Charlie Sykes lying about the stimulus plan

It's "the biggest porkfest ever." It's a "boondoggle." It's the "government pissing away ... money."

It's the Obama stimulus plan. And while Sykes knows he and the Republicans can't stop it, he's hoping he can help turn public sentiment against it. Because people -- including more than a few Republicans -- support it.

And to do that, he will, as does he always,lie.

In one of his more obvious falsehoods, on Tuesday Sykes pimped an alternate history of the Congressional Budget Office report on Obama's economic recovery plan. The Sykes version of reality ran something like this: CBO last week releases a report that Obama doesn't like; Obama admin pushes back; CBO releases a new report that is a little more generous. In Sykes' language, only "slightly" more of the stimulus will hit in the first two years.

It's a story sure to incite the Sykes herd: The Dem controlled CBO is monkeying with the stats and the stimulus still sucks.

House Minority Leader John "Salon Tan" Boehner last week pimped an alleged CBO "report" that said most of the spending wouldn't hit the economy for the first two years.

Of course, the document they were referring to was only a preliminary analysis of an earlier version of the stimulus plan prepared at the behest of a House committee. (That said, let's note that unemployment is forecast to remain high in 201 -- so the spending likely would serve a purpose.)

Yesterday -- as scheduled -- the CBO releases its report.

While Sykes says "slightly" more of the stimulus will hit short term (first 18 months being the standard), the report discloses that about two-thirds of the stimulus will hit by the end of 2010 (and as the previous Dean Baker link suggests,there's a possibility more could hit faster). Some might construe that as more than "slightly."

Sykes' distortions don't stop there.

None of the money goes to businesses, Charlie claims. Not so. None of the money goes to taxpayers, Charlie claims. Not so. It only goes to governments, Charlie complains. Charlie apparently thinks the best thing for local governments to do right now would be to massively slash spending, lay off workers, and slash services to the bone. That would definitely help. We spend too much money on Medicaid anyway. Suffer the poor sick children (and the blind, etc.)

What does Charlie have to offer? Difficult to say. He's certain that the magic of tax cuts would do the trick. But tax cuts would also put us deeper in the red -- and one of Charlie's reasons for opposing the stimulus is because it would increase the national debt.

One of Charlie's gripes is "What does the stimulus do for the Harley workers, the Caterpillar workers, the GE workers who have lost their jobs." Perhaps Charlie wants the government to create a new diversified manufacturer to absorb those workers. Because tax cuts aren't going to help them out too much. Now that would be radical.

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[jay]

My friend created a Facebook page to try and get a progressive or at least liberal/left leaning talk radio station here in Milwaukee. Please join!!: We need balance. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milwaukee-Needs-A-Progressive-Talk-Radio-Station/202674559747847