SPEAKER BOEHNER SHOULD KEEP HIS "TALL STORIES", JUST FOR HIS AFTER-HOUR´S DRINKING BUDDIES

His recent New York speech just proves that he, "Knows not of which he speaks."

...GOP House Speaker, John Boehner

What planet did House Speaker, John Boehner come from?

Where did this man go to school to determine that you help the economy by giving tax breaks to those that are the most well off and you take away programs from those that are the most vulnerable?

And where is the proof that we don´t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem on programs for the poor and the middle class?

In the recent House Speaker Boehner´s speech to the New York Economic Club, Boehner demanded "cuts of trillions, not just billions" before the debt ceiling could be raised.

In other words, he´s saying let´s follow the "not-so-bright", Tea Party freshmen in Congress and potentially ruin the US and world economy, while throwing half of the globe, including the US, into another massive recession. These suggestions were not just broad deficit-reduction targets, Boehner insisted, but were calls for "actual cuts and program reforms."

Basically, Boehner is saying that even though there was no problem in increasing the debt level six times while Bush was driving up the debt, with today's Democratic Senate and a Democrat in the White House now, it´s time to wreck the world economy because Mr. Boehner (and his party) are threatening to just pick up their ball and go home.

It´s their way, or the highway.

If the speaker truly believes that it would be "more irresponsible" to raise the debt ceiling without instituting deficit-reduction measures than NOT to raise it at all, this nation is in a $%^&* load of trouble.

And what´s even more alarming beyond the debt-ceiling debate is Boehner´s incoherent, "impervious-to-facts" economic philosophy.

It was very troubling that Boehner made statements in his speech that either he is totally uninformed, or he is harmfully ignorant, or just blatantly lying....or all of the above.

As an example, Boehner stated that, "The recent stimulus spending binge hurt our economy and hampered private-sector job creation in America."

Many economists may disagree about the effectiveness of the stimulus spending and whether it was worth the drag of the additional debt, but no reasonable economist has stated that it hurt the economy in the short term.

Even the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the stimulus added, on average, one percentage point annually to economic growth and reduced the unemployment rate by half a point between 2009 and 2011. And that´s their the low-end estimate.

The high-end numbers show the stimulus spending adding more than 2 percentage points annually to economic growth and cutting the unemployment rate by more than 1 percentage point. Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi have estimated that without the stimulus, the unemployment rate would be 1.5% higher today.

Boehner also stated, "The truth is we will never balance the budget and rid our children of debt unless we cut spending and have real economic growth. And we will never have real economic growth if we raise taxes on those in America who create jobs."

That is just flat not true. First, 90% of any new jobs provided by the top 1% of the nation´s wealthy were provided in their off-shore operations, not in the US. (Example: Two thirds of General Electric´s 2010 billions of dollars in profits came from their off-shore operations, as were their 2010 additions of new jobs.) In addition, under President Clinton, taxes were raised, primarily on the wealthy. And during the eight years of his administration, the economy grew by an average of close to 4%.

Boehner then falsely stated, "The massive borrowing and spending by the Treasury Department crowded out private investment by American businesses of all sizes."

Total horse manure! Crowding out occurs when government spending drives up interest rates and makes borrowing unattractive to the private sector. Economist Joseph Minarik of the Committee for Economic Development explains, "When interest rates are on the floor, (as they are today) you can´t say federal government borrowing is crowding out business investment."

Lackluster investment climates reflect low consumer demand and underutilized capacity. You can´t be crowded out of a room when you´re not even trying to open its door.

Boehner stated, "I ran for Congress in 1990, the year our nation´s leaders struck a so-called bargain that raised taxes as part of a bipartisan plan to balance the budget. The result of that so-called bargain was the recession of the early 1990s. It wasn´t until the economy picked back up toward the end of that decade that we achieved a balanced budget."

More manure. The recession actually started in July 1990, two months before the agreement was reached. And the economy revived despite the "supposed dead weight of the Clinton tax increase.

Boehner continued, "A tax hike would wreak havoc not only on our economy´s ability to create private-sector jobs, but also on our ability to tackle the national debt."

Ridiculous!

In the early 1980s, taxes were cut and public debt ballooned, from 26% of GDP in 1980 to 40% by 1986. Under Clinton, taxes were increased (and spending cut); debt as a share of the economy fell, from 49% to 33%. Then in 2001 and 2003, we had the Bush tax cuts. And by the time President Obama took office, the debt under George W. Bush and the GOP had once again climbed to 40% of GDP.

It´s one thing to slant the facts, it´s another thing to make up your own facts.

Speaker Boehner doesn´t seem to know the difference between the two.

But then again, does anyone in the GOP have a clue between the truth and their economic fantasies.....?

Apparently not.

Copyright G.Ater 2011

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