Thursday, November 19, 2009

Business As Usual: Make Stuff Up

During Tim Geithner's somewhat contentious appearance before Congress today, some Republicans took every opportunity to get their shots in. Congressman Michael Burgess (Asshat-TX), was no exception. He got his sound bite in -- "I don't think you should be fired, I think you never should have been hired," or something to that effect. Whatever, he's entitled to his opinions, but not his own facts.

It's what the Congressman said immediately before that that intrigues me, as he and Geithner duelled on the merits of different economic policies, Burgess being all about "cut taxes and get out of the way." He said, and I quote:

“When I came here in 2003 we were in a jobless recovery. Tax relief was passed in May of 2003 and as a consequence, by July of that year we were adding jobs at a significant [ed. note: he stresses "significant"] rate. It [referring to tax relief] seems to have worked fairly well.”

Watch it here at 3:57 into the video.

Well, if by "significant" he means a 25,000 add in July 2003 followed by a
-42,000 loss in August, then he's on to something. Otherwise, he's just a lying sack of shit (whose office was oddly unable to answer my simple question as to what the hell he was talking about):

Business as usual: Just make stuff up.

P.S. Congressman, if you're out there, just drop your response in the comments section.