Karl Rove accused of political amnesia

July 18, 2011

Lois Capps

REBUTTAL By BILL CARRICK

Bush political guru, Karl Rove, has a hole in his memory about his time in the Bush White House.

The Karl Rove sponsored ads attacking Congresswoman Lois Capps have been called “misleading” and “mostly opinions” by the non partisan group FACTCHECK.ORG .

Most of the current deficit is a result of Bush policies that Capps opposed…like the trillion dollar Iraq War, Medicare Part D, and tax cuts for the very wealthy.  The Bush Administration made no attempt to ever pay for these trillion dollar policies; instead, they put all of them on the taxpayer’s credit card.

Much of the rest of the deficit comes from the economic meltdown at the end of the eight years of the Bush Administration. A meltdown that resulted in higher unemployment, increased Medicaid costs, and lost tax revenue.

Rove also falsely attacks Capps on taxes. Congresswoman Capps has voted – repeatedley – for lower taxes.  Just recently, she voted for $300 billion in tax cuts that went to 95 percent of working families in the 2009 Recovery Act and another $850 billion in last year’s bi-partisan tax deal that reduced payroll taxes.

Congresswoman Capps supports a balanced plan to reign in our deficit, a plan that will protect Medicare.

Rove is rewriting the history of the Bush years in a pathetic attempt to restore his and his former boss’ reputation. What he doesn’t understand is that the independent minded voters of the Central Coast don’t need Karl Rove telling them what to think or how to vote.

Central Coast voters know that Lois Capps stands up for them and nothing Rove’s false ads say can change that.

Bill Carrick is Lois Capps’ political consultant. 

 


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Gawd more ignorant, lying CONS forgetting 8 years of Dubya and the Repug policies that drove US here!


Critics Still Wrong on What’s Driving Deficits in Coming Years


Economic Downturn, Financial Rescues, and Bush-Era Policies Drive the Numbers


http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3036


We had Clinton giving US 3 balanced budgets, Clinton even had to veto the Repubs tax cut of $700+ billion in 1999(they saw a balanced budget, lol), but then came Dubya and we have deficits s far as the eyes can see!


BTW, You guys remember 2 tax cuts? Unfunded mandates like MediCare Part D that the CBO scored costing as much as “Obamacare” the next 10 years? Wars that were unfunded(and false premised)?


Who’s forgetting “W”? W was a crook, Clinton was a crook, Obama is a crook. All recent presidents have been crooks! I’m batting a thousand!


But I thought D’s like Lois Capps wanted HIGHER taxes. Lower taxes are always interepreted by you guys as hurting the poor, while the rich just get richer? Which is it with you guys?


If you want to talk figures, where is all the “missing money” from the federal government? Has Lois Capps gotten involved in investigating where all these trillions went?


How can Lois Capps support a “balanced budget plan” when TRILLIONS are missing from the federal government, SS and Medicare are bankrupt, and the feds are creating money out of nothing, backed by nothing?


How can she expect there to be a “”balanced budget” when the greatest theft in history is taking place right under our noses?


How can she assume that there will be any budgetary reform without BANKING REFORM?


Reform the banking system! Close down the FED! Stop creating fiat paper money backed by NOTHING! Stop the mass thefts of taxpayer money! Stop the endless wars of the super rich profiteers! Stop the “empire building”! Stop the imperial overstretch! Close down the useless military bases which project the power only of corrupt bankers! Bring our soldiers home! Shut down the dependence creating “welfare state”! Stop the “crony capitalism”! Replace it with REAL free market capitalism!


Down with the false dichotomy of D’s vs. R’s! It’s a sham, an illusion, Hegelian dialectic, meant for the gullible and the unsophisticated boobs who keep voting for people like Lois Capps!


Dems want the RICH to pay their share. After all the top 400 in 2008 “earned” a min of $334 million each, and paid a total of 16% federal taxes!


