These aren't as obvious as "If you like your doctor ... you can keep your doctor"... but they're every bit as devious and damaging:
Top Ten Political Fictions of 2014
By Marguerite Creel
The challenge facing any political institution based on artifice lies in selling its delusions to the voting public. A glance at the record demonstrates that the American left has an outstanding record in bringing this off. Events of recent months show that it has not lost its touch.
In 2014, a virtual avalanche of nonstop high-level governmental propaganda cascaded throughout the national media intended to snow-blind the average American voter. Here is a compilation of the most outrageous claims of a 21st Century statist government:
1. The border is less porous than it’s been any time since the 1970s. -- President Barack Obama, Business Roundtable, December 3, 2014
According to Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, illegal immigration on the southwestern American border actually rose 14 percent over the prior year, marking the third straight annual increase. In response, Medicare budgets, along with local medical services budgets, have been bankrupted. K-12 resources were stretched and food bank stores were depleted as states attempted to somehow address the monthly incursions of thousands of illegal aliens crossing the border.
2. The Common Core State Standards are not a curriculum or set of lesson plans. -- U.S. Department of Education Website
The majority of states, many without any prior understanding of its ultimate goal, adopted Common Core standards at the behest of the federal government in exchange for millions of dollars in educational funding. It’s no surprise that identical books, assignments, and tests surfaced in multiple states. In 2014, Persepolis, a book-length Iranian cartoon promoting Iran’s culture at the expense of America’s, was assigned Honors English reading in Raleigh, AP English reading in Chicago, and was also made available in Oregon public schools. Pearson, the largest on-line book company, has now developed national tests for Common Core standards for implementation in 45 American states and the District of Columbia.
3. The EPA proposed a common-sense plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants. -- The White House Website
The EPA rules proposed on June 2, 2014, actually had ten states scrambling to address the phony climate-change crisis through emissions reduction goals of 40 percent or more by 2030. Onerously unconstitutional and unnecessary goals were designated by means of yet another arbitrary, business-oppressing equation: dividing CO2 emissions [in pounds] by the amount of electricity generated [in megawatt hours]. Blanket authority seized under the Clean Air Act works to dramatically reduce jobs and increase private and public sector costs; ultimately leading to homeowners being slapped in the face with what President Obama presciently termed “necessarily skyrocketing” electricity rates in 2015 and beyond.
4. IRS systems and processes to support enrollment in the health care marketplaces were launched on schedule and continue to work as planned. -- IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, House Ways & Means Testimony, September 10, 2014
Even before the rollout of November 15th, the ACA Marketplace was incorrectly calculating subsidies for Alaska residents. Likewise, many Virginia residents found it difficult if not impossible to even log on to the federal website. The state of Vermont was forced to scrap its single-player health plan altogether due to escalating costs. Many American citizens reeled under escalating 2015 insurance costs in both deductibles and premiums while incurring actual decreased medical coverage in California, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio, and Missouri. Simultaneously, to the outrage of these financially strapped households, literally thousands of illegal aliens were allowed to sign up for subsidized health benefits, contributing to what will surely be a further increase to the nationwide healthcare burden.
5. We are obligated to protect Muslims from global warming. -- Secretary of State John Kerry, C-SPAN, posted September 3, 2014
Wasting billions of U.S. dollars by participating in the climate-change hoax was apparently not enough for cabinet members. By rhetorically doubling down in a truly global sense, extra billions will wantonly disappear into the Middle East conflagration. Actual recipients of these taxpayer dollars will forever remain unknown, serving to further enhance the current administration’s well-earned moniker of ‘least transparent’ administration ever. Be it scientific promotion at NASA or infrastructure building by the Defense Department, the ever more expensive outreach to Muslim communities is the issue de jour to subvert established and potentially advantageous missions of U.S. global agencies.
6. Since I have come into office, there’s almost no economic metric by which you couldn’t say that the U.S. economy is better and that the corporate bottom lines are better. -- President Barack Obama, Economist Interview, August 2, 2014
A series of paper mill closures in Maine, continued lagging job growth in Rhode Island, and falling wages in Connecticut demonstrate that at least half of New England’s economy could have performed a lot better in 2014. In the southeast, Alabama’s unemployment rate remained high. By any number of true metrics (e.g., business closings, job growth, wages, unemployment rate), the Obama mantra of taxation and regulation continued to stifle state and local economies throughout America in 2014.
