Top Ten Political Fictions of 2014
By Marguerite Creel in American Thinker
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.
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