The Galt – Gekko 2012 campaign begins with three ‘big lies’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Willard "Mittens" Romney campaign has been running a Big Lie propaganda campaign from the very beginning. Now he has a partner in crime with the selection of a running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who also has a reputation for mendacity.

The "Galt – Gekko 2012" campaign begins with three "big lies." The first big lie: immediately after selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mittens Romney sought to put some distance between himself and his new running mate's unpopular GOP budget proposals (for which all but a handful of members of the GOP Caucus voted for — twice). Romney steps back from Ryan plan.

Romney would have you believe that he is the man calling the shots. This is pure bullshit. Romney's poll numbers were beginning to collapse last week and he came under intense pressure from the Conservative commentariat and right-wing noise machine that he must select their alleged boy genius and Ayn Rand acolyte, Paul Ryan. So Romney acted out of panic and fear of a revolt from the Conservative GOP base. 

It may be unprecedented in American history that the nominee of a political party is overshadowed by his vice presidential running mate (a reasonable argument can be made that this happened to John McCain late in his 2008 campaign). Jonathan Capehart writes, Mitt Romney already overshadowed by Paul Ryan:

Ever since Romney tapped Ryan, he has been trying to make it clear he’s calling the shots. On Saturday, Romney’s campaign put out talking points to supporters assuring all that “as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.” On Sunday, when asked by Bob Schieffer if he will learn from Ryan, Romney said, “[O]bviously, I have to make the final call in important decisions.”

But the entire national conversation is about the Ryan budget. And with good reason. First, there’s a lot not to like. Second, and most importantly, despite constantly flogging his 59-point blueprint for the economy, Romney doesn’t have a concrete plan of his own. If he did, his campaign wouldn’t have needed that Saturday talking point, by the way.

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Where Romney was viewed with suspicion by the Republican base, Ryan is beloved. “Mr. Romney’s selection of a running mate sharpens the portrait of the kind of president he wants to be,” The Washington Post editorial noted yesterday. Right now, that portrait looks just like Ryan.

The Tea-Publican establishment forced Paul Ryan on Mittens Romney precisely because of his radical "right-wing social engineering" GOP Budget that would repeal the 20th Century and impose a dystopian Randian world on America. Romney has previously endorsed the Ryan GOP Budget and said that he would sign it if it came to his desk. Romney is going to do as he is told by GOP leadership.

Ryan's "Roadmap to America's Ruin" GOP Budget is his only claim to fame in an otherwise unremarkable career, despite his having been a Washington insider most of his adult life. Paul Ryan Only Passed 2 Bills Into Law In More Than A Decade:

Thanks to Ryan, the post office on 1818 Milton Ave. in Janesville, Wis., is now known as "Les Aspin Post Office Building."

The other time Ryan saw one of his bills become law was in December 2008, with legislation to change the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are hit with an excise tax.

Ryan's "Roadmap to America's Ruin" GOP Budget is the only reason he is on the GOP ticket. Period. When Romney asks you to believe that he chose the man but not his budget, he is lying. Don't be fooled.

The second big lie: the bogus attacks on President Obama's welfare reform that began last week. This is a return to the GOP's politics of resentment exemplified by Ronald Reagan's mythical "Cadillac driving welfare queen" on Chicago's Southside. This is a two-fer: resentment for the poor and race-baiting.

So what is Paul Ryan's first solo campaign assignment on Monday? Ryan faces his first solo day on trail in Iowa - Ryan is expected to attack Obama on the issue of welfare reform. The "Galt – Gekko 2012" campaign is even up with a new attack ad today on Obama's welfare reform. In new ad, Mitt Romney repeats false attack on Obama's welfare policy – The Plum Line:

Almost immediately after he chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney promised a more substantive campaign focused on serious issues. This was the emphasis when he and Ryan talked to Bob Schieffer on 60 Minutes last night — “This is a man who’s also very analytical.” — and it’s what he emphasized on the trail this weekend. On Twitter, Romney senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom tweeted an apparently crowd-pleasing line from the Republican nominee—“Mr President take your campaign out of the gutter and let’s talk about issues.”