7. As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people. -- President Barack Obama, Public Statement on ISIL, September 10, 2014
The president talked a big game, but where was any impactful -- or at a minimum insightful -- response to the murder of American citizens in Syria, Libya, and Yemen? How did the authorization of 68,000 ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ cards for criminal illegal aliens in 2013 keep the United States safe in 2014? Was the unilateral release of five murderous anti-American Guantanamo Bay Taliban detainees for one army sergeant the action of an administration that values American security? Are there any Americans, much less a majority, convinced that the risk of a national outbreak of a deadly infectious disease was worth sending thousands of American troops to monitor Ebola in Liberia?
8. We’re Republicans. We actually think you should read the bill before you vote on it. -- Speaker of the House John Boehner, AEI Presentation, September 18, 2014
If only that were true. Transparency may be the avowed creed, but it was actually Republican leadership that slipped a last-minute, revised version of H.R. 5759 through the House providing absolute cover for the Obama administration to issue work permits to illegal aliens. Congress, having abdicated its responsibility to protect national sovereignty, forced Texas, leading a 17-state coalition, to file a lawsuit to limit the avalanche of executive rule-making effectively rewriting by fiat the immigration law of the United States.
9. The Diversity Visa (DV) program offers up to 50,000 visas annually to people who wish to immigrate to the United States. -- Consulate General of the United States Website
With the imprimatur of mass media, Christianity and American exceptionalism were continually debased in 2014 as the multicultural ideology was rampantly infused into the culture. The lottery for American citizenship began in October. By November 14th, one hundred years after the last caliph had declared a jihad on the infidel, the National Cathedral hosted its first Muslim prayer with an invited guest imam. Meanwhile, in flyover Oklahoma, developers of the Noah’s Ark Theme Park were harangued by business regulators for their Christian employment practices.
10. The Justice Department’s investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown remains ongoing. -- Attorney General Eric Holder, Ferguson Grand Jury Press Statement, November 24, 2014
The latter months of 2014 were dominated by claims of Civil Rights injustice. In the very face of a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting, a federal civil rights investigation continues at the Department of Justice. A second DOJ investigation was opened to look into systematic violations within the Ferguson police department against residents. Still another was initiated to investigate the death of Eric Garner in New York. In Colorado, the Civil Rights Commission forced bakers to make cakes for gay wedding celebrations.
Happy New Year, America!
Dr. Marguerite Creel has taught government at UNC-Chapel Hill, Peace College, and UNLV. Her doctorate in public administration is from the University of Southern California.
Articles Top Ten Political Fictions of 2014
By Marguerite Creel
The challenge facing any political institution based on artifice lies in selling its delusions to the voting public. A glance at the record demonstrates that the American left has an outstanding record in bringing this off. Events of recent months show that it has not lost its touch.
In 2014, a virtual avalanche of nonstop high-level governmental propaganda cascaded throughout the national media intended to snow-blind the average American voter. Here is a compilation of the most outrageous claims of a 21st Century statist government:
1. The border is less porous than it’s been any time since the 1970s. -- President Barack Obama, Business Roundtable, December 3, 2014
According to Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, illegal immigration on the southwestern American border actually rose 14 percent over the prior year, marking the third straight annual increase. In response, Medicare budgets, along with local medical services budgets, have been bankrupted. K-12 resources were stretched and food bank stores were depleted as states attempted to somehow address the monthly incursions of thousands of illegal aliens crossing the border.
2. The Common Core State Standards are not a curriculum or set of lesson plans. -- U.S. Department of Education Website
The majority of states, many without any prior understanding of its ultimate goal, adopted Common Core standards at the behest of the federal government in exchange for millions of dollars in educational funding. It’s no surprise that identical books, assignments, and tests surfaced in multiple states. In 2014, Persepolis, a book-length Iranian cartoon promoting Iran’s culture at the expense of America’s, was assigned Honors English reading in Raleigh, AP English reading in Chicago, and was also made available in Oregon public schools. Pearson, the largest on-line book company, has now developed national tests for Common Core standards for implementation in 45 American states and the District of Columbia.
3. The EPA proposed a common-sense plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants. -- The White House Website
The EPA rules proposed on June 2, 2014, actually had ten states scrambling to address the phony climate-change crisis through emissions reduction goals of 40 percent or more by 2030. Onerously unconstitutional and unnecessary goals were designated by means of yet another arbitrary, business-oppressing equation: dividing CO2 emissions [in pounds] by the amount of electricity generated [in megawatt hours]. Blanket authority seized under the Clean Air Act works to dramatically reduce jobs and increase private and public sector costs; ultimately leading to homeowners being slapped in the face with what President Obama presciently termed “necessarily skyrocketing” electricity rates in 2015 and beyond.
