Mike Allen over at Politico reported this morning that Democrat Committee Chairman Tim Kaine is “billing” the Democrat Party as the Party that gets results. Allen excerpts from Kaine’s prepared remarks, highlighting the “results” Kaine is championing. Among those “results:”
• “We’ve gone from recession to recovery.
• “We’ve made more progress in the war on terror in the last eight months than was made in the preceding eight years.
• “We’ve strengthened our relationships with our allies around the world.
• “Two million people or more have jobs today who wouldn’t have without the bold action taken by this president and Democrats in Congress.
• “We have the first Latina and only the third woman ever on the Supreme Court.
• “We’re using science and fact in policy making instead of ideology and politics.
• “We have the most transparent Administration in modern history, with tough ethics standards, and we are wringing the influence of special interests out of the policy making process.”
These are obviously subjective “results.” Kaine does not elaborate or provide any facts to validate his claims. There is only one “result” that is a statement of fact, which is the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But some of these other statements? Hogwash.
What does Kaine base his claim on that more progress has been made in the War on Terror in the past eight months than in the previous eight years? Is he suggesting that reading Miranda Rights to terrorists and covering up the Ft. Hood shootings are measurements of success? And what of the claim that “we’ve strengthened our relationships with out allies around the world”? Is Kaine basing that on the fact that the Obama Administration gave away missile defense to curry favor with the Russians, or alienating Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, or canoodling with the brutal military junta in Burma? We could go on and on, but we’re not writing a book here.
Let’s put some perspective on Kaine’s “Results Party.”
CONTROL:
1. Democrats have been in control of Congress for more than three years. In the November 2006 Mid-Term Elections, Democrats won majorities in both chambers of Congress.
2. Democrats have now controlled the whole of government for more than one year. When President Barack Obama won the 2008 General Election, Democrats gained complete control of the government.
So, from this very basic understanding of the Democrat Party and control of Congress and of the government as a whole, let’s look a bit at “results.”
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS:
1. In 2006, the last year of Republican control of Congress, the national unemployment rate fell from a high of 4.7% in January to a low of 4.4% in December.
2. When Democrats gained control of the House and Senate in January 2007, the national unemployment rate was 4.4% (rate of unemployment in December 2006). At the end of January 2007, the unemployment rate had a slight up-tick to 4.6%
3. By the end of the first year of Democrat control of Congress, the unemployment rate rose to 5.0% (December 2007).
4. In the second year of Democrat control, the unemployment rate jumped to 7.4% (December 2008).
5. At the end of the first year of full Democrat control of government, the unemployment rate soared to 10.0% (December 2009).
6. As of March 2010, the unemployment rate was 9.7%.
7. Without calculating the fluctuations in unemployment, under Democrat control of Congress and of the whole of government, unemployment has gone from 4.4% to 9.7%, an increase of 120%.
Hmmm… looks like the wrong kind of results to me.
STIMULUS:
1. In February 2009, Democrats passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the economic stimulus package, worth $787 billion. The stimulus was designed in large part to create jobs.
3. There has been widespread reporting that claims of jobs saved or created are false, including instances of stimulus money going to phantom congressional districts.
4. Since passage of the stimulus package, the national unemployment rate has gone from 8.2% in February 2009 to 9.7% in March 2010.
RESULTS:
Okay so now for some tangible results. Where do we start? Let’s begin with March 2007, a mere three months into Democrat control of Congress. The big achievement? House Democrats passed Card Check, a giveaway to Big Labor where the right to a secret ballot would be taken away in an effort to increase dwindling labor union rolls.
The Democrat controlled Congress passed “Cap and Trade,” too, or at least in the House. That’s the bill that would essentially increase taxes on American families by $1,761 per year and would result in “significant job losses,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.
And you’d think that with Cap and Trade, the Democrat controlled Congress would have addressed energy in a meaningful way. I mean, the summer travel season is just about upon us, haven’t the Democrats done anything to keep the cost of gas down? Uh, no.
What else? The Democrat controlled Congress bailed-out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, strapping trillions of dollars in potential liabilities to the backs of the American taxpayer. The Democrat controlled Congress bailed-out Wall Street and attempted to bailout the auto industry too.
Then there’s Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget Democrat passed in 2009. You know the one I’m talking about? It’s the one where the government broke all fiscal records with deficit spending, putting us on an unsustainable path towards fiscal insolvency.
Oh, how could I forget, the cherry on top of the sundae. The Democrat controlled Congress rammed ObamaCare through using parliamentary procedures, under the cloak of night, for the most expansive growth in government in modern times.
SUMMATION:
So, while it is apparent that Democrats have done an abysmal job on the economy and unemployment; spent like drunken sailors on pet projects, liberal causes, and the expansion of government, the only conclusion to draw about the “Results Party” Kaine boasts of is that the “results” Democrats get are disastrous, ill-conceived and are not the kind of “results” the American people are looking for.
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