The Democratic Party is using Party sanctioned financial deception.

2009-03-22T16:35:00.001-06:00

The Democratic Party is using a technique of deception that is illegal in certain segments of the private sector. The well known deceptive technique is deception with a projection. The technique has been in use by the Democratic Party since 2003 and was recently used by President Obama on February 26, 2009 and Speaker Pelosi on the same day.

On January 31, 2001 the CBO issued The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2002-2011 and in the report the CBO projected a $5.6 trillion surplus over the next 10 years, assuming the economy performed according to the assumptions contained in the report. Instead of focusing on the numerous CBO assumptions that did not come to fruition, the Democratic Party has chosen to deceive Americans into believing President Bush's policies were responsible for squandering a $5.6 trillion budget surplus. The most interesting points to me in this deception exposure exercise are: 1) when was the first occurrence and 2) was the first occurrence of the deception, intentional? Addressing the first occurrence, I located a Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) opening statement dated February 7, 2003, approximately two years after the publishing of the CBO 2001 projection. For background, the expressed purpose of the DPC is to serve “Senate Democrats by developing new policy proposals, providing research and legislative support, publishing reports on important legislation and policy issues…” The February 7, 2003 opening statement by Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) included this statement: "Huge deficits for years to come: Two years ago, the President inherited a healthy budget surplus, a budget circumstance that predicted a $5.6 Trillion in surpluses over the next 10 years." - Emphasis added. There are probably earlier uses of the deception tactic associated with the 2001 CBO surplus budget projection; however, I found the usage of the word “predicted” by a committee that explicitly states one of its purposes is “providing research” to be most interesting. How much research was performed when the CBO explicitly stated the $5.6 trillion surplus was “not a prediction?" Addressing the second point, I located in the March 20, 2001 Congressional Record (see “Dorgan March 20, 2001” ) the following statements by Senator Dorgan. Less than 23 months prior to Senator Dorgan saying there was “a budget circumstance that predicted a $5.6 Trillion in surpluses over the next 10 years,” Senator Dorgan said the following about the same projection: “The projected 10 year budget surpluses are just that, projections, and are not at all certain” and “The President's plan assumes we will have budget surpluses for the next 10 years. I hope that is the case, but with the current slowdown in our economy, we ought to be cautious. Economic forecasts are no more reliable than weather forecasts.” For a single person, especially one in such a powerful position with a research staff, to make two clear and unambiguous statements about the uncertainty of a projection (as demonstrated by the CBO including 11 pages of uncertainties in the 2001 report) and then 23 months later make a clear and unambiguous statement the same projection “predicted a $5.6 Trillion in surpluses over the next 10 years” (in clear contradiction to the CBO) is certainly implied intention to deceive.

DemocraticDeception.com

The Democratic Party is using Party sanctioned financial deception.