WASHINGTON, January 23 (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama should have refrained from glorying in budget deficit reductions during his State of the Union address given the fact his administration has run up the national debt to record levels, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said on Thursday.
“Lying with numbers has long been a political art form, but there is no excuse for crediting one’s self,” Rohrabacher said. “To be an historic deficit-cutter while racking up an $18 trillion debt, more than created by all the previous presidents combined.”
Obama has also ignored “all economic history” by pretending that taxing the “rich,” which means the “upper middle class,” will somehow help the middle class, the former Reagan speechwriter added.
Rohrabacher also warned that the State of the Union as an institution, which is already a spectacle, is at risk of devolving into a circus and then took aim again at Obama for preferring applause lines over sound policy.
On Tuesday, during his State of the Union address, Obama pointed to a growing economy and shrinking deficits as proof that the United States had freed itself from the recession. Although the president described the economic growth as the fastest the United States has seen in over a decade and applauded the fact that deficits have been cut by two-thirds, he does not mention the national debt anywhere in his speech.
