Redefining Everything To Suit The One

From Hot Air's ongoing Obamateurism series (which you really should check out if you haven't yet):

In his Earth Day speech yesterday in Iowa, Barack Obama celebrated by giving us a pair of Obamateurisms in the space of a few moments. See if you can spot the Classic Obamateurism, and the New Improved Obamateurism in this passage:

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we have begun to modernize 75% of all federal building space, which has the potential to reduce long-term energy costs by billions of dollars on behalf of taxpayers. We are providing grants to states to help weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes, which will save the families that benefit about $350 each year. That's like a $350 tax cut.

Consumers are also eligible as part of the Recovery Act for up to $1,500 in tax credits to purchase more efficient cooling and heating systems, insulation, and windows in order to reduce their energy bills.

And I've issued a memorandum to the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators. Through this step, over the next three decades, we'll save twice the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America in any given year.

We are already seeing reports from across the country of how this is beginning to create jobs, as local governments and businesses rush to hire folks to do the work of building and installing these energy efficient products.

First off, saving $350 a year on energy savings is not "like a tax cut".  He tried making that same argument about lower interest rates on mortgages, too.  The grant helps in paying for the weatherization, but the cost savings are just that.  A tax cut is when government takes less of your money, not when energy companies take less of your money.  By that definition, a broken lightbulb is like a tax cut, too, and thanks to cap-and-trade, it'll get you used to the dark, too.

The second, newer Obamateurism comes from Obama's assertion that local governments and businesses are rushing to hire "folks" to work in these construction and repair jobs to do this work.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics begs to differ.  Construction has lost jobs for three successive months, shedding 126,000 of them in March alone.  Government jobs dropped by 5,000.  Specialty trade contractors have 83,000 workers in March, the bulk of the construction jobs lost — and this is at the beginning of spring, traditionally when these firms add staff for the expected jump in demand.  Of all industries, only manufacturing and professional/business services did worse.

The only "rush" Obama's created with his stimulus package so far is either a rush to the unemployment line, a rush of capital out of the market, or both.

This is classic liberal - redefining words to mean whatever is convenient for you.  Tax cuts are a decrease in the tax rates that we pay to the government, not simply lower prices on one-time purchases (just as they are not redistribution, Obama's previous re-definition).  It's even more flagrant to misrepresent easily verifiable numbers like how many jobs are or are not being created or lost.  It would be very interesting to see where Obama gets his numbers, or if he truly did just make them up.  Hey, it's happened before.

We used to have a whole segment of the country that asked these questions and did this sort of verification...they were called journalists.  Does anyone know where we can get one or two?  They might be useful at times like this.

There's my two cents.