Glenn Garvin: Obama's war on math

We used to hear quite a bit about the Bush administration's supposed 'war on science.' What about the Obama administration's war on mathematics? Every time somebody tries to test the logic of the president's economic policy using actual numbers, the White House starts screaming about space aliens.

[Lewis Sinclair]

Mr. Garvin, you think President Obama wages war on mathematics? Please visit St. Paul and watch our local newspaper, the one and only Pioneer Press, promote a choo-choo train system that will be the marvel of the upper midwest and cause envy from Omaha to DesMoines. Take a close look at how much the ESTIMATED cost is and exactly HOW it's going to be financed.

Among other sources of revenue, the "conservative" Pioneer Press is relying on the Federal printing press. Another source is the State of Minnesota printing press, currently managed by Tim "The Slasher" Pawlenty, who can find all kinds of money when the right (pun intended) opportunity presents itself. Not even the police budget is safe from this pack of looters.

Turn your eyes northward, Mr. Garvin, and watch a truly creative war on mathematics. To paraphrase an old German phrase: "Today arithmetic, tomorrow geometry!"

[Ho Hum]

Don't know if standard math is gonna help in this economic. Maybe Obama's administration can borrow those brilliant Reaganomics economists to give us some creative accounting ideas on how to right this sinking ship of a US economy.

[Ho Hum]

*economy (not economic)

[Not as delusional as you]

Obama's math is the new math that most liberals use when defending their "policies". What it comes down to is that liberals in general are people that are bad at math, and even worse at linking the policies they implement with the actual results.

Thats why Geithner is the Treasury secretary; in the land of the mathematically inept, the man who can count all his fingers AND toes is king.

[tww]

Who can tell if Obamas math works with a public school education?

[Sideshow Bob]

tww wrote:

Who can tell if Obamas math works with a public school education?

Not the average DFL voter, thats for sure.

[WJH]

Lewis Sinclair wrote:

Mr. Garvin, you think President Obama wages war on mathematics? Please visit St. Paul and watch our local newspaper, the one and only Pioneer Press, promote a choo-choo train system that will be the marvel of the upper midwest and cause envy from Omaha to DesMoines. Take a close look at how much the ESTIMATED cost is and exactly HOW it's going to be financed.
Among other sources of revenue, the "conservative" Pioneer Press is relying on the Federal printing press. Another source is the State of Minnesota printing press, currently managed by Tim "The Slasher" Pawlenty, who can find all kinds of money when the right (pun intended) opportunity presents itself. Not even the police budget is safe from this pack of looters.
Turn your eyes northward, Mr. Garvin, and watch a truly creative war on mathematics. To paraphrase an old German phrase: "Today arithmetic, tomorrow geometry!"

Uh correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Pioneer Press endorse the Liberal candidates instead of the Conservative ones for St Paul Mayor and the School Board?

[WJH]

Great column Glenn, it's more then math abuse coming out of this administration, it's down right lying.

Of course the left can't get the numbers right because even the speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi has no concept or understanding between thousands and millions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[Not as delusional as you]

WJH wrote:

Great column Glenn, it's more then math abuse coming out of this administration, it's down right lying.
Of course the left can't get the numbers right because even the speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi has no concept or understanding between thousands and millions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Math is for the little people that don't have the public paying for private jet transportation.

[Porkulus]

Proving my contention that broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs leads to more broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs, the Treasury Department has reported that America faces a $43 trillion unfunded obligation in Social Security and Medicare benefits with 77 million retiring baby boomers and rising health care costs.

According to the CBO, paying for the promised benefits will eventually force Congress to impose a 63% income tax on the middle class and an 88% tax on the "wealthy."

Yet, even as we try to figure out how to meet our current obligations, the President wants to create an additional health care entitlement and further increase spending elsewhere in the budget.

The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2037, and the Medicare hospital trust fund will become insolvent by 2017 according to a report by the trustees of the two programs.

In fact, next year – 2010 – Social Security’s costs will exceed it’s income.

Medicare has an unfunded liability of $36 trillion over the next 75 years, or about $317,000 per U.S. household, and in just the next 5 years, by 2013, Medicare’s unfunded liability is projected to grow by 33 percent, to $48 trillion – or about $412,402 per household.

When Social Security and Medicare are taken together, the total unfunded liability is $40 trillion, or about $353,000 per household. By 2013, that total will grow to $54 trillion, or $474,077 per household.

So let me ask you this: When we can't afford the public health plan we have already, does it make sense to expand it? That’s exactly what the Democrats want to do with their health care overhaul. The public option by another name is just "Medicare for All."

The system is already broken, yet they want to compound the problem. With math like this, it’s no wonder we have a debt nearing $12 trillion and our country is running record deficits. This is real money we’re talking about here, and real people’s futures. Let’s get serious.

