Apparently, the right-wing noise machine does need to make things up. Watch Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Don Imus on Fox News, and Michael Savage repeat the ridiculously unbelievable lie that Obama’s trip to Asia will cost $200 million a day (that’s more than the entire Afghanistan war costs per day).
The same stupendous claim has been repeated by virtually every conservative pundit. Any of these people, starting with Bachmann, could have easily checked this figure and realized that it was blatantly false, but they aren’t interested enough in the truth to do even trivial fact checking. They just ran with it, in some cases even exaggerating an already implausible story. But I guess they still believe that if you repeat something often enough, it makes even the most insane falsehood true.
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Just like the white house starting the rumor the US Chamber was using millions in foreign contributions to pay for attack ads. Completely without any basis, but picked up and spread by every left media org and blog with no fact checking. Now I’m not saying what the pundits are doing is right, but both side do the same thing.
Please, stop with the false equivalence! The $200 million/day figure, the armada of war ships, etc. are just plain false and have been denied by the White House, the military, PolitiFact, and anyone else who bothered to do any checking.
The US Chamber of Commerce did run more than $75 million in ads to defeat Democrats — more than any other issue group. These ads were paid for out of their general account. At the same time, the USCC solicits and receives money from foreign companies and puts this money into its general account. Quite a bit of fact checking was done on this story, including a study done by the Wesleyan Media Project. In addition, the USCC has long had close ties with the Republican party, and there has been absolutely no actual evidence provided that would dispute the claim (just the unsubstantiated USCC claim that they have a system in place to prevent foreign money being used for political activities, which is illegal).
And PatriotSgt, are you really claiming that vast amounts of corporate money are not potentially a very serious problem in our elections?
Do we wonder why so many people voted for the rich to get richer (the Republican Party) and the middle class to get poorer? Is there any doubt.
Michelle Bachman must be having nose surgery constantly as her nose looks as though it hasn’t grown any longer.
IronKnee – I am certainly against all the money going into elections. I think it could be better spent elsewhere. Perhaps our economy isn’t so bad since ind. group , union and corporations have so much money to contribute. Then corps and unions complain they are hurting.
My point is politics plays the media who spin things up to either distract (US Chamber) or posture (Obama’s trip). Coincidently, while the white house and others have denied the price tag quoted, they cannot offer any evidence that it is false either. I know we don’t discuss security cost when it comes to our President and I would be strongly opposed to any disclosure of details that could put my Commander in Chief at risk, however our media and some politicians would insist on disclosure of war plans to inform the enemy of our intentions (ironic). It’s a game that both parties play.
Ebdoug- nobody voted for the rich to get richer and the middle class to get poorer. The rich comprise 2% of our voting population. Why would the middle class who overwhelmingly voted for republicans at the federal and local level vote to make themselves poorer? They’re getting poorer under this admins policies. The Fed (Bernanke – banker to wall st) is going to buy up 600 bill. of it’s own treasuries from the wall st banks, many of whom it bailed out, with money it will have to print, which will devalue our currency making all our dollars worth less.
“Why would the middle class who overwhelmingly voted for republicans at the federal and local level vote to make themselves poorer?” Because American Crossroads and Fox News told them to. 70% of the nation watches Fox News and want to believe what they hear. My feeling is that this is an erudite Web Site, yet we had the person blame Obama for the ruling on Corporate donations from the supreme Court. We have Fox News Lies for the 200 a million a day, etc.
A no one is mentioning the billions we are pouring into Palistan. The Repugs are going to go all out for more war. As long as the Senate is controlled by the Dems, and Obama has veto power, it aint going to happen.
Cantor has said he is going to spend the next two years scrutinizing the White house. New thing each week.
Obama seems to be turning on his back with his belly up and saying “I surrender” I’m firing off e-mails to the white house daily. We did not elect him to surrender.He is not serving us who got him there.
My husband and I just got into an argument with my dad over this. He insists that Robert Gibbs even came out and said it was true (and then promptly scolded us for believing what I read on the Internet when we checked PolitiFact). Does anyone know the true story about this? All I keep hearing is that the figures are false–what are the real ones? And is this money coming from the taxpayers pocket (something else I’ve been told)?
No Robert Gibbs said it was false. I watched him. He, and the pentagon, have both said that they do not disclose figures on the actual money spent (for security reasons), but they unequivocally said that the $200 million figure was false, and “wildly” inflated.
All presidential trips are paid for with taxpayer dollars. Was this ever an issue when Bush took a trip?
Besides, it would be rather difficult to come up with an actual number. What would it include?
Most Presidential trips are far below that price tag. When Obama went to Africa the price was 5-6 million per day. It sounds like a lot, but securing the President is a huge job and the secret service is completely in charge. I doubt the President even has any say in the matter.
This rumor was supposedly begun by a intelligence officer in the Indian Gov’t, who put the info on Drudge.com which was picked up by the right wing pundits and they just ran with it. Things to remember, the press always pays their own way at the cost of the news org they write for. It only gained traction because the secret service had originally considered renting all 580 rooms at the hotel he’ll be staying at. It was the one attacked by the terrorists a while back. They decided later it would not be necessary to buy out all the rooms. Again, it’s the SS’s call, not the President. Oh and there are always some military contigent, Navy, Air Force, Etc. that shadows the President, but not even close to 35 ships.
This was a spin job by the right, probably to get back at Obama for the spin he layed on during the last month leading up to the election.
Another article on this story said the source for the $200 million figure was a reporter in India who was writing an article on the trip for a local paper. The figure was written in the local currency, which is rupees. The current exchange rate for rupees to USD is approximately 44:1. If you calculate how many USD is equivalent to 200 million rupees, you come to about $4.5 million, which is about right for the trip.
LOL at the tit for tat comment. PGT you crack me up for trying so hard to be balanced. I’m not sure what obama did to deserve the death panel spin job, obama is from kenya spin job, obama is a muslim spin job etc that came of the asses of the conservatives. I’m waiting for your spin on that.
Yet another display of the right’s modus operandi: a proposition does not need to be true, it does not need to be factual. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be grounded in reality; if it fits the narrative – in this case Obama’s big government spending – it will be repeated, even potentially by members of Congress. The only thing more absurd than this entire situation is the fact that many Americans will believe it.
Oh, and just before I clicked on the comments link I thought, “I’ll bet Patriot is in here trying to equalize this with something on the left.” Lo and behold, first post!
YOuu guys would be shocked to know that I actually voted for my democrat govenor and senator. I did vote for a republican congressman though.
So there.
Without me to antagonize you guys some you wouldn’t have anybody to argue with now would you. 🙂
Oops to Jonah – The right pundits are idiot spin doctors who’ll make up anything and repeat it. But guys like Olberman didn’t do much to improve how the left spinners look either.
This site is the only true no spin zone, because we allow civil discourse
PatriotSgt, while I’m sure we would have no problem finding someone to argue with, if that is what we wanted, I personally value your input in here. Although I still plan on blasting you the next time you try to make another false equivalence! 🙂