The WaPo and the liberal “fact checkers” immediately declared that yes, the Badger-faced Hitler had LIED — that the plant closed under George Bush. Except that it didn’t, unless George Bush was President in June 2009. And Ryan’s point was to highlight Obama’s declaration while a candidate that government, in particular the stimulus program, would save plants like the one in Janesville that had been slated to close — which it didn’t do. In fact, because of Obama’s economic policies, the plant is still closed to this day, like so many others around the country.
All of these things are facts.
Which, it turns out, were easy enough to check. So let’s go to the transcript, Feb 13, 2008 — which, in addition to showing Ryan to be exactly right in what he said, also highlights many of Obama’s very own lies.
[…]
So today, I’m laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It’s an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address – the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America– jobs that can’t be outsourced and won’t disappear.
The first challenge is to stem the fallout from the housing crisis and put in place rules of the road to prevent it from happening again.
A few weeks ago I offered an economic stimulus package based on a simple principle – we should get immediate relief into the hands of people who need it the most and will spend it the quickest. I proposed sending each working family a $500 tax cut and each senior a $250 supplement to their Social Security check. And if the economy gets worse, we should double those amounts.
Neither George Bush nor Hillary Clinton had that kind of immediate, broad-based relief in their original stimulus proposals, but I’m glad that the stimulus package that was recently passed by Congress does. We still need to go further, though, and make unemployment insurance available for a longer period of time and for more Americans who find themselves out of work. We should also provide assistance to state and local governments so that they don’t slash critical services like health care or education.
For those Americans who are facing the brunt of the housing crisis, I’ve proposed a fund that would provide direct relief to victims of mortgage fraud. We’d also help those who are facing closure refinance their mortgages so they can stay in their homes. And I’d provide struggling homeowners relief by offering a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent of their mortgage interest payment every year.
To make sure that folks aren’t tricked into purchasing loans they can’t afford, I’ve proposed tough new penalties for those who commit mortgage fraud, and a Home Score system that would allow consumers to compare various mortgage products so that they can find out whether or not they’ll be able to afford the payments ahead of time.
The second major economic challenge we have to address is the cost crisis facing the middle-class and the working poor. As the housing crisis spills over into other parts of the economy, we’ve seen people’s entire life savings wiped out in an instant. It’s the result of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages, and disappearing benefits that are pushing more and more Americans towards a debt spiral from which they can’t escape. We have to give them a way out by cutting costs, putting more money in their pockets, and rebuilding a safety net that’s become badly frayed over the last decades.
One of the principles that John Edwards has passionately advanced is that this country should be rewarding work, not wealth. That starts with our tax code, which has been rigged by lobbyists with page after page of loopholes that benefit big corporations and the wealthiest few. For example, we should not be giving tax breaks to corporations that make their profits in some other country with some other workers. Before she started running for President, Senator Clinton actually voted for this loophole.
I’ll change our tax code so that it’s simple, fair, and advances opportunity, not the agenda of some lobbyist. I am the only candidate in this race who’s proposed a genuine middle-class tax cut that will provide relief to 95% of working Americans. This is a tax cut –paid for in part by closing corporate loopholes and shutting down tax havens – that will offset the payroll tax that working Americans are already paying, and it’ll be worth up to $1000 for a working family. We’ll also eliminate income taxes for any retiree making less than $50,000 per year, because our seniors are struggling enough with rising costs, and should be able to retire in dignity and respect. Since the Earned Income Tax Credit lifts nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty each year, I’ll double the number of workers who receive it and triple the benefit for minimum wage workers. And I won’t wait another ten years to raise the minimum wage – I’ll guarantee that it keeps pace with inflation every single year so that it’s not just a minimum wage, but a living wage. Because that’s the change that working Americans need.
My universal health care plan brings down the cost of health care more than any other candidate in this race, and will save the typical family up to $2500 a year on their premiums. Every American would be able to get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves, and we’d ban insurance companies from denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And the main difference between my plan and Senator Clinton’s plan is that she’d require the government to force you to buy health insurance and she said she’d ‘go after’ your wages if you don’t. Well I believe the reason people don’t have health care isn’t because no one’s forced them to buy it, it’s because no one’s made it affordable – and that’s what we’ll do when I am President.
If we want to train our workforce for a knowledge economy, it’s also time that we brought down the cost of a college education and put it within reach of every American. I know how expense this is. At the beginning of our marriage, Michelle and I were spending more to payoff our college loans than we were on our mortgage. So I’ll create a new and fully refundable tax credit worth $4,000 for tuition and fees every year, a benefit that students will get in exchange for community or national service, which will cover two-thirds of the tuition at the average public college or university. And I’ll also simplify the financial aid application process so that we don’t have a million students who aren’t applying for aid because it’s too difficult.
