During the State of the Union, one of Obama's biggest lies was the notion that "Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances."
This is an antiquated leftist canard that relies on the idea that decreasing the rate at which the national debt increases magically equates to a cut because, well, it could be worse.
Obama's run at least a trillion dollar budget deficit each year of his Presidency. Overall, he's added around $6 trillion to the debt. Since he didn't add $8.5 trillion, he's calling that a $2.5 trillion cut. It's lunacy, but that's the argument he's making.
Yesterday on the Fox Business "Markets Now" show, Senator Rand Paul tore into this ridiculous claim.
"I was particularly insulted by the President last night saying that he's cut the deficit by two trillion dollars," Paul said. "What planet does he live on? So he added six trillion dollars to the debt. What did he do? Because he didn't add eight trillion he saves us two trillion? It's absurd. I can't believe people don't challenge him on this."
Paul is absolutely correct. It's a sign of the GOP's moppish weakness that EVERY congressional Republican wasn't making this same argument.