Free markets? Like Somalia? Or Mexico? How’s that look to you?


Maybe YOU do, but the elite don’t! What do they care about your pitiful analysis of their political parties? I reject your distinctions between D’s and R’s. There is NO substantive difference between them. They are BOTH cheating, lying, and stealing all the wealth of the earth just as fast as they can, and they are BOTH laughing all the way to the bank, BECAUSE THEY OWN THE BANKS!


Got it. The false equivalency card.


Which party REFUSE to tax the richest among US again?


Yes, both parties are owned by the Banksters, but one party wants you to pay for the richest among US private jets too!


JonnyB, they are playing you for a fool. They did it to me, they do it to everybody! Wise up and throw away that brain implant while you still can. They are crony capitalists. They don’t believe in true free markets or the rule of law at all. They are gangsters, a crowd of organized crime. They own the media outlets which spew misinformation 24/7 right at us.


Do yourself a favor. Turn them off and tell them you quit. Go to: http://www.thedailybell.com/

(go to the “glossary” and get up to speed on the “dominant social themes”).


We need, and deserve, leaders who can fix problems. What we have in Lois Capps and other democrats are followers. They follow their leaders of the people’s democratic party who do not fix anything, rather they continue to overspend and blame the entire problem on Bush. Even most republicans agree that Bush was a poor leader but Obama and his disciples are proving themselves to be at best equally bad and if they continue to spend money they don’t have, worse.


Yet the Repugs budget plan(Ryan’s) created $7+ trillion more in debt over the next 10 years?


And the Dems put the wars and other spending on budget. Dubya’s last F/Y budget that started Oct 2008 was $1.4 trillion(CBO estimated it to be $1.2 trillion on 1/08/2009)….


We do deserve leaders who can fix problems. Name one Republican leader that has fixed a “problem” without making life worse for most of the citizens in the last 40 years. Name one Republican leader who is not a follower. They are all followers of Norquist, the Tea Party, or their rich contributors. Is there a Republican leader out there with an original idea for anything? All Republican leaders seem to get their talking points from conservative think-tanks (excuse the oxymoron.)


Keep in mind the current national debate on the deficit is because Republicans want to keep us from focusing on the fact that they have no program or even ideas on how to create jobs in this country. All they have is their tired trickle-down philosophy which has never worked and never will. The rich didn’t get rich by giving their money away to other people: lowering taxes on them will not create any jobs.


How much has Obummer raised the deficit since he has been in office? And Capps has supported him. A dog for a dog.


He actually put things on budget. But increased the deficit by about $200 billion.


You don’t know what you are talking about.


Here are some facts, albeit selected, about what has happened since Obama’ took office.


http://budget.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=252305


Nice try there; The smiling face of Paul Ryan at the top of that page you linked to tells me all I need to know about the “facts” you want to use. Can you say p-a-r-t-i-s-a-n ?


HaHaHa


REALLY Ryan?


January 8, 2009


The federal budget deficit will nearly triple to an unprecedented $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year, according to grim new Congressional Budget Office figures.ding Plans.


http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2009/jan/8/cbo-projects-12-trillion-deficit-for-2009/


WHO was Prez then?


BUT from your link:


“The White House promises this infusion of spending and borrowing would keep unemployment rate below 8%. As millions of Americans are painfully aware, that promise was broken”


First off, did the president or members of his Administration ever promise that the stimulus bill would keep unemployment under 8%?


PolitiFact Virginia did extensive research and came up with a simple answer: no. Yes, members of the administration projected that the plan would limit some job losses but those projections included “significant margins of error.”


http://www2.wsls.com/news/2011/mar/02/fact-check-allens-claim-unemployment-stimulus-bill-ar-876777/


NOW FORGET THAT THE BILL WAS SIGNED INTO LAW FEB 18, 2009, But unemployment for Feb 2009? It was 8.1%. WHAT IS OBAMA A MAGICIAN?


http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/charts/february-2009-unemployment-rate-81-highest-25-years-chart-day/


You would think that Lois Capps, after all this time in public office, could write to and speak to her own constituents about what is happening with the economy. Not only is she unable to debate, she is unable to take non scripted questions from an audience when she delivers a scripted speech. She also has to have others speak to the newspapers for her.