4. IRS systems and processes to support enrollment in the health care marketplaces were launched on schedule and continue to work as planned. -- IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, House Ways & Means Testimony, September 10, 2014
Even before the rollout of November 15th, the ACA Marketplace was incorrectly calculating subsidies for Alaska residents. Likewise, many Virginia residents found it difficult if not impossible to even log on to the federal website. The state of Vermont was forced to scrap its single-player health plan altogether due to escalating costs. Many American citizens reeled under escalating 2015 insurance costs in both deductibles and premiums while incurring actual decreased medical coverage in California, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio, and Missouri. Simultaneously, to the outrage of these financially strapped households, literally thousands of illegal aliens were allowed to sign up for subsidized health benefits, contributing to what will surely be a further increase to the nationwide healthcare burden.
5. We are obligated to protect Muslims from global warming. -- Secretary of State John Kerry, C-SPAN, posted September 3, 2014
Wasting billions of U.S. dollars by participating in the climate-change hoax was apparently not enough for cabinet members. By rhetorically doubling down in a truly global sense, extra billions will wantonly disappear into the Middle East conflagration. Actual recipients of these taxpayer dollars will forever remain unknown, serving to further enhance the current administration’s well-earned moniker of ‘least transparent’ administration ever. Be it scientific promotion at NASA or infrastructure building by the Defense Department, the ever more expensive outreach to Muslim communities is the issue de jour to subvert established and potentially advantageous missions of U.S. global agencies.
6. Since I have come into office, there’s almost no economic metric by which you couldn’t say that the U.S. economy is better and that the corporate bottom lines are better. -- President Barack Obama, Economist Interview, August 2, 2014
A series of paper mill closures in Maine, continued lagging job growth in Rhode Island, and falling wages in Connecticut demonstrate that at least half of New England’s economy could have performed a lot better in 2014. In the southeast, Alabama’s unemployment rate remained high. By any number of true metrics (e.g., business closings, job growth, wages, unemployment rate), the Obama mantra of taxation and regulation continued to stifle state and local economies throughout America in 2014.
7. As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people. -- President Barack Obama, Public Statement on ISIL, September 10, 2014
The president talked a big game, but where was any impactful -- or at a minimum insightful -- response to the murder of American citizens in Syria, Libya, and Yemen? How did the authorization of 68,000 ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ cards for criminal illegal aliens in 2013 keep the United States safe in 2014? Was the unilateral release of five murderous anti-American Guantanamo Bay Taliban detainees for one army sergeant the action of an administration that values American security? Are there any Americans, much less a majority, convinced that the risk of a national outbreak of a deadly infectious disease was worth sending thousands of American troops to monitor Ebola in Liberia?
8. We’re Republicans. We actually think you should read the bill before you vote on it. -- Speaker of the House John Boehner, AEI Presentation, September 18, 2014
If only that were true. Transparency may be the avowed creed, but it was actually Republican leadership that slipped a last-minute, revised version of H.R. 5759 through the House providing absolute cover for the Obama administration to issue work permits to illegal aliens. Congress, having abdicated its responsibility to protect national sovereignty, forced Texas, leading a 17-state coalition, to file a lawsuit to limit the avalanche of executive rule-making effectively rewriting by fiat the immigration law of the United States.
9. The Diversity Visa (DV) program offers up to 50,000 visas annually to people who wish to immigrate to the United States. -- Consulate General of the United States Website
With the imprimatur of mass media, Christianity and American exceptionalism were continually debased in 2014 as the multicultural ideology was rampantly infused into the culture. The lottery for American citizenship began in October. By November 14th, one hundred years after the last caliph had declared a jihad on the infidel, the National Cathedral hosted its first Muslim prayer with an invited guest imam. Meanwhile, in flyover Oklahoma, developers of the Noah’s Ark Theme Park were harangued by business regulators for their Christian employment practices.
10. The Justice Department’s investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown remains ongoing. -- Attorney General Eric Holder, Ferguson Grand Jury Press Statement, November 24, 2014
The latter months of 2014 were dominated by claims of Civil Rights injustice. In the very face of a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting, a federal civil rights investigation continues at the Department of Justice. A second DOJ investigation was opened to look into systematic violations within the Ferguson police department against residents. Still another was initiated to investigate the death of Eric Garner in New York. In Colorado, the Civil Rights Commission forced bakers to make cakes for gay wedding celebrations.
Happy New Year, America!
Dr. Marguerite Creel has taught government at UNC-Chapel Hill, Peace College, and UNLV. Her doctorate in public administration is from the University of Southern California.
Articles Top Ten Political Fictions of 2014
