Limbaugh Pushes Lie That Obama Is Fueling Recovery Through Government Spending

by Marcus Feldman/media matters

Rush Limbaugh responded today to the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate that Gross Domestic Product estimates grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 by claiming: "There isn't any economic growth, there's government growth. But there isn't any private sector growth."

But that's actually the exact opposite of what happened. Private sector gains led to GDP growth, but the growth rate was depressed because of decreases in government spending.

Here's Limbaugh:

And here are the facts from The Bureau of Economic Analysis

The increase in GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, exports, private inventory investment, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending.

Essentially, economic gains made in the private sector were responsible for the growth in overall output, despite reductions in federal, state, and local spending. 

Indeed, in a blog post today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman noted that "Obama, far from presiding over a huge expansion of government the way the right claims, has in fact presided over unprecedented austerity, largely driven by cuts at the state and local level."

Krugman included a chart that illustrates government expenditures and gross investment over the past decade:

That explains why Krugman is a Nobel Prize winner, and Limbaugh is not.

Limbaugh Revives Bogus Attack That Obama Supports "Infanticide"

by Leslie Rosenberg/Media Matters




Right-wing media are turning to an old discredited smear to attack President Obama, reviving the bogusclaim that while serving in the Illinois State Senate, Obama "voted for infanticide," as Rush Limbaugh put it. Limbaugh went on to claim on his radio show today that "Barack Obama voted to allow babies who survived an abortion to go ahead and be killed":

Limbaugh has made this same claim before, but it's as false today as it was then: Obama doesn't support infanticide.

In a "Fact Check," the National Journal explained:

According to Politifact, an independent fact-checking organization that looked into similar claims made by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum on the campaign trail, Obama voiced his opposition to the new legislation as a state senator because it would have given legal status to fetuses and would thus have been struck down by the courts, and because Illinois already had laws to ensure infants who survived abortions would be given medical attention.

Limbaugh was reacting to comments Newt Gingrich made during the Republican primary debate in Arizona, in which Gingrich said, "You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide."

Rush Lies Again: ‘There Were Union Workers’ At Non-Union Mine Explosion

By Brad Johnson

Last Friday, Rush Limbaugh demanded to know why a coal miner union didn’t protect the 29 miners who were killed in one of Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s mines. After ThinkProgress reported that there was no union at the mine, Limbaugh claimed yesterday that it was a “fact” that “there were union workers there.” Limbaugh cited a news article that the “National Labor Relations Board has affirmed a decision that Massey Energy must rehire 85 coal miners who alleged they were illegally discriminated against because of their union affiliation.” Limbaugh concluded that “the left” who “are trying to blame the Massey disaster on its union busting” were wrong:

So there were union workers there, and so the United Mine Workers should have been overseeing their safety. United Mine Workers of America. There were union workers at that mine, and the left is trying to say, “You can’t say that, Limbaugh! Why it’s a nonunion shop. That SOB CEO got rid of all the unions!” No, no. He agreed to bring back 85 of them. You people, it’s been 21 years. At some point you are going to learn: If you go up against me on a challenge of fact, you are going to be wrong. It’s just that simple.

Watch it:

On this “challenge of fact,” Limbaugh is wrong once again. The 85 union coal miners were actually at a different Massey subsidiary at a different mine in a different county than the one where the disaster occurred. The coal miners that Limbaugh references were located at Mammoth Coal’s Mammoth (formerly Cannelton) mine in Kannawha County, WV, while the tragedy occurred in Performance Coal’s Upper Big Branch-South mine in Raleigh County, WV.

In fact, Blankenship successfully fought three different attempts by the United Mine Workers of America to unionize Upper Big Branch in the 1990s. After the last union drive failed, Blankenship cut bonuses in half and increased hours by fifty percent.

Update Andrew Tyndall observed the network nightly news coverage of the disaster and notes:

Not once, in all five days of coverage, did a single reporter mention the organization that has worked hardest over the decades to make sure that mining management does not cut safety corners and that miners can monitor their own working conditions with impunity. The union went unmentioned, as did the fact that the Upper Big Branch workforce went unorganized.

However, MSNBC's Ed Schultz has dedicated significant coverage to the lack of union representation at the mines.

Update Phil Smith, Communications Director for the United Mine Workers of America, tells ThinkProgress that Massey Energy is still appealing the NLRB decision, and that the 85 union miners have not been rehired. In fact, Massey Energy has not employed any union miners for over a decade. There are only about 80 UMWA members working for Massey, not in the mines but at two preparation plants in West Virginia.

Limbaugh pushes claim that swastika at Rep. Scott’s office was ‘fake’: ‘I don’t buy this.’

By Matt Corley

Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack legitimized fringe claims that the swastika found at Rep. David Scott’s (D-GA) office was “fake” by asking, “isn’t it more likely that this act of vandalism was committed by one of Scott’s supporters?” On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh pushed the same idea, declaring, “I don’t buy this. This is too politically convenient.” “I think the Democrats are doing this themselves,” said Limbaugh. Listen here:

Earlier today, Scott told CNN that his office also received a fax with a picture of President Obama made up as the Joker that had a swastika on his forehead.