GOP is Trying to Rewrite History
The campaign season has started as well as the GOP rhetoric. People are entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. Our Republican friends seem to drive the narrative with made up facts. As Democrats we must stop letting Republicans drive the narrative. If we do not, these lies become truth to many Americans. If Republicans control the narrative, they will control Congress, the Senate and the Presidency, and we will be back to the failed policies of the 2008 Recession.
I want to display a few graphs developed from the Budget of the United States Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2015. First let’s address who added substantially to the budget deficit and refute the first attempt to rewrite historical data.
Source: Dave Johnson, “Three Charts to E-Mail to Your Right-Wing Brother-in-Law,” Huffington Post, 2014/10/09, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/three-charts-to-email-to_b_5664699.html
Note: President Clinton’s last budget posted a $128 billion surplus.
Let’s look at the Republicans’ second attempt to rewrite history. The second graph speaks to spending.
Source: Dave Johnson, “Three Charts to E-Mail to Your Right-Wing Brother-in-Law,” Huffington Post, 2014/10/09, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/three-charts-to-email-to_b_5664699.html
This sure does not make Democrats look like the party that likes to spend money. I would think that the graph says it all.
So if the above is not enough, let’s take a look at the debt ceiling crisis of 2011. The Republican Party demanded that the President negotiate over deficit reduction (which Bush had a lot to do with) in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. The crisis sparked the most volatile week for financial markets since the 2008 market. The stock market trended significantly downward. Later that week Standard and Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the United States Government for the first time in our country’s history. The Government Accounting Office estimated that the delay in raising the debt ceiling increased government borrowing costs by $1.3 billion in 2011. We also had a 16 day partial shutdown of government as a result of the crisis. The GOP previously did not have a problem raising the debt ceiling. See the diagram.
Source: PolitiComments.com, 2011, http://i.politicomments.com/ak
Now for those GOP friends that say the stimulus did not work. See the next graphic.
Source: Dave Johnson, “Three Charts to E-Mail to Your Right-Wing Brother-in-Law,” Huffington Post, 2014/10/09, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/three-charts-to-email-to_b_5664699.html
We have had 56 months of private sector job growth under this administration. The graph speaks for itself.
In 2008 our country was on the brink of disaster as a result of the poor policy decisions made during the Bush Administration. The auto industry had to be rescued, Wall Street had to be bailed out, the Trickle Down did not work, and many working class Americans were out of a job. Republicans created those problems; Democrats had to solve them. The upper one percent continued to see increases in their wages and the rest of us saw little in the way of wage increases. In fact I saw a Times Magazine article that says since 1979 the one percent saw a 138% increase in their wages while the rest of us saw a 15% increase in our wages. Republicans only give lip service to supporting the middle class.
I ask you, my fellow Democrats, to do the same thing I’m trying to do with these four charts: stop letting GOP drive the narrative and rewrite history. Stand up for our Democratic values because we are on the right side of the issues. When you hear Republicans – friends, neighbors, whomever– spreading false information let them know that what they are saying is simply not true and give them the true facts.
Setting the record straight with the facts during this election cycle is so important for our country and the hard working folks like us. We need to ensure we get out and vote, work on the campaigns of our Democratic candidates, and raise donations so our candidates can get our message out. We cannot let the GOP’s falsehoods return us to the failed policies of the past. What’s at stake? The continued erosion of the middle class. So if you believe we deserve better, then fight for a better America. Don’t give this next election away.
Joe Lowe
State Party Vice Chairman