CHALLENGE, ACCEPTED!

So Vice-President Joe Biden has challenged the Romney camp
to fact check his speeches.  What
bravado! What courage! What arrogance! What an idiot!  I’ll take that challenge Mr. V.P.  

Here’s what Mighty Joe said about the bailout
of the auto industry: “The president knew if he didn’t act, there wouldn’t
be any industry to save.”

My rebuttal:  The problem was that GM was making too many
cars that people didn’t want to buy and the argument was what was the best way
to restructure the industry so that it would come back stronger without government help?  No one wanted to wipe it out
entirely.  As a result of making these unwanted cars in great numbers GM lost $10.6 billion in 2005.  Ford didn’t take a penny of bailout money and
restructured on its own and came out smelling like a rose.  What does that say about the ‘industry’ actually needing the President to swoop in? What it sounds like to me, the unions needed the President to swoop in because the taxpayers are taking a huge it, GM still owes the U.S. taxpayer $27 billion and the stock is still underwater trading $29 under its breakeven price. Also, President Obama made sure that the unions were paid first for their unsecured pension debt at over .40 cents on the dollar before paying secured bond owners .29 cents on the dollar(which by the way is illegal). How’s that Volt working out for them? The administration also pressured GM and Chrysler to close some car dealerships.  About 2,200 dealerships were closed and as a result about 110,000 jobs were lost.  I didn’t see that in the transcript of Joe’s speech.

Here’s what Mighty Joe said about the GOP’s Medicare Plan:  “What
they didn’t tell you is what they’re proposing would cause Medicare to go
bankrupt by 2016. And what they really didn’t tell you is they’re not for
preserving Medicare. They’re for a whole new plan. They’re for Vouchercare.”

My rebuttal:  Joe, there you go again.  If he’s talking about the plan put forth by
Paul Ryan, the Ryan Plan doesn’t get rid of Medicare.  Under his plan people who are on Medicare now or 55 or older nothing changes.  People under 55 can opt out and pick between private insurance plans that will be offered in a new Medicare exchange beginning in 2023 but they can also opt to stay in. Medicare would compete with private insures for their business and competition brings down costs. The insurance must cover a base level of benefits, must cover pre-existing
conditions, and can’t charge higher rates based on health condition or age, plus it must offer a minimum threshold of coverage. The federal Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services would regulate the plans. He also failed to
mention that in the annual report issued by the Medicare Board of Trustees
shows that  the new health-reform law has roughly 165 provisions hitting Medicare that seek to reduce costs, among other things, a government trustee report says that Obamacare has  $1.05 trillion in cuts in Medicare over the first decade. The federal government would pick up the tab for premium support,
and pay that subsidy directly to the insurer of their choice, with seniors
paying the difference. If the plan is cheaper than Medicare, seniors get a rebate check.  Also, the more ill or poor the Medicare enrollee is, the more government insurance support they get in the Ryan plan. 

Here’s what Mighty Joe said about America’s Debt: “Not once, not once, did they tell you they’ve rejected every plan put forward by us, by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission — by other respected outside groups — to reduce our national debt ifcit contained even one dollar — one cent — in new taxes for millionaires.”

My rebuttal: He didn’t say one word about the $16 trillion federal deficit. Remember, thempresident added about $5 trillion in new spending to the federal budget since taking office. That money went towards spending $825 billion on the president’s stimulus, Wall Street bailouts, automaker bailouts, housing bailouts, green energy bailouts, cash for clunkers and a host of other bad ideas. But the
country has lost an estimated net 316,000 jobs. The White House needs to raise
taxes to pay interest on that debt.  Also not a word was said about  the White
House’s tax hikes on the upper bracket would slam small businesses, which
created 65% of the net new jobs in this country over the past 17 years, and
employ about half of all workers, according to the Small Business Administration.The president’s tax hikes would hit these businesses very hard.  According to the Joint Committee on Taxation  almost 750,000 taxpayers who report small business income would see half their earnings hit with higher taxes. The JCT also says that “50% of the approximately $1 trillion of aggregate net positive business income will be reported on returns that have a marginal rate of 36 or 39.6%.” He also forgot to mention that Obama has largely ignored the recommendations made by Simpson-Bowles.

Mighty Joes also brought up Romney’s new “territorial tax”: “He has
a new tax proposal -- the territorial tax -- that experts say will create
800,000 jobs, all of them overseas.”

And my rebuttal tothis:  The Simpson Bowles reportsupports Romney’s idea and so do U.S. companies, which have said they couldcreate more jobs if their foreign profits weren’t taxed twice, as they are now.Reforming the tax code here could help companies bring home more than $1.2trillion they now have parked overseas due to concerns over double taxation.Under current U.S. tax law, companies that earn profits overseas get taxedtwice. They must pay taxes to foreign governments. Then they get tax creditsfor those payments to offset their taxes owed -- at a high 35% corporate taxrate. So where is the incentive to repatriate overseas cash back home becausethey get double taxed. Romney wants to stop that, to bring cash back home tocreate jobs. Under his plan, companies would get taxed once, only in thecountry where it was earned. That sounds reasonable to me.

Mighty Joe hadsomething to say about Americans doing their fair share: “We see a futurewhere everyone rich or poor does their part and has a part.”

My rebuttal:  I agree 100% with the V.P., it’s time for some
of that 47% of Americans who pay zero federal income taxes to start paying
their fair share.

This is what Mighty Joe had to say about developing America’s energy: “A future  we dependmore on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad.”

My rebuttal: Where to start?  Let’s start with the fact that
President Obama has effectively shut off 85% of America’s offshore areas to new
production.  Add to that that Administration has delayed approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would create new jobs while bringing an estimated 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil to U.S. consumers. China is now trying to cut deals with Canada to purchase its oil. Let’s not forget what Obama said about coal production “So, if somebody wants to build a coalplant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted. “

So there you have it folks.  Joe, becareful what you ask for.