Just The Facts, Ma'am

This is the time in the four year election cycle when politicians and the information providers get really carried away.  We all expect politicians to extol their nonexistent virtues.  But what about the media coverage?  Who or what to believe?  That is an important question since the sources of information in America today are saturated with bullshit.  No one knows what the truth or the facts are anymore because they are indistinguishable from the misinformation, misrepresentation and outright lies that dominate the television airwaves and published pages of newspapers and magazines.  Even more unfortunate, the majority of people now get most of their information from emails and blogs that travel through cyberspace, much of it mindless trash from lunatics and delusional wackos of every political persuasion.  No matter how it is delivered, it seems all the information we receive is endless garbage from those with ideological agendas or questionable knowledge of the issues.

The major misinformation networks give us talking airheads on television who do not report full or accurate descriptions of anything that we need or want to know.  Following major events and planned political spectacles we are tortured with panels of arrogant, opinionated 'expert analysts' to explain to us what we just saw and heard.  The next day we read reports from biased writers who publish crap full of contrived propaganda and intentional falsehoods fed to them by equally biased politicians and partisan pundits who claim to be qualified impartial authorities on the subject.  We constantly hear and read precise projections of the wonderful effects of political proposals - 20 million jobs here, 5% economic growth there, lower cost accessible quality health care for all everywhere - when no one has a real clue about the magnitude or the nature of the future impact of government programs, particularly those based on studies from the Congressional Budget Office.  In case anyone wonders, the CBO's record of accuracy would result in its going out of business if it was in the private sector.

One of the more disingenuous tools used by the media is when reporters claim to obtain information from reputable, impartial, non-partisan sources.  The problem is, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NON-PARTISAN SOURCE OF INFORMATION.  Everyone who is involved with a think tank, university, government office or business enterprise has an ideological or selfish interest in the information that becomes public.  The only folks who are non-partisan are the ones who really don't give a shit, are self-sufficient, don't read anything, watch nothing but popular trash on television, and don't vote.  Hmmm!  Maybe they are really the most enlightened.

Perhaps the biggest fraud that broadcast and print media perpetrates on the public these days is the pervasive use of "fact checkers" following major political speeches, supposedly by the aforementioned fictional impartial and non-partisan sources.  One does not have to hear or read very many of these fact checks before it becomes evident that these 'reputable' sources do not know the difference between a fact and an opinion.  The Fact Check on Mitt Romney's speech at the Republican Convention by the Associated Press was a clear example.  Please feel free to check it out if you so desire on the internet at -

http://www.freep.com/article/20120901/NEWS07/309010143/Fact-checking-Romney-s-speech.

The analysis of his speech contained no facts whatsoever, only opinions regarding whether his proposals and policies would actually work.  The Encarta online dictionary defines fact as "something that can be shown to be true, something based on evidence, as opposed to the supposition of or belief about something."  That is certainly not the definition used by the disseminators of daily disinformation.  But the actual FACT is, any statement, comment or proposal regarding future expectations that can be argued due to differences of opinion does not lend itself to being "fact checked."

Most Americans really do want to know what is going on in the world around them so they can be knowledgable and involved.  They want information they can trust.  Unfortunately, it isn't available.  When it comes to politics, they should disregard and forget what they read in newspapers, magazines and emails and ignore what they see on television.  You can't believe any of it.  What they need to focus on is what is indisputably true.  The FACT is that .....

- over the last three and a half years GDP growth has averaged an annual rate of 1.5% (US Bureau of Economic Analysis), the slowest recovery ever following a recession.

- unemployment remains above 8% and in the double digits when you count those who have stopped looking for work, and 3.2 million fewer Americans are employed today than when Obama became president (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).

- In June of 2009, after Obama had become president, real median family income was $53,508.  Three years later, in June of 2012, real median family income has fallen nearly 5% to $50,964 (US Census).

- the annual US budget deficit as a percentage of GDP has averaged 9.0% and been the highest by far every year Obama has been president since World War II (White House Office of Management and Budget).

- government spending has risen to 25% of GDP during the last four years compared to less than 20% from 2000 to 2008 (White House Office of Management and Budget). 

- outstanding government debt is up 60% in four years to the highest levels ever where every citizens share is now over $51,000 (White House Office of Management and Budget).

- Americans who have been responsible enough to plan and save for their own retirement have seen those savings decimated by government manipulation of interest rates at record low levels to support the continuing operations of the irresponsible bankers (obvious observation).

This reality is not a result of the legacy of George Bush.  It is the result of an ideology that government is the answer to economic and social issues, not free markets, private enterprise and individual responsibility.  It is the consequence of the actions of a president who has a different idea of how a country should be governed, an idea that is the polar opposite of any American president who has gone before him.  It is the responsibility of a president who ignores the damage his ideology has caused throughout history and is blind to what those policies are doing to Europe and the American states that follow them.  The real question is why anyone would believe that ideology would create a desirable quality of life for the people when it never has.

In addition to the facts above, the current administration proposes to raise taxes further on those who already pay most of the taxes even though it wouldn't come close to making a dent in the budget deficit.  The president argues that the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes despite the FACT the top 10% of income earners pay 70% of federal taxes, a ratio that has never been higher, while 47% of the population pays nothing at all.  One wonders what his definition of fair is.

The American revolution resulted from the fact that Americans were paying taxes without any representation in government.  Today we have majority representation in government by those who pay no or very little in taxes - in effect, representation without taxation.  Meanwhile those who pay the taxes see government confiscating ever more of their earnings while incessantly demonizing them and making it harder for them to manage the businesses that provide the income that pays the taxes.

This administration has policies that are toxic to economic prosperity and the record to prove it.  This president is intentionally provoking polarization and instability among the American people, and that cannot result in a healthy society.  Yet political polls indicate that this president still has a lead among voters and has a good chance of winning re-election.  Apparently more than half the voters in America believe the bullshit rather than the FACTs that are indisputable.