Jim Hinton – 2/14/10

 


This page was last updated on February 14, 2010.


Get facts straight before criticizing; Jim Hinton; Beaver County Times; February 14, 2010.

I believe Mr. Hinton began his letter-writing last March with “We should keep an eye on Limbaugh.”  Mr. Hinton also wrote a couple of letters (no longer on the Times website) during August 2009 supporting lefty positions.  In a recent letter, Mr. Hinton complained that a House Republican Conference didn’t get enough coverage by the Fox News Channel.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.


“In response to Wednesday’s letter to the editor ‘Obama’s reign of socialist terror,’ check the facts.”

[RWC]  If you are familiar with his letter-writing body of work, Mr. Hinton telling others to “check the facts” is a hoot.  Please read my critique of “We should keep an eye on Limbaugh” to see what I mean.  As for the “facts” Mr. Hinton cites in this letter, I suggest you verify them personally if you care.  Personally, I thought this and the subject letter were wastes of time.  Unfortunately, though, even wastes of time must be addressed.

“President Barack Obama pays for his $100-a-pound Japanese beef.  All presidents pay for food for themselves and their families.  They don’t pay for food for state dinners and official lunches.  They also buy their own clothes.

“Also, first lady Michelle Obama doesn’t have 32 aides but approximately 26, as reported by the Associated Press.  First lady Laura Bush didn’t have just two aides; she had 24 to 26.  First Lady Hillary Clinton had 19.  The number of aides the first lady has is not unusual, and many are shared with the president.

“It’s true the budget deficit has quadrupled under Obama, but mostly because of the disastrous economy he inherited.  He has only been in office a little over a year and has not gotten much done other than trying to stop the economic terror handed to him by his predecessor.”

[RWC]  Mr. Hinton failed to mention Mr. Obama supported all the government policies and programs that led to the mess.

“The statute of limitations will never run out on blaming George W. Bush for our ills because they happened on his watch.  When Bill Clinton handed a $300 billion budget surplus to Bush and he handed a trillion-dollar deficit to Obama, it’s hard to put the blame anywhere else.”

[RWC]  You have to love folks like Mr. Hinton.  Though then-Sen. Obama supported -- and still supports -- all the policies and programs that led to the current recession and our debt/deficit situation, Mr. Hinton absolves him of any responsibility for them.  When a recession was in effect even before President Bush took office and was compounded by 9/11, the Enron et al scandals, and the anthrax attacks, it was still his fault.  As for the alleged “$300 billion budget surplus,” Mr. Hinton failed to note the surpluses were already rapidly dropping when Mr. Bush took office, and recessions and surpluses are not on speaking terms.

As for “our ills … happened on [Mr. Bush’s] watch,” not exactly.  Socialist Security was enacted during the FDR administration, Medicaid and Medicare were enacted during the LBJ administration, and the Community Reinvestment Act was enacted during the Carter administration.


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