Today’s Presidential news conference had more spin than an F5 tornado. I hope the current administration isn’t correct in assuming that the average American of voting age is woefully ignorant and willing to believe whatever is said often enough. Here are a few examples.
Claim: Oil companies could produce more oil to lower oil prices, but they are sitting on 9,000 leases already issued by the Federal government and not using them. This is true. But why? Could it be that the permits needed to drill issued by the same government are being slow-walked or denied? Could it be that banks are being pressured by the same government to deny funding for fossil fuel projects? Could it be that the construction of new pipelines necessary for transporting any oil produced by new oil wells are being blocked by the same government’s environmental agency? Why, yes to all of the above.
Claim: They have reduced the deficit. That needs some definition. The deficit isn’t the national debt. It is the difference between the amount budgeted and the amount spent. If, for example, you budget for 2.5 trillion and spend 3.5 trillion, you have a deficit of 1 trillion. If you budget for 4 trillion and spend 4.5 trillion, you have half the deficit. This sounds great if you don’t mention that if the total tax revenue is 3 trillion and you spent 4.5 trillion, adding 1.5 times as much to the national debt as those other guys while claiming victory by “reducing the deficit”.
Claim: The current record inflation is caused by the Ukraine war, not the fault of government policies. Anybody have a calendar and know how to graph numbers? Dow Jones does. Please note that this chart starts at the same time as the current administration and ends in the month the invasion of Ukraine started.)
There are more. Meat prices due to greedy packing houses and not the three years necessary to raise livestock after a massive pandemic-related dip in demand. “Ultra-MAGA” Americans being the most extreme group in American history while ignoring the white-hooded group in which his friend and mentor in the Senate was highly ranked. High drug prices caused by greedy pharmaceutical companies has a bit of truth since they take advantage of lengthy patent protection that keeps cheaper generic versions off the market for years. Of course, that patent protection costs them a lot since they need to spend a fortune on lobbyists to “encourage” politicians to vote to maintain the patent rules.
Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.
I’ll conclude with a few words to ponder from the leader of one of the failed socialist countries that strove to convince its general population’s that the policies designed to benefit the upper echelons of the political and social spectrum supposedly benefited them and not the “rich”.
“Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
– A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend