Saturday, May 21, 2011

Obama Attack Dog Axelrod Barks Up Wrong Tree at Va. Gov. McDonnell

This is very typical of the obama administration. When faced with a situation they don't understand or can't explain, like the case of the success of Gov. Bob McDonnell in Virginia, they immediately lie. They make up things with no basis in fact, but, it puts Bob McDonnell on the defensive. He is forced to prove that he is the one that is correct, but by then the five minutes allotted by the TV show is over and people walk away confused or convinced that what the obama thug said is true.

It has to be frustrating for everyone who encounters it. The record, to date, of Bob McDonnell speaks for itself. There is no denying that his State has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Country. There is also no denying that he has a 62% approval rating.

david axelrod is just another obama stooge thug. We will be rid of him and his boss in 2012. It can't come too soon...

by  Jason Mattera - Human Events

When the smarmy David Axelrod is going out of his way to attack you on national television, be of good cheer. That means that you’re an effective critic of the Obama administration. The Chicago knives come out only when the threat is real. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell can attest to that.

Recently he and Axelrod were guests on NBC’s low-rated “Meet the Press.” McDonnell was there to tout his state’s impressive economic numbers: two straight years of budget surpluses, unemployment hovering at 6%, increased government revenue and the expansion of businesses in the commonwealth.

With an economy that’s still limping along, you’d think that Axelrod would join McDonnell in heralding Virginia, which boasts the eighth-lowest unemployment rate among all the states. But that, you see, would require Obama’s attack dog to acknowledge, at least tacitly, that his boss’s expensive government programs have failed. Big-time. GOP Gov. McDonnell got Virginia back on track by shrinking his state’s influence on the people, the exact opposite of what’s been going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

So Axelrod is forced to spin Virginia’s economic about-face in a way that would impress any roller coaster enthusiast. Speaking to McDonnell on “Meet the Press,” he carped, “You balanced the budget with $1.7 billion in money from the Recovery Act, you balanced your budget by borrowing $3 billion against future receipts on transportation … you borrowed money from your pension plan that you’re gonna have to return.”

There you have it: In those few sentences went Axelrod’s attempt to show McDonnell and Obama are alike. A lot alike. Spending and borrowing work! Look at Virginia.

Except, not really.

“David was just flat wrong. I mean, he’s a guy from Chicago who's lived his whole life inside the Beltway. He doesn’t understand Virginia government,” McDonnell told HUMAN EVENTS in an exclusive interview. “I think his handlers gave him some talking points."

“The bottom line is we had a $6 billion deficit over the last two years, and largely through cutting spending we balanced the budget and had a surplus, and Washington doesn’t.”

McDonnell continued:

“Governors are making great strides now, making the tough calls and balancing their budgets. That’s a foreign concept to David Axelrod and the people inside the Beltway who haven’t balanced the budget in years and years.”

As it turns out, one of Axelrod’s handlers really did give him bad information, or Axelrod knew that he was playing loose with the facts, both very possible scenarios. On allegedly raiding billions from the Virginia Retirement System, the borrowing was codified before McDonnell even took office. Moreover, the money “borrowed” wasn’t incorporated into his 2010 budget. Thus, McDonnell ran a budget surplus in his first year without borrowing any money from the pension fund, which, remember, he never authorized to begin with.

Regardless, McDonnell put additional funding into the budget to accelerate the payments back into the Virginia Retirement System. In fact, deferrals are expected to be paid off faster than originally planned, his office tells us.

So there is that.

On Axelrod’s accusation that McDonnell ransacked the transportation fund, well, I’ll let McDonnell explain that one. Take it away, Governor:

“That was for transportation [and] infrastructure, and not ongoing operations. And that’s the problem with Washington. They’re taking out the federal government credit card to fund operations. We use a very small amount of debt to fund capital infrastructure. And that’s what you do: You mortgage your house, but you don’t use the credit card. When you’re buying pencils, pens and paint for daily expenses, you’ve got to have the cash to pay for it. And that’s the fundamental difference.”
 
Go read the rest at the link above...