Politicians lied to us about the "Social Security Trust Fund." They spent our money and the system cannot and will not deliver on it's future promises.

In 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along with Lyndon Johnson's administration, projected that Medicare would cost $12 billion, adjusted for inflation, by 1990. In 1990, Medicare costs were over $107 billion. That's nine times Congress' projections. That's only 900% off! Close enough for government work. Medicare now costs over $400 billion and is heading towards bankruptcy. Do you really believe that Obama's numbers will be any less counterfeit?

Nevertheless, a large part of the population, like an abused spouse, keep coming back for more, believing the continual lies wrapped in empty, deceptive and condescending rhetoric of "hope and change." When will we get tired of being lied to? When will we hold politicians accountable?

America: Either wake up or or bend over and let the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Obama and the RINO's have their way with you.

[disappointment]

I was disappointed to see this article linked to on Math Topix. To me, upon first reading, the entire article smacks of Republican slant, Anti-Democratic rhetoric, or anti-government writing. I can't decide which. The numbers which are spoken of are probably taken out of context and don't provide the necessary details to let the reader look at the entire picture and make a judgment for themselves. Two examples do not prove an entire policy paradigm. Also, on the way out the author was kind enough to slam two more politicians without any sort of qualifying. This article belongs on Rush Limbaugh's blog, not on any sort of mathematical, scientific, or academic website. Shame on you, Math Topix.

Now Ashamed To Come From St. Paul

[Ashamed_From_St_ Paul]

I was disappointed to see this article linked to on Math Topix. To me, upon first reading, the entire article smacks of Republican slant, Anti-Democratic rhetoric, or anti-government writing. I can't decide which. The numbers which are spoken of are probably taken out of context and don't provide the necessary details to let the reader look at the entire picture and make a judgment for themselves. Two examples do not prove an entire policy paradigm. Also, on the way out the author was kind enough to slam two more politicians without any sort of qualifying. This article belongs on Rush Limbaugh's blog, not on any sort of mathematical, scientific, or academic website. Shame on you, Math Topix.
Now Ashamed To Come From St. Paul

[Bob]

Just more evidence of the failure of this administration and the lack of knowledge at the top. They are over there heads and don't have a clue how to run our country. The 2012 elections should be one of the biggest republican landslides ever thanks to these socialists.

[WJH]

Not as delusional as you wrote:

<quoted text>Math is for the little people that don't have the public paying for private jet transportation.

Don't forget "and saving the world"

[Not as delusional as you]

Bob wrote:

Just more evidence of the failure of this administration and the lack of knowledge at the top. They are over there heads and don't have a clue how to run our country. The 2012 elections should be one of the biggest republican landslides ever thanks to these socialists.

But it won't be because the Conservatives are at war with the moderates, splitting the party into two. If that can't be resolved, the unfortunate result will be Dems retaining their majority.

[Fuzzy Math]

At the rate we are losing jobs, the official unemployment rate will exceed 20% by May 1, 2010.

By the middle of next year, 10% unemployment will look good.

Also bet that they’ll use this as a reason to pass Socialized Medicine.

"Those poor, poor souls with no jobs. We simply MUST give them health care."

The unemployment rate is further proof that we can NOT AFFORD SOCIALIZED MEDICINE.

U6 now 17.5 (up from Sep 17.0)

They hide it under the ponderous link Table A-12. Alternative measures of labor underutilization

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.ht...

U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 190,000 jobs in October, government data showed on Friday, driving the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent, the highest in 26-1/2 years.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since April 1983. It revised job losses for August and September to show 91,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected payrolls to drop by 175,000 and the jobless rate to edge up to 9.9 percent from 9.8 percent in September.

The labor market is being watched for signs whether the economic recovery that started in the third quarter can be sustained without government support. The economy grew at a 3.5 percent annualized rate in the July-September period, probably ending the most painful U.S. recession in 70 years.

Payrolls have declined for 22 consecutive months now, throwing 7.3 million people out of work since December 2007, when the recession started.

[Fuzzy Math]

White House Rejects Stimulus Jobs Math


http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/w.h.-rejec...


The White House rejected figures that showed each stimulus job cost the taxpayers $72,408 each.

From ABC News' Jake Tapper

Five hundred billion dollars in stimulus monies for spending were appropriated last February. Of that,$143 billion in stimulus funds have been spent so far.

Read more at aim.org ...

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Important to note that the money is a one-time-use situation. I have not heard of any Stimulus money generating a job that will be self-sustaining. It's all "build a hiking trail", "patch a pothole", "create a web site" stuff.
At the end of all this, billions of dollars will have been spent, the jobs will fizzle out, and the economy will contract because no genuine growth has been achieved.

Complete boondoggle.