Chutzpah and Economic Numbers

 US Constitution, Article 1, Section 7:1

"All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."

I've seen a few "facts" floating about about how great a job BO is doing! All sorts of numbers about deficit reduction, economic improvement including jobs, etc. It reminds me of how he has the chutzpah to take credit for oil production going up on his watch. In the real world, our increased oil production is 100% the result of hydraulic fracking in shale which BO has much to do with as I do. Actually less, since he has tried to stop it, regulate it, and has stopped the Keystone pipeline.

If you have been listening a little too credulously to MSM outlets (it is easy to do, we ALL soak in it!), you may need to refresh your memory. Bill Clinton for example DID NOT "balance the budget". A short perusal of the Constitution plus a slight remembrance of the howling as Republicans "cut" (reduced the rate of GROWTH) in Medicare, plus took other "mean, hard hearted and cynical" actions on the budget that overall SLIGHTLY reduced the rate of GROWTH in government spending, PLUS (and most importantly) releasing the productivity of the American people and creating growth in the economy. One of the things I loved about Reagan was that he constantly reminded us that the engine of all good things is economic growth, not government!

The combination of the MSM controlling the story line, and the general poor memory and natural desire to believe the current narrative allows 90% of the population to live in an MSM wonderland where Slick Willie or BO fights valiantly against the evil Republican forces trying to CUT TO THE BONE (reduce the rate of GROWTH) in spending on Medicare, Military benefits, Food Stamps, Head Start for wonderful innocent little children, all because of their inherent evil and the fact that they are beholden to awful profit seeking business!

Then, when nothing bad happens because of the "cuts", "sequester", "shutdown", etc, and the economy starts to show signs of life, who pops up like a Jack-in-the-box saying "I did it, I did it!!" but the President. Naturally, if the president has a "D" next to his name, the media gets all gushy about HIS success!

If it is an "R" however, they have usually already been pushing hard on an economic and tax agenda that the media found "draconian", so when the economy improves, "it just happened" ... which in BOTH cases is more true than not, since the best thing government can generally do is get the hell out of the way!

Both Slick Willie and BO ought to be INCREDIBLY grateful for their Republican Congress. Without it, Slick would never have had what he and the MSM trumpets as his singular achievement -- BJs with pizza in the Oval Office, oh wait, I meant "his" balanced budget!

BO would not have had the impressive feat (for him) of seeing the unemployment number below 7%!! WOW!! (it was under 5% in '07). Of course we are not talking about the labor participation rate that is the worst now that it has been since the '70s!

Don't expect the MSM (or BO) to be applauding the results of the Republicans feeble attempts to slow the rate of growth in the federal spending juggernaut anytime soon.