With so many mothers and fathers juggling work and parenting, the next cost we have to bring down is the cost of living in a two-income family. I’ll expand the child care tax credit for people earning less than $50,000 a year, and I’ll double spending on quality afterschool programs. We’ll also expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; and we’ll change a system that’s stacked against working women by requiring every employer to provide seven paid sick days a year, so that you can be home with your child if they’re sick.
In addition to cutting costs for working families, we also need to help them save more – especially for retirement. That’s why we’ll require employers to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. You can keep this account even if you change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families.
Finally, we need to help families who find themselves in a debt spiral climb out. Since so many who are struggling to keep up with their mortgages are now shifting their debt to credit cards, we have to make sure that credit cards don’t become the next stage in the housing crisis. To make sure that Americans know what they’re signing up for, I’ll institute a five-star rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk involved in every credit card. And we’ll establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban unilateral changes to a credit card agreement; ban rate changes to debt that’s already incurred; and ban interest on late fees. Americans need to pay what they owe, but they should pay what’s fair, not what fattens profits for some credit card company.
The same principle should apply to our bankruptcy laws. When I first arrived in the Senate, I opposed the credit card industry’s bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt. Five years earlier, Senator Clinton had supported a nearly identical bill. And during a debate a few weeks back, she said that even though she voted for it, she was glad it didn’t pass. Now, I know those kind of antics might make sense in Washington, but they don’t make much sense anywhere else, and they certainly don’t make sense for working families who are struggling under the weight of their debt.
When I’m President, we’ll reform our bankruptcy laws so that we give Americans who find themselves in debt a second chance. I’ll close the loophole that allows investors with multiple homes to renegotiate their mortgage in bankruptcy court, but not victims of predatory lending. We’ll make sure that if you can demonstrate that you went bankrupt because of medical expenses, then you can relieve that debt and get back on your feet. And I’ll make sure that CEOs can’t dump your pension with one hand while they collect a bonus with the other. That’s an outrage, and it’s time we had a President who knows it’s an outrage.
[…]
This can be America’s future. I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday, and I know how hard your Governor has fought to keep jobs in this plant. But I also know how much progress you’ve made – how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you’re churning out. And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years. The question is not whether a clean energy economy is in our future, it’s where it will thrive. I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America; right here in Wisconsin; and that’s the future I’ll fight for as your President.
My energy plan will invest $150 billion over ten years to establish a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.
We know that all of this must be done in a responsible way, without adding to the already obscene debt that has grown by four trillion dollars under George Bush. We know that we cannot build our future on a credit card issued by the bank of China. And that is why I’ve paid for every element of this economic agenda – by ending a war that’s costing us billions, closing tax loopholes for corporations, putting a price on carbon pollution, and ending George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.
In the end, this economic agenda won’t just require new money. It will require a new spirit of cooperation and innovation on behalf of the American people. We will have to learn more, and study more, and work harder. We’ll be called upon to take part in shared sacrifice and shared prosperity. And we’ll have to remind ourselves that we rise and fall as one nation; that a country in which only a few prosper is antithetical to our ideals and our democracy; and that those of us who have benefited greatly from the blessings of this country have a solemn obligation to open the doors of opportunity, not just for our children, but to all of America’s children.
That is the spirit that’s thrived in Janesville from the moment that first tractor came off the assembly line so many years ago. It’s the spirit that led my grandmother to her own assembly line during World War II, and my grandfather to march in Patton’s Army. When that war ended, they were given the chance to go to college on the GI Bill, to buy a house from the Federal Housing Authority, and to give my mother the chance to go to the best schools and dream as big as the Kansas sky. Even though she was a single mom who didn’t have much, it’s the same chance she gave me, and why I’m standing here today.
It’s a promise that’s been passed down through the ages; one that each generation of Americans is called to keep – that we can raise our children in a land of boundless opportunity, broad prosperity, and unyielding possibility. That is the promise we must keep in our time, and I look forward to working and fighting to make it real as President of the United States. Thank you.”
Turns out that Obama didn’t fight for the Janesville plant so much as he rewarded his bundler pals and wasted money on chimeras like Solyndra.
The truth hurts sometimes. And the last thing we need right now is some Orwellian Truth Squad — and its media lapdogs — telling us that we shouldn’t believe what we know to be true: Obama’s policies have failed us while succeeding at what they were truly designed to do: create a more dependent society, then try to buy votes with promises to help you through the tough times that he set out to create as part of the “fundamental transformation” of an uppity imperial power due for some post-colonial payback.
Fact check that, bitches.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2012/08/a-new-judge-for-george-zimmerman.html
Judge in Zimmerman trial has been thrown off the case for prejudicial behavior.
