The White House thinks its got a great campaign issue in falsely accusing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of funneling foreign dollars to Republicans, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews is making it clear he's willing to assist the administration in making its case.
Who cares that there's absolutely no factual basis in what President Obama and the "Hardball" host are saying?
So hell-bent on making this a serious election issue is Matthews that on Wednesday he accused the Chamber of intentionally increasing unemployment in this nation while harming the economy (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me finish tonight by addressing the challenge Bob Schieffer of CBS News issued to the White House this Sunday. Is that the best that you can do?
Bob was challenging David Axelrod on the White House charge that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was using money it raises from overseas to finance Republican political campaigns.
So, why is it so darn important to the average voter out there, that multinational corporations, some of them based outside of the United States, have their fingers in this election?
How about this -- it`s the central economic issue of our times. Look at how the giant corporations get their profit margins up these days. Are they out there selling hot, new products every consumer wants to get their hands on? Or are they doing the job by cost-cutting, cutting down the number of employees for whom they have to pay those tiresome health packages, those costly pensions and 401 plans? Are they doing it through those highly celebrated productivity gains by substituting robotics for people, by outsourcing the cheaper vendors overseas, over where the price of labor is dirt cheap?
No wonder the multinationals want to gift candidates who love to deregulate, love so-called free markets, love tax structures that lead them as free as possible to continue doing what they`re doing -- the kind of free-willing, cost-cutting that meets the quarterly bottom line.
No wonder the U.S. Chamber`s such a popular lobbying body for the multinational operation, in whatever country, it happens to currently find the best haven.
So, the right answer, is this is best that we can do is, is: is this the best America can do? It`s about jobs, and if all of the American people can talk about this election season as this, I say, keep on talking. You`ve finally got your finger on the pulse of this country. It`s about the economy.
So let's get this straight: the country's largest business federation, representing over 3 million companies whose dues its dependent on, is assisting in the elimination of American jobs.
This is the level of insanity Matthews has reached as the midterm elections near and his beloved Democrat Party is about to get routed.
Never mind the number of left-leaning publications that have said these accusations are total nonsense - Matthews sees this as "the central economic issue of our times."
So focused on trying to create some issue - ANY issue - that could help his Party, Matthews is missing the underlying fallacy in his argument irrespective of its lack of factual basis: if all the jobs were shipped overseas, the Chamber would cease to exist.
Its goal is - and always has been - to assist American companies to grow their businesses. If they all contract to zero employees in the United States, the Chamber of Commerce would become extinct.
Unfortunately, Matthews is so fixated on helping the White House and his Party that he can't possibly understand this.
Makes you wonder if he's looking at Keith Olbermann's ratings and coming to the conclusion that vacuous hyperbole sell much better than facts on MSNBC.
