Noel Sheppard asserts in a July 11 NewsBusters post: “Channeling her inner Nancy Pelosi, Rachel Maddow on Sunday actually said extending unemployment benefits is ‘the most stimulative thing you can do’ to help the ailing economy.” Sheppard went on to call Pelosi’s original claim to that effect “one of the most inane statements ever uttered by a House Speaker in American history,” adding, “Does Maddow actually BELIEVE that unemployment benefits stimulate the economy, or was she just mimicking Pelosi and repeating Democrat talking points?”
But Sheppard is too busy ridiculing Maddow and Pelosi to mention that economists agree that, yes, unemployment benefits do in fact stimulate the economy.
Another thing Sheppard was too busy doing to tell the truth was attacking Maddow for “falsely stat[ing] that Obama inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit.” Sheppard contorts the facts thusly:
After all, on March 14, 2008, then Sen. Obama voted in favor of the 2009 budget which authorized $3.1 trillion in federal outlays along with a projected $400 billion deficit. The 51-44 vote that morning was strongly along party lines with only two Republicans saying “Yes.”
When the final conference report was presented to the House on June 5, not one Republican voted for it.
This means the 2009 budget was almost exclusively approved by Democrats, with “Yeas” coming from current President then Sen. Obama, his current Vice President then Sen. Joe Biden, his current Chief of Staff then Rep. Rahm Emanuel, and his current Secretary of State then Sen. Hillary Clinton.
As such, when Maddow says, “They put all that stuff on the deficit, $1.3 trillion sitting there as — in a deficit when Obama took over,” the “They” were Democrats INCLUDING Obama.
How is this possibly something he inherited when his Party ramrodded the original budget through Congress with virtually no Republican approval — save Bush’s signature, of course — and the highest members of the current Administration — including the president himself!!! — supported it when they were either in the Senate or the House?
Sadly, Maddow’s math doesn’t incorporate this inconvenient truth.
Of course, Sheppard doesn’t mention that Bush could have vetoed any of those bills, but chose not to. Bush had the final say, and that was to sign those spending bills, thus making them his responsibility.