DUMB    and   DUMBER?

                                       (Sarah Bachmann)

Not sure how many of you watched the State of the Union address given by President Obama. But I'm sure you heard a little something about the rebuttals given by the Republican party. I say rebuttal(s), because there were indeed 2.  CNN covered both of the responses while Fox news covered only 1 and left Michele Bachmann out.  I have my own theories about why this is, the leading one being that  Michele Bachmann is a tea party activist and by playing her rebuttal it would further divide the Republican party, and by Fox News being a Republican mouth piece they don't want to further the notion.
 

Michele Bachmann's rebuttal:  Who is this character?  A tea party favorite, Bachmann was tapped to give the second rebuttal to the State of the Union.  This is what she had to say.
"After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks that the President signed, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don't have. But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt at President Obama's direction; unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country. For two years President Obama made promises... He claimed that he would find solutions to fix our economy and help create jobs. Well, here are a few suggestions: 
The President could stop the EPA from imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system.
The President could agree with House Republicans and commit himself to signing a Balanced Budget Amendment.
The President could also agree to an all-of-the-above energy policy whereby we increase American energy production, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, reduce the price of gas at the pump, and create good-paying jobs in the U.S.
The President could turn back some of the 132 regulations put in place in the last two years that each have an impact of $100-million or more on our economy. Thanks to all of you, there's reason to hope that real spending cuts are coming. Last November many of you went to the polls and voted out big-spending politicians and you put in their place men and women who have come to Washington with a commitment to follow the Constitution and cut the size of government. And I believe that we are in the early days of a history-making turn here in the House of Representatives. Last week we voted to repeal ObamaCare, and each day going forward, we must work hard to dismantle the massive government expansion that has happened over the past two years"

The FACTS:  Failed stimulus?  I think Bachmann failed math class in the 3rd grade, you know the class where they taught you that < means less than, and >means greater than. Here's a fun fact for you Sarah.. I mean Michele, the economy shed roughly 8million jobs from Dec. 2007-July 2009.  This was the last year of the Bush administration into the first 6 months of the Obama administration.  Common sense would prevail and the obvious fact of the matter is that the policies of the Bush administration specifically, (deregulation, tax cuts for the top 5% of the richest in America and no new innovations whatsoever) have led to the job losses.  

According to economist Robert J. Shapiro.

From December 2007 to July 2009 - the last year of the Bush second term and the first six months of the Obama presidency , before his policies could affect the economy - private sector employment crashed from 115,574,00­0 jobs to 107,778,00­0 jobs. Employment continued to fall, however, for the next six months, reaching a low of 107,107,00­0 jobs in December of 2009. So, out of 8,467,000 private sector jobs lost in this dismal cycle, 7,796,000 of those jobs or 92 percent were lost on the Republican­s' watch or under the sway of their policies. Some 671,000 additional jobs were lost as the stimulus and other moves by the administra­tion kicked in, but 630,000 jobs then came back in the following six months. The tally, to date: Mr. Obama can be held accountabl­e for the net loss of 41,000 jobs (671,000 - 630,000), while the Republican­s should be held responsibl­e for the net losses of 7,796,000 jobs.

Lets talk about the Stimulus: The simple philosophical difference is this:  Would you rather trust in the "trickle down economic" theory, which means putting money into the hand of big business, which has failed us repeatedly.  Or would you rather have the money invested into infrastructure, small business, healthcare and new innovation such as green technology (which would inevitibley create jobs, put people back to work, and help cut the deficit)?  I know there's a whole lot more that goes into the 2 proposals, but this is the core of what each party believes.  Do I personally believe in the free market? sure... I think it's great to increase competition, I think it's a good way to increase the quality of services and products.  But.. and there's always a but, what the Republicans want to do is decrease regulation, decrease oversight.  This thought process has failed us time and time again.. we need to look no further than the sub-prime loans and the banking industry.  

So.... Is Bachmann the new Sarah "it was too cold to go to history class, so I just made it up" Palin?  I really don't think so.  She's a lot smarter, she doesn't spew stupidity with every breath.. she's just someone that doesn't really understand the facts. Here's my advice to the Tea Party members as well  Shijo Mullappallil's Republican Party, stop looking for what I call a "WOW" candidate.  If you think that Bachmann and Palin are the future of the Republican party... I say to you.. Carry on.  I'm voting for Obama during the next election,  putting either one of those clowns up there against him may lead to (for the lack of a better term, or lack of me wanting to use it) a waxing. 


Stay tuned for more Sarah Bachmann news... I'm sure more stupid things will come out of their mouths within the coming months.


Ashish Ansal, MD