Since she only votes a straight democratic ticket, she doesn’t have to know anything about the issues and I wonder, what she actually knows about issues. Will we find out, years from now, that she had Alzheimer’s all this time.


The Democrats need to provide a better candidate for Congress. Good Lord, man, we need people in Congress who know what they’re doing, not place holders.


What’s wrong voting strait Dem ticket when they are right?


The Repugs have been wrong on almost EVERYTHING the past 30 years. Tax cuts create more revenues(lol), Dubya’s tax cut will pay off debt by 2012(Heritage), The war(months, $50$60 billion, premise), They ramped up the deregulation the past couple decades, etc


JonnyB, this country is not ruled or run by the two political parties, D’s or R’s. They just rubber stamp what the power elite say, e.g., Goldman Sachs, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, etc.


More dirty politics and lies by the right. It’s really a shame that Rove has to set the bar so low. I can’t find anything wrong with what Carrick said. The right is out in force with their political attack dogs and we need to stand up to them and say enough is enough, we’re not taking it anymore. If Obama doesn’t do that then he won’t get my vote. Obama needs to put these extremists and tea bags in their place, he’s smart enough to make them look like the fools that they are but he hasn’t done it yet.


You can’t find anything wrong with what Carrick said? Are you blind and deaf? The Bush years damned near ruined my dad economically, so I cut him no slack on his record on the economy. BUT, to say that the CURRENT deficit is Bush’s fault – that’s where Carrick goes wrong. The current deficit is the fault of the current residents of the White House and Congress. Period.


I think you are wrong here. I think the bush years are still haunting us, the carry over is terrible. The Repos have stated they will stop at nothing to wreck the current Presidency so have made sure that the Dems would have trouble getting any decent programs through. The mess we are in is because of Repo obstructionism-they have blocked or compromised every single program put forth by the administration that would have eased the recession.

I agree with the Queen, Barack has been way too accommodating and compromising to his foes. He is a smart man but somehow has not recognized how evil the opposition is and done little to vanquish it like he should. It is the big question and I’ll bet the history books will ponder this quandary for many years.


He’s way too accommodating because he’s just like the rest – his job is not doing what’s best for this country; his job is getting re-elected. Carrick didn’t comment about “the mess we are in,” he spoke specifically to the deficit. That, by definition, is overspending THIS year. We have the largest deficit in history. Those in office now must own it.


After 30 years of CONservative policies, it’s THIS Prez you’re worried about? How about trying to understand WHERE the deficits are coming from?


Tax cuts, Dubya’s recession and unfunded wars!


@srichison, I’ll assume that you are a man. Lets say that you marry a woman that goes out and buys a house, an expensive car, new b**bs, TV, Stereo and more. You run out of money and then pay for all of this on your credit cards and then you loose your job. Your credit goes in the toilet and you finally wise up and dump the wife (thank god you had a pre-nup). How long will it take to pay off your bills, to get that good credit back in good standing and to get a few dollars in the bank? I would say it might take at least a few years. You think that any person alive can fix the mess left by Bush and co. in just a few years, anyone with bad credit would have a hard time doing that just with their personal finances let alone the debt of an entire country. With your wife we’re talking about maybe a few hundred thousand $, with Obama he was left with trillions $ of debt. Now for you to make more money to pay off your ex wife’s bills you might have to buy some new tools, new work clothes, you might have to invest a little extra money to make money. Obama came into office with a terrible mess, he invested money to make money. Did it work, who knows, it’s really too soon to tell. But to be fair we can’t judge his job on this yet, it’s simply too soon and he’s getting little cooperation from the right which makes his job even harder. In other words, there’s not a man or woman alive that could have cleaned up the mess left to Obama in this short time.


oops, just read Cindy’s post and she kinda said the same thing but with much fewer words.


