Fact-Checking Barack Obama's DNC Acceptance Speech
6 Sep 2012
Embattled President Obama took to the stage at the Democratic Convention tonight to a smaller venue where, for the past two days, everyone from politicians to Hollywood tried to make the crowd more enthusiastic. Obama had to give the speech of his life tonight, to convince not just the independents watching, but his own base whose faith has been diminished after "yes we can" went to "no, we couldn't."
At the heart of Obama's speech was the attempt to reprogram the
American dream from one found in the freedom of individual liberty and
owning one's own output, to "sharing" -- and by "sharing" he means the
government will own your output.
The socialistic phrases were present:
"They knew they were part of something larger ...
... everyone shared in the pride of that success ...
It will require common effort, shared responsibility,
"I cut taxes for those who need it. Middle class families, small businesses."
He did? Let's examine.
- Obama raised payroll taxes
The White House report released this week — ahead of the vote in the
Senate Wednesday to extend tax cuts for household income below $250,000 —
does mention two years of payroll tax cuts that Obama pushed through in
2011 and 2012, but only when talking about how much money the president
has saved American families ...
- In Obamacare alone there exist 20 new taxes, including taxes on medical device manufacturers and other small businesses.
- Obama introduced new taxes on cigarettes and tobacco shops
US News said Obama's taxes "punish" small businesses and Forbes recognized how his tax hikes hit the middle class.
Obama said of the auto industry:
I've worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to
America – not because our workers make less pay, but because we make
better products. Because we work harder and smarter than anyone else.
Except Obama ran Chrysler plants to Mexico and 61% is now owned by Italian company Fiat. GM is heading towards bankruptcy again and it's widely believe that the auto bailout was an utter failure.
Obama spoke against outsourcing, something he and his supporters have done quite a lot of these past several years:
After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million
manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years. And now you have a
choice: we can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs
overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and
train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of
America.
Obama's own jobs council is full of outsourcers. Obama himself sent our stimulus dollars overseas to create jobs, not in America, but for other countries.
As I've previously noted, Obama again tried to claim credit for the oil output on private and state-run lands in spite of him, not because of him:
In the last year alone, we cut oil imports by one million barrels a
day – more than any administration in recent history. And today, the
United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any
time in nearly two decades.
Oil output on federally-controlled land remained stagnant.
But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this
country's energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4
billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.
Obama parrots the debunked narrative that oil companies receive subsidies like the $535 million he gave his fundraisers at Solyndra.
Subsidies for green energy have been literally just that: money
handed to companies like Solyndra by the DOE's green energy program: $535 million of the public's dollars went to Solyndra, who promptly spent it on things like whistling robots. It wasn't just Solyndra; a host of other green companies received
these subsidies. It's more than ironic, it's the height of ignorance to
decry the false existence of oil subsidies while championing the very
real existence of actual subsidies to green companies friendly to this
administration.
Obama talks as though he's the savior of the middle class when his plans to bankrupt the coal industry would only make plentiful, inexpensive energy more expensive for those who can least afford it.
The President made an appeal for environmentalism, not conservation.
One is a religion aimed at deconstructing the American free market
system while the latter is an actual method of preserving our
environment.
And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is
heating our planet – because climate change is not a hoax. More
droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They're a threat to
our children's future. And in this election, you can do something about
it.
Democrats talk of alternative energy but are content to ship those jobs overseas, along with our stimulus money. Instead of enslaving us to Persian Gulf oil, they'll enslave us to China's rare earth metals.
Obama omitted his failure on free, parental choice in education:
And now you have a choice – we can gut education, or we can decide
that in the United States of America, no child should have her dreams
deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school.
And yet it was Barack Obama who as a senator fought against school choice and he continued to do so as President.
Obama shifted his message from "the war on terror is over" to "it's blunted" in his speech.
We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our
longest war will be over. A new tower rises above the New York skyline,
al Qaeda is on the path to defeat ...
Just the other day the Taliban claimed two more soldiers in an attack in Afghanistan. Six more just days before that. August was the deadliest month of war for our troops in Afghanistan. Conservatives don't itch for war anymore than the next guy, but the current process of going in without clear objectives and playing checkers with our soldiers' resources is the opposite of getting in if you have to and getting the hell out when you need to do so.
Around the world, we've strengthened old alliances ...
You don't accomplish this by approving of language excluding the capital of your ally and then, when the backlash hits, having Democrats on national
television loudly booing the addition of it to your party's platform.
You don't accomplish this by promising "flexibility" to Russia, or calling Nazi death camps "Polish death camps." (Other gaffes.)
Obama promised to cut the deficit but ignored how the national debt hit $16 trillion party due to his reckless spending on failed policies.
Obama mentioned Medicare, but just not how he gutted it:
And I will never turn Medicare into a voucher.
Kind of hard to give a voucher for something that, on your watch, won't exist for seniors. His own deputy campaign manager admitted he gutted it.
President Obama did gut Medicare with his health care law. It was
part of the fuzzy math employed to make Obamacare look less expensive
than the real price tag. Sacrificing seniors for headlines.
Obama failed to acknowledge his party's responsibility in enforcing
regulations on banks to force them to lower their criteria and accept
buyers they would not normally accept due to creditworthiness:
The President's speech was full of the usual platitudes, but heWe believe that when a family can no longer be tricked into signing a mortgage they can't afford...
sounded defeated, to me anyway. A half-hearted attempt to rally from
what I've usually seen of him. Of course, when you're term is mired by
42 straight months of unemployment above 8%, a shrinking workforce, and
slacking poll numbers, you'd sound defeated, too.
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