Limbaugh lies

I'd say Limbaugh is off his meds, but...

Dear old lovable Rush is at it again. This time, he's claiming (falsely, if you believe it) that President Obama claimed America as it was founded doesn't work.

Well, the President did use the phrase "it doesn't work."  Of course, he was referring to Republican dogma.  Let me quote the passage that Limbaugh, as usual, distorts:

Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes -- especially for the wealthy -- our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. (Laughter.) But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. (Applause.) It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. (Applause.) I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.

Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history. And what did it get us? The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class -- things like education and infrastructure, science and technology, Medicare and Social Security.

It's not even a close call on this one.  Gee, who could the President mean when he refers to Congress during the years 2001 to 2003?  And when he talks about people who want to only cut taxes for the wealthy, and who tried it during the last decade? Hmm... that's a tough one.

Here's how Limbaugh describes that paragraph, as explained by WorldNetDaily:

adio giant Rush Limbaugh says Barack Obama has "outed" himself as a "dumb," anti-American socialist and perhaps Marxist after the president delivered a speech suggesting the American way of life has "never worked."

"After the three years, the cat's out of the bag," Limbaugh said this afternoon."After three years, everybody now knows why I wanted you to fail. Everybody that heard that speech now knows that you said America as founded has never worked. You have outed yourself, Barack, if I may call you that. You've come out. Maybe you'll be on the cover of the next Advocate (a homosexual magazine) because you just outed yourself, sir. You have nothing but contempt for this country."

What's sad is that Rush Limbaugh is the putative leader of the Republican party, along with Fox News. They run the show. You cross them, and you're forced within 24 hours to genuflect with a big apology. It's just one more sign of how the GOP has been taken over by crazies.

I will make one more point. Limbaugh is taking advantage of the President's penchant for not naming names. By not saying "the Republican Congress," "the Republican party," and "George Bush," President Obama left the door open (albeit an awfully small door) for Limbaugh's lie. Next time, Mr. President, name names.