Some lefties claim Ryan’s wrong because the plant closed before Obama took office. Others claim he’s wrong because it closed more than a year after Obama made the promise, so “not a year” is not accurate.
But consistency demands we consider 20 Jan 2009 the starting point. Had the plant completely shut down prior to that date, one could hardly hold Obama responsible for that. But it lasted five months and a few days after his inauguration, which was “not a year”.
I’m sure that’s what Ryan intended to convey, not that it would matter to the Privileged Interprers of All Meaning.
In my book, if someone says something that admits of multiple reasonable interpretations, one of which is factually true, it is dishonest to seize upon a false interpretation as proof that the statement is untrue.
what’s good for General Motors is good for a handful of fat-ass illiterate piggy piggy united autoworker thugs
He stood there and gave the employees the impression that he could and would keep the plant open.
They were fools to believe him, but that doesn’t matter.
It is illustrative of his empty promises. I’ve got a whole town-full of empty storefronts.
Their claims that Ryan is lying doesn’t even make sense.
I especially like the part where Obama said, “Every American would be able to get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves..
This is, of course, consistent with the fact that Congress explicitly exempted themselves from ObamaCare.
Why do you suppose that people keep repeating that the Janesville plant closed in early January 2009, before Obama was sworn in, when there are these things that are easily Google-able?
Not to mention Wikipedia, although that’s a bit less reliable. Even the Wiki article contradicts itself:
and
Evidently, “closed” has a meaning that is more fluid than I had supposed.
BTW the Wikipedia article on that is all of a sudden being busily re-re-revised.
How dare you try to impose your white patriarchal heternormative LOGIC on others!
Stop oppressing me with your facts
I WANT TO BELIEVE!
Some Lefties insist the plant is still “on standby” and therefore not closed. I’m sure that when a Republican is in the White House, that’s the standard for “factory closures”.
When a factory isn’t manufacturing anything, and the only jobs are for a handful of caretakers to make sure the pipes don’t burst in the winter, and security guards to make sure no one breaks anything, normal people say it’s closed.
Ernst, if you close your eyes and chant the mantra, it will be true.
“Ohm, ohm—-range”
Oh, yes.
Thing is, Obama totally hod nothing to do with this and he didn’t lie because they didn’t announce the plant closing (which his retooling would have avoided) until June of ’08! So he had no way of knowing it was going to close!!!! Like he did when he talked about it again in October of ’08:
Meanwhile, 70% of GM’s production is now overseas. I’m sure glad we own so much of it.
Open? Closed? Open-closed? Closed-open-closed? Who knows?
‘You are a slow learner, Winston,’ said O’Brien gently. ‘How can I help it?’ he blubbered. ‘How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four. Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.’
OT: Chrissie Matthews now says the very word “Chicago” is raaacist.
Carl Sandburg, pick up the white courtesy phone.
According to Lawrence O’Donnell, PGA Tour = negro manwhore.
OT: Chrissie Matthews now says the very word “Chicago” is raaacist.
I think that I shall never miss
A man as racist as is Chris.
A Chris whose thirsty mouth doth dream
To suck Jim bourbon’s flowing Beam;
A Chris that looks at news all day,
To find a racist he may slay;
A Chris that may in weather find
Hurricanes of Jim Crow kind;
Within whose eye the rounded calms
Look like a noose for lynching Toms.
Racists are dreamed by fools like this,
But only booze can make a Chris.
Time to rework the Dead Parrot Sketch, with the Fact Checkers in the role of the pet shop owner, and Ryan as the guy returning the dead bird.
This plant is CLOSED!
No it’s not… it’s on standby.
It has ceased to produce vehicles!
No, it’s gearing up to make Volts.
Bowles-Simpson Presidential Debt Commission, Final Session (6th meeting). Paul Ryan’s remarks begin at 1:18:00 and end at roughly 1:25:00.
Obama lies, economy dies.
That’s excellent, George.
Well,
This is complex. It seems that by the time of Obama’s inauguration plans were well in train to shut it. Once made, BTW, it does seem hard to reverse, or at least super rare.
Yes, it did shutter during Obama’s admininstration but it was effectively in runoff, to use a financial phrase.
The whole issue raises the problem of officials making very public guarantees versus the private sector’s decisions about rational use of capital.
Ryan mentioning it was stupid, but not nearly as dumb as Obama’s reference. (you caught his cunning plausible deniability? If he didn’t get the funds to “retool” it as a public-private partnership a la Solyndra, he could blame the GOP; if he did, he could take credit for saving rust belt jobs via “Third Way” policies.)