You still don’t understand the difference between the deficit and the debt. The national debt is the accumulated amounts of all deficits and surpluses since the creation of the country. The deficit is the amount of money spent THIS YEAR in excess of the amount of revenue this year. The debt was certainly increased during the Bush years, just as it was during the terms of every American president. The deficit is a one-year-at-a-time proposition. Obama and the Congress own this year’s deficit without regard to what Bush did or didn’t do.


I understand the difference. You don’t understand that Obama doesn’t have the luxury of just not the bills. He has to run the country and he can’t do that for free.


“So Obama has to pay the bills and run the country and he can’t do that for free?”


Your statement reminds me of the voter before the last Presidential election explaining why she was going to vote for Obama, “He’s going to buy me a car and pay my rent”.


Come on srichison, the national debt impacts a considerable proportion of the current deficit and of course, that would include Obama’s bail outs which pissed me off to no end. It also includes items like the extensions of unemployment benefits (3X the standard) etc which are in direct relation to the economy which correlates back to the Bush years complete with his disproportionate trade agreements, ie: the national debt.


srichison, The current economic crisis is the result of the Bush years. If you dont think so, try this, mortgage your home to the hilt, lease a Mercedes, rack your credit cards, lose your job and then tell me your new accountant managed to put your house back in order – yesterday.

Cripe, what’s wrong with people? It’s Bush, George W Bush that created this “ENTIRE” meltdown.


That doesn’t mean I like Obama, it just means that I am putting the blame where the blame is due on this particular subject. We need a third party.


You’re right about a third party – but that’s not going to happen as no third party candidate can ever get elected. Carrick didn’t talk about the “current economic crisis,” he spoke to the deficit. That is owned by current elected officials, not past ones.


Believing that casting a vote in the direction of anyone but a Dem or a Rep is a lost vote is exactly what will make that statement a reality. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are enough of us who are angry and sick to death of our gubmint to prevail with in a third party vote, it just takes the faith and the belief in each other to do it.


Nice to have someone to blame. We need no parties. All of Congress should be changed out every few years. And for God sakes, make sure when their time is up they don’t get full pensions. And full medical care. Same people giving us the bull-shit over and over and over and nothing changes. Only gets worse. I don’t believe anyone anymore. Blaming someone is counter productive. Let’s just take care of the damn problem! Vote my wife in she will take care of those bastards quick.

And no more lawyers allowed to run for office. I don’t trust them either. I got major screws from one about a year ago. Lost about $50,000.00 because of his big mouth and very small brain.

God protect this country and everyone in it.


Don’t use critical thinking shills?


Critics Still Wrong on What’s Driving Deficits in Coming Years


Economic Downturn, Financial Rescues, and Bush-Era Policies Drive the Numbers


http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3036


More Hegelian dialectic from the geniuses who can’t think.


Their tired and silly formula=D’s are good; R’s are bad. Sorry, sweetheart, but the world ain’t that simple. The world perceived through a glass darkly.


The D’s and R’s are just playing games together, good cop, bad cop, theatre of the absurd for those with absurd thoughts so that they can indulge themselves in the political mythology created in some government psychological research lab filled with rats.


“Right Wing,” vs. “Left Wing”? BS!


The emperor ain’t got no clothes on! And his privates look the same whether you call them D or R.


I will repeat something that Jesse Ventura said, I’m sorry to be redundant as I’ve retold this line many times.


Dems and Repubs are like Pepsi and Coke, pretty much the same just ones a little sweeter than the other.


I love that line and it’s true. I agree that the Dems need a lot work and the corruption on both sides is disgusting. I don’t disagree that there is blame to go around. But pinning it all on Capps just isn’t right. Capps is probably one of the few good guys/gals that seems to be honest and works hard to do what many of us feel is the right thing. I would take her and Blakeslee over a polished paid for McCarthy any day.


