The Syllabus of Conservative Contradictions

[FayeforCure]

In the Education forum finehoe made this comment:
Facts don't mean anything to conservatives, it's all about what they "believe".

So I thought we'd look at one of the most egregious statements conservatives make:

"Government doesn't create jobs, only the private sector does"

Bob Cesca, author of One Nation Under Fear, has this to say about that silly statement:

Adding to the syllabus of conservative contradictions this week, both Christie and Scott attacked government employees and proudly announced the firings of tens of thousands of workers even though they themselves are government employees. Given the Republican talent for selling nonsense by the gross, the Republicans have managed to successfully define government workers as nothing more than faceless automatons -- robotic parasites without families, mortgages and futures.

At the Reagan Library this week, Christie applauded President Reagan's firing of air traffic controllers. Mitt Romney doesn't believe that government workers are contributors to the "real economy."

And while the Republicans attack the president for increasing the size of government, 500,000 government workers have lost their jobs since the president's inauguration.

During his remarks at the CPAC event, Rick Scott said, "In Florida, unemployment rate's gone from 12 percent down to 10.7. We're still above the national average, but we've generated 87,200 private sector jobs -- private sector! And we have 15,000 less government jobs in the state of Florida. [Applause] Government doesn't create jobs."

I don't even know where to begin with this.

The centerpiece of the statement is his proud assertion that "government doesn't create jobs." Who, then, is the "we've" inside the clause "we've generated 87,200 private sector jobs?" If he's referring to his administration ("we" as in "Governor Scott et al"), then he's referring to the government -- the executive branch of the Florida state government, to be exact -- and if the government "generated" 87,200 private sector jobs, then government does, in fact, create jobs.

Rick Scott continued by patting himself on the back for firing 15,000 Floridians. Despite his attempts to dehumanize the people who were fired, those government "jobs" were occupied by real-life human beings: Florida residents who, due to their lost jobs, might not be able to pay their rents and mortgages in an already crippled Florida housing market. Scott was talking about Florida residents who, because of Scott's policies, have become a drain on the state and national economies as they line up for unemployment checks and watch their credit card balances max out. Good job, governor. Tell me again how the Republicans will fix the economy.

If these were government jobs, then government had to have created them at some point, so, yes, government creates jobs. American citizens are paid to work in these jobs. Both of my parents worked for the government, and, as near as I can tell, neither of them are Big Government Decepticons posing as humans.

In this modern era when pensions, job security, benefits and health care are being eliminated in private sector jobs, government jobs continue to allow middle class workers to raise a family, send their kids to college and retire with some financial security. You know: the American Dream. The Republicans have demonized this ideal and used easy-to-repeat propaganda ("government doesn't create jobs") as a means of tricking middle class Americans into endorsing their malevolent efforts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-republicans-continue-_b_986343.html

[Midway ®]

Speaking of Chris Christie, the new darling of the republican party, here is how he is viewed at home:

Chris Christie’s Popularity Plummets as Buyer’s Remorse hits NJ
July 3, 2011
By Michael Hayne

NJ Governor and Professional Youtube Screamer Chris Christie may be celebrating his pension overhaul victory with a box of Twinkies, but he might want to chew carefully as a Bloomberg poll  released yesterday revealed that support for the gargantuan governor is in decline.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said they will definitely or probably vote for another candidate in the next gubernatorial election. Thirty-nine percent said they will definitely or probably vote for Christie.

Even worse, peoples opinions of Christie have dropped faster than an authorized helicopter at a baseball game.

Nineteen percent said they feel a lot better about the governor since he took office, while 29 percent said they feel a lot worse. In total, 53 percent said they have an unfavorable view of Christie, while 43 percent have a favorable view. When it came to his job performance, 51 percent were unfavorable, and 44 percent were favorable.

Christie’s abysmal approval ratings echo a common theme among recently elected Republican governors. It seems voters were so passionately upset with their incumbent governors that they collectively closed their eyes, made a wish, and held their noses when they elected this new radical brand of Republican governors.

In Wisconsin, for example, voters are expressing “buyer’s remorse” over sending the Koch Bros. paid for tea party republican governor, Scott Walker, after experiencing Walker’s extreme governance. A mere two months into his term, a poll in March showed Wisconsin voters were considerably unhappy with GOP Gov. Scott Walkerâ€"and would readily send him packing if they were given a do-over of the 2010 election that sent him to the statehouse in Madison.

Due to the firestorm Walker (a thinner version of Christie) touched off in fiercely going after the state’s public-sector unions, voters indicated to Public Policy Polling (PDF) that Walker would lose a rematch with his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, if the election were held today. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that today they would vote for Barrett and 45 percent said they would vote for Walker.

Similarly, voters in the Sunshine State are equally if not more upset with their Teabagger governor and his utterly irrational governance.

Yet another poll finds that voters in the Sunshine State have not only forgiven former Gov. Charlie Christ for switching parties, they would readily vote for him as a Democrat in 2014 if he ran against Gov. Rick Scott, who has seen the sweeping popularity that pushed him into office evaporate so much so he is now the nation’s most unpopular governor.

All across the country, voters are learning more about the false prophets they blindly swept into office and they don’t like it one bit. For all of their posturing as being “big reformers,” Chris Christie and company are proving to be friends of the big business interests on Wall Street. Buyer’s Remorse is sweeping the land, and if Chris Christie and company care at all about the future of their political careers, they might pay a little closer attention to the will of the people.

http://www.politicususa.com/en/chris-christies-popularity-plumets-as-buyers-remorse-hits-nj


And to think that they want to inflict that "load" on the whole country? You could not make this stuff up.