Non-Sports Post!
This may be a bit of a surprise to you but our candidates for president weren’t completely truthful in their final debate on Wednesday night. I know that the knowledge of politicians not being completely honest with the American public may be disturbing, because politicians never do stuff like that, but someone has to hold them accountable. In my opinion, Obama was worse because he seemed to be even more deceptive and willing to mislead people. Here are some examples:
OBAMA: "Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut, so that it matches."
FACT: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama's proposals for saving money.
OBAMA: "One hundred percent, John, of your ads — 100 percent of them — have been negative."
FACT: The statement is true when it comes to McCain's current commercial spots. But by saying McCain's ads "have been" 100 percent negative, Obama ventures into misleading territory. McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.
OBAMA: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent."
FACT: Obama constantly says this. But the independent
Tax Policy Center says his plan cuts taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.
MCCAIN: "Sen. Obama, as a member of the
Illinois state Senate, voted in the
Judiciary Committee against a law that would provide immediate medical attention to a child born in a failed abortion. He voted against that."
OBAMA: "If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that's because it's not true."
FACT: As a state senator, Obama opposed three legislative efforts, in 2001, 2002 and 2003, to give legal protections to any aborted fetus that showed signs of life. The 2003 measure was virtually identical to a bill
President Bush signed into law in 2002 — a bill that passed before Obama was in the
U.S. Senate, but one that Obama said he would have supported. The state of Illinois already had a law to protect aborted fetuses born alive and considered able to survive. Among those opposed to the state effort was the
Illinois State Medical Society, which argued that the bill would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and expand civil liability for doctors. Critics said the proposed legislation would have undermined the landmark Supreme Court case on abortion, Roe v. Wade, in ways the federal law would not.
OBAMA: Said he would be "completely supportive" of late-term abortion restrictions "as long as there's an exception for the mother's health and life."
FACT: Obama leaves himself a lot of latitude in this answer. A woman's "health" has been so broadly interpreted that it can include conditions, including psychological conditions, that are difficult to diagnose or prove. Anti-abortion advocates say that makes the ban meaningless, because it leaves too much subjective judgment in the equation.
OBAMA: "We can cut the average family's premium by $2,500 a year."
FACT: If that sounds like a straight-ahead promise to lower health insurance premiums, it isn't. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggested cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it's not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
I don’t know about you but I see deliberate attempts by Obama to deceive the American people by promising things he can’t deliver (cuts for taxes and in the national debt and savings for health insurance) and protecting his true character (voting against the protection of infants who are victims of failed abortions and trying to play both sides of the abortion issue when he is clearly pro-choice) as well as lying about campaign ads by his opponents.
I know there were some mistatments by McCain Wednesay night as well because, let’s face it, he does have a tendency to inflate numbers when it comes to money spent on foreign oil, he refers to the percentage of payroll businesses would have to pay towards the costs of Obama’s public insurance plan a “fine” and as much as I am all for finding alternative fuels I don’t see us eliminating our dependence on foreign oil by building nuclear power plants any time in the next 20 years.
However, that said, McCain doesn’t have to protect his reputation and character with lies nor do I believe that he is holding out empty promises in front of me to gain my vote. Just some thoughts I wanted to pass along.
Facts and quotes sourced by CALVIN WOODWARD and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writers
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