Capps is not a slick sneaky paid for politician. Someone said that she lets others speak for her. I get periodic calls from her. She frequently does these over the phone conference call town hall meetings where anyone can ask her questions directly. She called just this week. I have been able to directly ask her questions in that forum on several occasions. I have heard what seems to be Repubs/cons on these calls that get hostile with her but she keeps her cool and answers them directly. Has McCarthy don’t that? Why does he get a free ride while all the blame of the world goes on Capps.


Anyway I agree that there is fault on both sides but because the right is so extreme they leave no wiggle room for compromise, no room for other options and they become a huge turn off for many people. No one can be correct 100% of the time and until the right gets that then nothing will be done. For example the new health care reform. Obama bent over backward to accommodate the right. He took off so much from that bill that I was really turned off of him because of it. What did the Repubs do, nothing but fight to repeal the entire thing. So IMO his compromise was for nothing and we ended up with a watered down bill that was 10 times better before he compromised. With this current economic problem, the Dems are willing to cut from programs that they feel morally shouldn’t be cut from ie Medicare. If it were up to the Dems nothing would be cut from Medicare and SS. But they have said that they will do that if the right takes away these huge tax breaks for the wealthy. When the Repubs said no, the Dems even backed down from that and said they’d the compromise even more and would settle for just cutting out the corp. tax loopholes. Even that was turned down by the right. They ahve no problem with the fact that Exxon, GE, etc pay no taxes. They simply won’t compromise at all. That is why I have gotten to a point where I just say screw them. When the Dems get back in power if they try to work the Repubs again then I will be completely disgusted with them. If the Repubs to refuse to even cut these massive loopholes that only benefit the wealthy then you are letting them use all of you as if you are all non thinking blobs. If you don’t care that these wealthy people are getting wealthier off of your backs then you are all acting like stupid sheep that are following blindly and your only purpose on earth is make the wealthy wealthier. How can you not see this!!!


Oh man that was quite a rant. I’m sorry that I went on but I’ve been listening to C Span and the house budget debate is making me sick to my stomach. Anyway, Lois Capps is a breath of fresh air and I hope that she continues doing just what she’s doing.


Typoqueen, no need for apologies for attempting to explain at length. Though we disagree on some fundamentals, it is much appreciated, actually. So, we are not as far apart as you might think. Thanks for acknowledging the Jesse Ventura, et al., school of thought. Believe me, he is not alone in thinking like this! I subscribe to the same idea: there’s no real difference between the upper echelons of the D’s and R’s. Yes, out on the fruited plane where we live, we have real differences of opinion on politics. That is true. But almost nothing at the upper levels. How do I know this? Simple. Nothing ever really changes. The elite of the parties PRETEND to differ on political issues, make a big show of it, and trade places now and then, but, folks, trust me, it’s all for show, a farce, political theatre! This is all mind control!


I don’t see anybody “pinning it all on Capps.” Capps is just a cog in a much, much larger wheel, a network of interlocking relationships occupied by the power elite. These gangsters are the ones really pulling the strings. While we the little people waste our time sniping back and forth at each other about the illusory virtues and vices of either party, the power elite goes on about it business with a chuckle (what fools to debate such nonsense!).


“…the right is so extreme”?


The REAL extremists are the demented, greedy, obsessed fools among the power elite, the banksters, the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) who treat the rest of us like animals (TSA, anyone?). They herd us this way and that, cheat us, lie to us, and steal from us, bankrupt us, threaten us with false flag events and “terrorists” (whom they train and pay), and take away our rights. Perhaps worst of all, they brainwash us into thinking that there is some substantive difference between the D and R parties.


