Jonah Goldberg went on Piers Morgan Monday night to promote his latest "nanny-boo-boo liberals!" book, and belched up a favorite right-wing canard.
MORGAN: I'm curious what you're thinking what (inaudible).
GOLDBERG: I would put it [the Bin Laden raid] at -- I don't know, $50 million, $40 million.
MORGAN: Wow. That's cheap in the Republican world?
GOLDBERG: That's cheap in comparison to what the cost of the war on terror is.
MORGAN: No wonder the country got into the mess it did.
GOLDBERG: I suppose that that's supposed to be a really telling point. I'm not quite sure how it is.
MORGAN: I'm just saying the Republican administration obviously led to a huge financial collapse. You wouldn't dispute that.
GOLDBERG: I would and I would also say Barack Obama has spent much, much, much, much more money than the Republicans.
MORGAN: Would you dispute that after eight years of Republican administration the country went into a huge economic collapse?
GOLDBERG: No, but that's a timeline question.
Don't you just love that last bit where Jonah shrugs off Bush/Cheney's presiding over the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression as "a timeline question"? The party of personal responsibility blaming everyone else strikes again!
But Jonah is, of course, totally, hilariously, absolutely wrong about this supposed spending binge under Obama.
First, as of 2011, Bush's policies had cost the country over $5T, compared to Obama's $1T.
You want to look at growth in government spending? Obama's lower than George W. Bush and Reagan.
What about government purchases of goods and services? Yep, they've collapsed under Obama.
Government employees? A record decline under Obama.
"Obama's record spending spree is bankrupting the nation" is yet another Big Lie right-wingers like Goldberg -- who incidentally was a cheerleader for Bush/Cheney while they were turning record surpluses into record deficits -- are telling about Obama. It's a lie Mitt Romney will tell during the campaign.
And it's a lie that the media will probably them get away with.
