Monday, October 23, 2023

Republicans Are Pinning Their 2024 Hopes On 3 Huge Lies


Republicans are damaging their political reputations by the continuing chaos of their House caucus. They are convincing many Americans that they are incapable of governing. Add to this the fact that most Americans disapprove of their stance on abortion and it's easy to see they could be in real trouble in 2024.

They are hoping to counter this by scaring voters about inflation, the national deficit/debt, and immigration. The problem is they are lying about all three of those issues.

They want voters to believe that inflation is caused by the huge national debt. They ignore the fact that they doubled that debt by passing their tax cuts for the rich and corporations -- adding trillions to that debt. But even if they weren't responsible for much of that debt, the truth is that the national debt does not cause inflation.

Inflation goes up or down regardless of whether the nation has a huge debt or not. Some inflation was to be expected after the pandemic, with more people going back to work (thus having more to spend), some nominal increase in wages, and a problem in getting foreign goods into the country and to stores. But the current inflation has far exceeded to the costs incurred to business by those factors. Especially the big corporations have raised their prices much more than was necessary to cover those costs.

Why did they do that? Because they could. Many have near monopolies, and thus no one to compete to keep prices down. In other words, corporate greed is the biggest driver of inflation. And Republicans have no solution to that problem. In fact, they want to further that corporate greed by again reducing corporate taxes -- even though many very profitable corporations already pay no taxes.

The second lie concerns the cause of the national debt. Republicans want voters to believe that the debt is caused by Social Security (a program they have never liked because their constituency - the rich - don't need it).

They will tell you that the biggest expense of the government (outside of national defense) is Social Security. That is true. But what they won't tell you is that Social Security has never added a single penny to the national debt. It has always been fully paid, without any borrowing, by the Social Security Trust Fun. That fund receives its money from payroll taxes - a tax paid by workers and not subsidized by discretionary spending (which is funded by income taxes and other taxes).

Cutting Social Security, which they want to do, would not decrease the federal debt at all -- and anyone saying it will (like the Republican) are just telling a huge lie!

The third lie concerns immigration. Republicans want voters to believe that the immigrants at our southern border pose a threat to the citizens of this country. They want people to believe those crossing the border without documents are bringing in illegal drugs and many are criminals. Not true!

The drugs entering this country illegally are not being carried here by undocumented immigrants on foot. Those drugs are being brought in trucks and ships crossing the border in too large a number for all to be inspected. While Border Patrol intercepts some drug shipments entering this way, many more shipments make it through -- and the drug cartels know this. They are much more likely to get a shipment through in a truck than with an undocumented immigrant on foot, and the shipments can be much larger.

Most undocumented immigrants are not criminals. They are desperate people trying to make a living and feed their families. They pose no danger to any American citizens. And businesses in this country need those immigrants, since many jobs are going unfilled. Those immigrants would happily do the dangerous and low-paid jobs that American citizens don't want to do. They know their sacrifice will mean a better future for their children.

Don't let the Republicans scare you with their lies about inflation, the debt, and immigration. The truth is they have no solutions. Lies are all they have!

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