The brainwashing doesn’t stop there, either. We are flooded with it 24/7 via the MSM (Mainstream News Media). Their favorite tactic is “Hegelian Dialectic,” defined by the Daily Bell as:


“…a philosophical approach that in principle explains how human beings progress toward a better and more egalitarian condition but in practice provides the elite with a strategy for controlling society.”


Go to http://www.thedailybell.com/ (in the glossary)

for many propaganda terms conveniently defined.


Wow. Some republic hack attacks a democrat hack, and all the hacks scream for their opponents’ throats.


I sure hope both “parties” are defeated and we move to a more responsible representative republic. Like that will ever happen.


Yawn.


You’re so right about that r0y. We do need a third party. While there is no doubt that Bush is responsible for this melt down, the Dem’s are no longer any better.


Gone are the day’s of Clinton and the balanced budget. No matter which way we turn, the middle class is going down unless we seek drastic change. We can no longer fill the coffers of the wealthy and the war chest to garner those profits and we can no longer support those who seek to suck from the trough of the working taxpayers.


I wasn’t thinking of a 3rd party. I’m more of the NO PARTY system. Where people have to know who it is they are voting for. I’d love to have tests before one could vote, but I’m sure that’s .


However, that would only lead to more chaos – at least in the beginning, as no one would really want a true Democracy (they usually end up worse than Communism).


I think our only hope is to INVERT the pyramid of leadership back to where LOCAL government is more powerful, and it gets less so as one seeks “lower” offices of state, then fed.


When you speak of a no party system, that’s interesting but I think the closest we are going to get to that, is to vote a split ticket based solely on a candidate’s qualities, which I have been doing for many years. Either way, how do we break up the camaraderie within these current two parties? I’m really curious about your thoughts on this.


I like the idea of the inverted pyramid but not sure how that would work. There would be no continuity from state to state or even township to township?


rOy, that sounds like the “Articles of Confederation” all over again. Should local gov. become more powerful than national, the locals just might choose to SECEDE. At this point with all the abuses and usurpations of the national gov., who can blame them? They are acting like Nazis, and people are fed up.


Such an arrangement as the “Articles” could not keep this huge nation together in a “union,” with all the constituent parts doing their part, I don’t believe. The “locals,” wherever they may reside, would, one by one, just decide that the whole “union” thing is just not worth it and go their own ways. A lot of people are starting to think like this already because the constituent parts ARE NOT doing their part, so they figure, what’s the advantage or use of being in this “union” if we are only going to get ripped off and roughed up at the hands of a bunch of damned Nazis?


Forget political parties; we are way beyond that now!


Lois is going to have a tough row to hoe now that her once safe district is being broken up… Good riddens to bad rubbish, if you are not part bof the solution you are THE problem.


Heh heh heh, you said, ‘hoe’… how apropos.


Oh yeah, Bill…


I almost forgot… “Bush did it!”


If you are Rep. Capps bud, point her in the right direction to get this economy moving. That’s all that counts with working people…


What is the right direction?


Sounds like Dubya blaming Clinton:


Bush was still blaming Clinton for his own economic malfeasance as late as 2004.


Indeed, as we pointed out previously, Bush loooved to blame Bill Clinton for just about everything:


In 2002, he blamed Clinton for the recession.


Also in 2002, for the mess in the Middle East.


In 2004, for manufacturing job losses.


Also in 2004, for a shortage of flu vaccine.


In 2005, for “running from terrorists” and generally causing 9/11.


In 2006, for Bush’s own failures in containing North Korea.


In 2008, for the soaring deficit.


http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/karl-rove-claims-bush-didnt-blame-cl


Sounds a lot like Ronnie Raygun though:


1983 State of the Union:


“The problems we inherited were far worse than most inside and out of government had expected; the recession was deeper than most inside and out of government had predicted. Curing those problems has taken more time and a higher toll than any of us wanted.”


TWO YEARS IN OFFICE!


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/01/29/831730/-Reagan-Blamed-Carter