The problems that killed that plant happened years prior, in the mid-90s, when GM converted itself into a sub-prime finance company that had a high-cost structure, unionized manufacturing component attached. Once those markets began to freeze–there is zero sub-prime finance without immediate sales of receivables to Wall Street’s securitization machine–in mid-Autumn 2007, the plant’s fate was sealed. GM never had the organic sales flow that could sustain the plant without a long list of GMAC incentives (1% rates, $500 down et al.) creating customers.
Ryan never said otherwise, and I noted in my post it was slated to shut down.
And yes, it’s hard to reverse. Which is why it’s probably best not to stand there and pretend that if you’re elected and you then unleash the beneficence of the government, all will be well. Especially when you only have limited beneficence to offer with other people’s money, and Janesville ain’t really your concern, given that WI is generally a reliably “progressive” state.
Why? The plant is still closed. That’s the point. And it’s being made a lot today.
This was a political speech rife with emblems. It wasn’t an academic exercise or an exegesis on GM’s diversification decisions.
Ryan mentioning it was brilliant. It reminds everyone of the empty promises Obama made. He stood in front of that plant and said :
And I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years.
He was going to re-tool it! ! YEA and unicorns!
I don’t think he meant that the plant was going to be there for another 100 years unused and falling down.
The problems that killed that plant happened years prior, in the mid-90s, when GM converted itself into a sub-prime finance company that had a high-cost structure, unionized manufacturing component attached. O
Then I guess Obummer shouldn’t have been in that plant making that speech.
OPTICS!
The left is desperately trying to Palinize Paul Ryan.
Carin,
Yes, my point exactly.
When Pols wade into the blame game, the bull starts to fly.
Saying non-stupid things are stupid is stupid.
There is a stark difference of political view between Paul Ryan and Barack Obama. Who of the two would be helped by muddying that difference? Or would both? As to the latter question, I think not.
When Pols wade into the blame game, the bull starts to fly.
Ryan only “blamed” Obama for making a false promise. And pointed out that things haven’t exactly been looking up during his tenure as President. If I were Ryan, I’d film a bunch of ads in front of all the stores and factories that have closed in the last three years.
He didn’t blame Obama for the plant’s closing.
Some Lefties insist the plant is still “on standby” and therefore not closed.
Those same Lefties insist that “Recovery Summer” is just “on standby,” and therefore not a complete failure three years running.
This is complex. It seems that by the time of Obama’s inauguration plans were well in train to shut it.
It’s not complex, Roddy. Obama knew that the plant was scheduled to be shuttered, and he made a pledge that if elected he’d keep it open. He’ll insist that he made no such promise explicitly, but nobody listening to his speeches would come away thinking otherwise.
Nobody really gives two shits which exact day the gates were chained shut, nor whose badge adorned the trucks coming out the door at the end — the important thing is that Obama lied about saving or creating jobs, and has continued to press that lie for nigh on four years. All this debate on actual dates is just noise to distract people from the primary point, namely that every jobs-related promise made by Obama is a lie. He is toxic to business — manufacturing in particular — and his people are desperate to keep us quibbling over details so that we don’t pay attention to SCOAMF’s record of failure and deceit.
e is toxic to business — manufacturing in particular — and his people are desperate to keep us quibbling over details so that we don’t pay attention to SCOAMF’s record of failure and deceit.
I bet the topic of discussion at the Barack/Joe lunch meeting today is how to bring up abortion again. IMMEDIATELY.
Government makes promises it can’t keep without causing collateral damage in other parts of the economy. That sounds like an issue worth raising to me. Particularly against the guys who think they know better than everyone else how to best manage everything under the sun.
“Government makes promises it can’t keep without causing collateral damage in other parts of the economy.”
Ryan had just spoken of his efforts to win the trust of his constituents in Janesville (and across his district). We might notice that his constituents re-elected him after the plant was closed. Whether Ryan’s district will vote for Obama this Nov., as they did in ’08? It’s at least up for question (though I think we can divine that answer now).
– In San Diego, during Bushes 2md term, business property sat at an estimated 94.7% occupancy rate.
– After almost 4 years of ‘caring Obama economics, and effevtive governmental intervention for the good of the nation’, it now stands at just over 44%.
– Tell us again about “fundementally transforming America” Mr. Obama, because apparently someone didn’t get the memo.
– The Left is shoveling shit against the tide of truth as fast as their shovel ready propaganda machines can crank it out. All they’re getting for the hurclean efforts is a lot of shit in their lying faces.
– Good times.
that’s what im saying carin.
Wolf Blitzer attempts to befuddle Paul Ryan, but to my way of viewing it, doesn’t lay a glove on him, instead providing opportunities Ryan gleefully seizes to further pound Obama to a pulp.