Given this, it’s ironic that Romney would begin this week — essentially, the second phase of his campaign — with another dishonest attack on President Obama’s welfare policies.

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Mitt Romney’s ad is dishonest. Far from ending work requirements, the administration has allowed states more flexibility when it comes to fulfilling them. The memo in question, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, stipulates that states can receive a waiver as long as their programs achieve the same work goals. The hope is that, with space to try new approaches, more recipients can be placed into jobs.

Romney used this same line last week — “Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work or wouldn’t have to train for a job, they would just send you your welfare check” — and was promptly criticized by all sides for his mendacity. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Ron Haskins, a former Republican congressional aide who helped craft welfare reform, said that “There’s no plausible scenario under which it [the change] really constitutes a serious attack on welfare reform.” Former president Bill Clinton, who signed the bill, called Romney’s claims “not true”:

“We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads,” Clinton said.

The Post’s fact checker, Glenn Kessler, gave the original ad “four Pinocchios” for its misrepresentation of the HHS policy, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org wrote that the ad “distorts the facts.”

It’s a blatant misrepresentation of the administration’s position, and it belies Romney’s promise to run a substantive campaign, as well as [Romney's] declaration that campaigns shouldn’t run ads fact-checkers say are false. Lying about your opponents record, getting called on it, and continuing to lie isn’t something you do when you’re striving for the higher road. It simply emphasizes the extent to which the Romney campaign has lost all concern for the truth, in favor of an approach that favors distortions, as long as they “work.”

The third big lie: Medicare cuts by "ObamaCare." This is the oft-debunked $500 billion lie that will not die that was central to the recent special election in CD 2 between Ron Barber and Jesse Kelly. Fact Check: The NRCC's 'pants on fire' – the $500 billion lie that will not die. Only now it is a $700 billion lie that will not die.

Ezra Klein, once again, debunks the GOP's "big lie" today. The Republican ticket’s big Medicare myth:

Let’s be very clear on what that means: Ryan’s budget — which Romney has endorsed — keeps Obama’s cuts to Medicare, and both Ryan and Obama envision the same long-term spending path for Medicare. The difference between the two campaigns is not in how much they cut Medicare, but in how they cut Medicare.

[And let's be very clear that in voting for the Paul Ryan "Roadmap to America's Ruin" GOP Budget — twice — all but a handful of Tea-Publicans in Congress are on record as having voted for these very same savings in Medicare over the course of a decade. There is no reduction in current beneficiaries' benefits as the GOP's "big lie" propaganda campaign suggests.] 

This brings us to the big myth of this campaign, or at least of this particular conversation: That Republicans, but not Democrats, have a plan to cut Medicare costs.

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Obama’s Medicare reform plan isn’t that hard to find. It’s largely in Title III of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

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As for Romney’s plan? Well, it’s 902 words long, and basically sketches a less-detailed version of the plan Ryan released in his 2013 budget proposal[.]

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So there’s a conflict of policy visions. But it’s simply a conservative myth that the White House hasn’t put forward a Medicare reform plan. What that line really means is that White House hasn’t put forward some variant of Ryan’s plan, which in many Republican circles, has come to be seen as the only policy change that counts as “entitlement reform.” [ideological dogma]

But Obama’s plan is, without doubt, far more detailed than anything Romney has put forward, and Republicans are well aware of its existence.

The purpose of this cynical "big lie" propaganda campaign is to muddy the waters and to confuse the public to the point that they no longer know what to believe. This is meant to create two outcomes: First, if "everyone is lying," voters will go with their party (tribal) identity. Second, voters will become turned off and apathetic about the election and choose not to vote — a less than subtle form of voter suppression. Both outcomes benefit Tea-Publicans.

It demonstrates disrespect and disdain for the voters. The "Galt-Gekko 2012" campaign thinks you are stupid, and they intend to lie to you.