Monday, March 25, 2013

Let's Call Them Falsehoods, Not Lies



Here's a thought-provoking article, detailing the falsehoods of the Republicans' fiscal claims:

So let’s review. The GOP is advancing three crucial lies: that we have to balance the budget; that public investment at this point is irresponsible; and that if we do slash spending and balance the budget, jobs will come. It’s all nonsense. In fact every assertion is the exact opposite of the truth.
I find the arguments compelling, especially to the extent that they mesh with what I've been saying here. The author writes for "Democracy: A Journal of Ideas," which is well-regarded by liberals and conservatives alike. As one who admits to little economic expertise, I've tended to like the idea of a balanced budget. Among other things, the above article references this report by the Congressional Research Office, which makes the case that deficits are sustainable when below a certain percentage of the GNP. In that I'll defer to people more knowledgable than me.

But the rest of the article seems pretty uncontroversial: it says, as have I, that it's not a balanced budget that creates jobs; it's the other way around. Same with government spending and jobs. It seems pretty intuitive.

[Image source]


3 comments:

  1. Admittedly I haven't followed the news much in a few months, but I have yet to see anyone contrast the R response to Benghazi and 9/11. I'm not clear what Obama and Clinton are purported to have done wrong in Benghazi, other than not using the word 'terrorism' enough, as if they are unwilling to apply that label.

    OTOH the Bush response to the August 2001 memorandum, "Bin Laden determined to strike in US," was bupkis. Congress earmarked less money to investigate this than they did the steroids in baseball investigation. Then Bush started a war in an uninvolved country.

    Tom Tomorrow expresses the absurdity as well as anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love Tom Tomorrow!

    The fixation (Foxation) on Benghazi is just another example of crazy on the right. There've been investigations, reports, and whereas I suppose there's always the possibility of facts being hidden, what was it, really, at worst? A colossal screwup. A bunch of mistakes. Not something to defend. But compared to the invasion of Iraq which was deliberately based on lies and which was, by comparison, immeasurably more devastating to the planet, our country, our economy, our soldiers, their citizens, it seems strange to have become obsessed with it.

    I guess the crazies initially wanted to paint Obama with it; but his culpability, if any, was in not knowing about requests for security. Should he have? Is that a presidential level issue? I don't know, and I doubt it.

    But deciding to go to war under false pretenses, breaking international law, nearly breaking our back as a nation? Yes, that's presidential. And there's been no culpability...

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  3. The fixation (Foxation) on Benghazi is just another example of crazy on the right... what was it, really, at worst? A colossal screwup.

    That is what it seemed like. Pollyanna that I am, I thought perhaps I was missing something. I don't know why I bother to suspend judgment anymore; at the federal level the R's are all heat, no light. Literally the only counterexample I can think of offhand is that Portman fellow coming out for gay marriage.

    (I'm glad he did of course, but it was hardly a heroic act; more like, "Don't hate your old man, son!" plus an inkling that in ten or twenty years he might as well have been a segregationist or anti-suffragist.)

    ReplyDelete

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