Fact Checking Mike Flood’s Deluge Of Disinformation
Representative Mike Flood’s (R-NE) Twitter account is a flood of disinformation. It reflects the dishonest talking points that we frequently hear from the Congressional Republicans. They all take direction from the RNC and Fox “News.”
It’s incumbent upon us Democrats to rebut the zombie lies from the GOP. Republican propaganda relies heavily upon poor memories. It’s our duty to refresh those memories. That’s why I post.
- Mike Flood: “I’m sick of being in a room talking about our feelings when we’ve got hostages that are hog tied and being raped in tunnels under Gaza City. America needs leadership. We need to lead.”
More from Flood: “As a member of Congress, I will work to ensure our country does everything it can, everything that is needed to do to support the Israeli government as they root out the sources of this terrorism.”
More nonsense from Flood: “Joe Biden’s weakness abroad continues to empower our enemies.”
REALITY: Has Mike Flood been asleep? Or does he get all of his news from the likes of Fox “News?” He must live in an alternative reality.
President Joe Biden has now travelled twice to an active war zone in 2023 where the U.S. was not in charge of providing air defense — which is two more times than all other U.S. Presidents in history combined. He traveled to Kyiv in February and recently met with the Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv. Biden may be old but he has far more courage than anyone else for the job.
President Biden has delivered two very well received speeches on the crises in Israel and Ukraine. They were so effective that even Brit Hume of Fox “News” praised them. So far, the President “deserves high marks for undertaking a difficult diplomatic mission that has grown more difficult and for getting the balance right.” Richard N. Haas a foreign policy adviser to past Republican administrations.
Biden will soon be sending to Congress a $105 billion aide package for Israel and Ukraine. There is also money for Taiwan, humanitarian assistance for Gaza and border security.
Thanks to Mike Flood and the House Republicans’ extremism, the U.S. House been shut down and rendered powerless. They are not in a position to act on Biden’s urgent request. The House Republicans can’t even pick a speaker while wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza. This chaos by the House Republicans has emboldened our enemies and weakened the national security of the U.S. and the free world.
2. Mike Flood: “The inflation caused by Democrats’ reckless spending continues to persist. Bidenomics is bad for Nebraska.”
REALITY: There isn’t “reckless spending” by the Democrats. Spending is down significantly since Biden has been in office. Federal spending was 31.2 percent of GDP in 2020. Federal spending was 25.6 percent of GDP in 2022. Federal spending will be 24 percent of GDP under Biden’s budget. Mike Flood and a majority of Republicans in the Congress voted for spending at 24% of GDP when they voted for the Biden-McCarthy budget deal in June.
Flood doesn’t like to mention that he spent $1.3 billion in Biden stimulus money as a member of the legislature on tax cuts for the rich, a canal to Colorado and a new lake between Lincoln and Omaha. He didn’t complain about spending then. Instead, he took the money and ran.
Biden’s spending only contributed to a small portion of inflation in 2021–22. “There’s a range of opinion among economists on how much of the US’s higher inflation over 2021 (a 7 percentage point increase including energy and food prices, and a 5.5 percentage point increase excluding them) can be attributed to the American Rescue Plan. Michael Strain of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute has estimated the law added 3 percentage points. Dean Baker of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, though, put that number at 1–2 percentage points.” Vox Media, March 12, 2022.
Republicans like Flood and the mainstream press never mention that Trump’s 2020 policies were inflationary in nature. Ron DeSantis blasted Trump for adding $7.8 trillion to the national debt and “setting the stage for inflation.” In addition, Trump made a deal with the Saudis and the Russians to sharply reduce oil production in 2020. This large cut in production caused a painful price hike in 2021, which of course the GOP disingenuously blamed on Biden.
Flood and other Republicans never mention that inflation has been 3.7% over the last twelve months — down from 7% in 2021. In contrast, inflation was 4.3% in 1984 when Ronald Reagan ran his optimistic “Morning in America” campaign.
3. Flood: “Democrats ignored the border crisis until it came to their cities.
REALITY: The truth is that the southern border is more fortified than it’s ever been. “Reality check: Since 1992, the U.S. has quadrupled the number of Border Patrol agents — from less than 5,000 to nearly 20,000 today.” Axios, October 17, 2023.
Flood and other Republicans also fail to mention that the right wing of the GOP blocked immigration reform bills with bi-partisan support in 2007, 2013, 2018 and 2022. The right wing of the GOP is the problem on immigration.
4. Flood: “Multiple Democratic Members of Congress are members of an organization that is blaming the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel.”
REALITY: Flood’s remarks are hyperbolic in nature. Only one back bencher in the House Democratic caucus has blamed Israel.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has given aide and comfort to our enemies. At a rally in Florida, Trump praised Hezbollah, calling the Iran-backed terror group both “smart” and “very smart” hours after they slaughtered over one thousand three hundred innocent people in Israel.
Pro-Hamas social media accounts hailed Trump’s attacks on Israel and his praise of Hezbollah and Hamas. They have posted excerpts of his speech to boost their propaganda operations. The enemies’ posts are intended to use Trump’s own words to encourage and embolden supporters of Hezbollah and Hamas in the middle of Israel’s war for survival. Members of the Israeli parliament expressed outrage at Trump’s speech, calling it “shameful.”
5. Flood: “Democrats, along with a handful of Republicans, removed the Speaker of the House.”
REALITY: It was never up to the Democrats to bail out Kevin McCarthy. The former speaker had deliberately alienated the Democratic House caucus and offered them nothing in return for their votes. The plot to overthrow McCarthy was staged by House Republicans. No Democrats were involved.
“Democrats tried to save Republicans from themselves. There was this entire rule that allowed for one member of the House to kick out the Speaker… Every single Democrat voted against this rule… They didn’t listen.” Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, (D-NY).
Here’s a thought experiment for Flood and the House Republicans. Can the the Republicans and the elite pundits who believe the Democrats should should have saved the incompetent Republicans tell us how many Republicans voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker over the years?
Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) blamed the current chaos on the Republican faction that ousted Kevin McCarthy. “Those who did this, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were going to put the Congress in a state of chaos and the country into a state of uncertainty,” Cole said in a speech on the House floor.
CONCLUSION.
Trump adviser Steve Bannon once confessed that: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” That’s exactly what Flood and other House Republicans are doing. They want to distract the American people from the extremism and incompetence of the House Republican majority.
“The GOP’s speaker chaos is a blessing in disguise. It’s exposing the crisis created by the right-wing radicalization of the party (Trump is symptom and cause) that has destroyed its capacity for rational governing without outside help.” E.J. Dionne.
“The implosion we are witnessing in the Republican Party is completely self-inflicted. Republican adults decided to campaign with and empower absolute lunatics for their votes. Unsurprisingly those empowered lunatics are now doing lunatic things.” Former Nebraska State Senator John McCollister.
House Republicans simply can’t govern. A vote for Mike Flood or any House Republican candidate is a vote for nihilists to be in the majority. Simply stated, a vote for a Republican is a vote for chaos and dysfunction.
It’s America or the MAGA Republicans in 2024. Choose wisely.