Eight False Things The Public “Knows” Prior To Election Day
From Campaign for America's Future
By Dave Johnson
There are a number things the public "knows" as we head into the election that are just false. If people elect leaders based on false information, the things those leaders do in office will not be what the public expects or needs.
Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:
1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.This stuff really matters.
If the public votes in a new Congress because a majority of voters think this one tripled the deficit, and as a result the new people follow the policies that actually tripled the deficit, the country could go broke.
If the public votes in a new Congress that rejects the idea of helping to create demand in the economy because they think it didn't work, then the new Congress could do things that cause a depression.
If the public votes in a new Congress because they think the health care reform will increase the deficit when it is actually projected to reduce the deficit, then the new Congress could repeal health care reform and thereby make the deficit worse. And on it goes.
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3 comments:
These Saul Alinsky-type post are tired.....***yawn*** Do you really believe this rhetoric?
Every single campaign ad I see here in Tennessee claims at least one of these lies as truth, so someone believes them.
Some of realities aren't really reality either. While business aren't clamoring for tax cuts, tax cuts do allow someone to keep more money and thus spend it.
No one can really prove stimulus really did anything. Most of the money wasn't spent. What we do know is the other major western style economies that didn't do any stimulus but cut spending are in far better shape now then we are.
The real spending of health care reform doesn't even begin for 3 more years and they are still reading what's in there.
Social securities trust fund was spent years ago and is filled with IOU's from previous administrations. There's no bank account full of cash waiting to be spent. This is how we've "balanced the budget" for decades. Borrow the money and promise to pay it back someday. Find actual proof this account exists and you'll be elected supreme exalted ruler for life.
Government spending takes money by force out of the hands of the people that earned it and spends it for them without their input. It's all done for the general good as determined by those in office.
Health care reform isn't the only way to reduce the deficit. Actually, the only way to reduce the deficit is to cut spending. That's not rhetoric, it's just accounting 101. We, as a nation, need to quit relying on the government to solve problems, both real and imagined, by taking money from people and spending. Or, as we have for the last 10 years, borrow money from foreign governments and spend it.
That's the real reality.
Have a nice day :)
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