rfranklin]

7. 2002: Bush Launched Housing Crisis w/Bully Pulpit

George W Bush launched the "We Are an Ownership Society" campaign in 2002. Now that most of us know that there was fraud at every turn, it is important to listen to Bush's wile words.
"http://www.youtube.com/v/kNqQx7sjoS8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/26/913679/-2002:-Bush-Launched-Housing-Crisis-w-Bully-Pulpit

[JHB]

6. Can`t beat facts !!!!!!!! <-- which have a well-known liberal bias

NO ONE I’VE HEARD HAS A VIABLE ANSWER TO REDUCING FEDERAL SPENDING, AND AS A WISE PERSON ONCE SAID. “IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL, WE ARE GOING TO END UP IN THE DIRECTION WE’RE HEADED!”
Can you name this wise person? The closest I get from Googleing is "Chinese proverb". So conservatives are even outsourcing their "wise person sayings" to China now?

I'll get back to the rest later, when I have a chance.

[tjwash]

8. Yeah, well, an OP here that said Obama supporters are all "morally bankrupt and contemptible"...

...got 155 recs and front page time on our own supposedly Democratic party website. Likewise have a slew of threads saying a sitting Democratic president needs to be dumped as well.

I think the lunatic fringes of both parties have moved so far in their respective directions that they have stretched into a semicircle and are holding hands now, so you might as well post a bunch of freeptard nonsense saying about the same stuff to dig the knife in a little deeper as well.

"morally bankrupt and contemptible"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/100236215

[sellitman]

10. I am one of those who agreed with the OP

I will vote for Obama but not without a barf bag handy.

The idolatry on this site for a President that has consistently snubbed his nose t the left in words and deeds is sickening.

[JHB]

14. Part of what is fuelling such dissatisfaction with the administration...

...is calling them "the lunatic fringe" and equating them with foaming freepers.

[rurallib]

12. fine manure for the garden this spring

good horse shit makes beautiful flowers

[JohnnyRingo]

13. Funny how when Republican policies fall apart, they point at the nearest Democrat.

To them, Barney Frank single handedly wrested complete control from the Republican White House, Senate, and House of Representitives, and ran a rogue government the republicans had no control over.

I remember enduring four years of Sean Hannity complaining about the "Clinton/Gore Recession" before finally moving on in 2006 to blame it on "Nancy Pelosi and her buddies in congress".

[surfdog]

15. Totally misleading

By the time the Democrats took over George Bush had already doubled the national debt and sown the seeds for our financial collapse

[JHB]

16. Someone doesn't know what the word "fallacy" means

The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

and the Republicans were helpless -- HELPLESS -- to stop this Reign of Terror! They eliminated habeus corpus, instituted routine spying on all citizens, tortured prisoners, rewrote history....

oh wait, that all happened before the Democrats got nominal control of Congress. Under Republicans, to be specific.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this...

...good for you. You're able to tell when someone is using the word "fallacy" incorrectly.

(Republican fallacy deleted)

"The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

Speaking of fallacies, the hit-correspondent provides no data to back up THIS assertion. Conservatives have this fantasy that there is an army of layabouts and do-nothings living it up on Welfare and entitlements. They never back that up, and they never mention that they're lumping YOU into that imaginary mob. Do you work for a living?

You know who doesn't work for a living? The people who paid for these takling Republican points.

[JHB]

17. George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Record slow, that is...



A good article to counter the letter's own fallacies is a Crooks and Liars:
http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/jeb-bushs-right-to-rise-falls-flat