Impressed by the popular meme shown above? If you are a Democrat, this simply illustrates the facts and merits a quick Facebook re-post rather than an objective analysis. Especially since it has already been verified by Snopes! Viola–home run. The original meme, prepared by Nancy Pelosi’s office, only included the first year of President Obama’s tenure so looked even more favorable to the Democrats; this updated meme, also verified by Snopes, includes two years of the Obama term. But does it tell you anything in a meaningful way?
The devil is usually in the details. Looking at the details before jumping to any conclusions is an excellent idea, even if those conclusions are what you may ardently want to believe. Details are important. If memory serves me well, our current President has been in office longer than the two years now depicted, so that alone distorts his contribution by nearly 400%. But WHOA! That is just the beginning. Knowing that our debt now exceeds 19 trillion dollars, how can anybody possibly believe what the chart portends to prove? Sadly, some do. But again, check the details. As Mark Twain said, there are three kinds of lies—-lies, damn lies, and statistics. By choosing to use the % increase, which is essentially meaningless, to address the “Who Increased the Debt?” question, this meme doesn’t technically lie but rather completely distorts the facts by cleverly misrepresenting them.
If truly interested in answering the “Who Increased the Debt?” question posed by the meme, logic would mandate that the actual increase in debt be used. That presents an ENTIRELY different result. Even though this meme includes only the first two years of President Obama’s tenure, as opposed to eight years for President Reagan, during Reagan’s eight years, the debt increased $1,850 billion as opposed to an increase of $3,661 billion for Obama’s first two years. So the first two years of President Obama’s term actually increased the debt the debt by two times the entire eight year term of President Reagan. The above meme is a classic but common example of duplicity at its finest. Sadly, people often take such misleading memes at face value as “proof” of their dearly held convictions.
***Gary A. Howie MSc, PhD*** is business owner/rancher and a Life & Liberty News contributor
