I'll profile the lies Republicans routinely tell and that too many Americans believe and dispel them.
Disagree or feel free to add your own lies below.
- Tax cuts can cure anything.
This is a great lie. It is the perfect lie. Because good lies have two elements.
First, a good lie is one that the person hearing the lie wants to believe. "No, that dress doesn't make you look fat." "That ice cream is fat free." If you want to believe it, it doesn't really matter if it's true or not. People want to believe that if they pay less taxes it will somehow make the country better.
The second part of a good lie is that it has to have a tiny bit of truth in it. The truth is that confiscatory tax rates do stifle innovation and industriousness, especially if combined with generous welfare benefits. The problem is that Republicans are out there holding 39% tax rates as confiscatory, when nobody is paying close to a 39% marginal tax rate in this country.
We have long since passed the point in this country where tax cuts aid the economy. Almost certainly, and with a growing body of evidence, we can say that tax cuts have reversed fundamental economic redistribution which is vital for a healthy society.
- Democrats don't support the troops.
I will say without a shadow of a doubt that more Democrats have given their lives for our country than Republicans. There is no way of knowing, of course, but even allowing that Confederate soldiers were not "American," judging by the socioeconomic status of Union soldiers it is fair to say that half of casualties of the Great War of Rebellion were Democrats. The next most costly war, WWII, undoubtedly consumed more Democrats than Republicans, if only because there were more Democrats than Republicans in the US at that time, the same goes for Korea. Vietnam? Well, if your daddy wasn't a Republican, he didn't get you into Yale. Casualties were overwhelmingly poor, Latino and Black, in short, groups that overlapped with Democratic demographics.
Now, leaving aside that while many Democrats buckled under the pressure to support the Iraq war, we certainly weren't responsible for lying the country into it.
Now, if by "support" you mean "buy expensive, shiny weapons" you may have an argument.
- Democrats are "tax and spend."
As is shown here: Chart
As a percentage of GDP, Democrats generally tax a little more, but they spend a lot less. Which leads us to...
- Republicans are fiscally conservative.
Go see this chart.
Nuf said.
- The free market takes care of things if given a chance.
I always love it when people say they are for a free market. I assume this means that they want to repeal recognition of corporations. Corporations are a distortion of the market in many ways. But what I hear when they talk about "personal responsibility" and "market discipline" is that working class people need to be disciplined and more responsible.
Because nowhere have I seen the Heritage Foundation cite large personal injury awards as a market discipline mechanism for corporate wrongdoing. I have never seen CEOs do anything other than walk away from responsibility for financial fiascos like Enron.
In fact, corporations are, by definition, a way for investors to avoid personal responsibility.
We saw how well the free market responds during Hurricane Katrina. Those people were disciplined for their lack of personal responsibility, right?
- The scariest words anyone can hear are "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help."
No, the scariest words anyone can hear are "Brownie, you're doin' a great job."
- A flat tax is more fair.
Witness for the prosecution: John Cox, former Illinois Senate candidate and proponent of the flat tax. In his book, Politic$, Inc., Cox supports a flat tax and says that businesses shouldn't worry about the effects of taxes on mortgage interest and investments because these would be "exempt."
If something is "exempt" from the flat tax, it's no longer FLAT.
The devil is always in the details with these people and as much as they would like to convince you that a 8% Value Added Tax would take care of all our national needs, remember these are the people that brought you #4!
- There are some things that the government has to keep secret to keep us safe, like extraordinary renditions and what goes on at Gitmo.
You know what? This has never kept us safe. Never. Not when anybody did it. Not when Roosevelt encamped the Japanese. Not when Hoover did it while wearing women's clothes. And sure as hell not when the FBI does it under Bush.
Truth..and only the truth...is what makes us safer.
Your security is diminished by Gitmo and you don't have to wait to get sent down there to believe it.
There is a reason why die-hard Republicans hate the Real ID Act. There is a reason we call these things "UN-AMERICAN." Because Americans don't do these things. For Chrissake when the GERMANS and FRENCH are telling you these things are wrong, you ought to get a clue.
- The evidence is still out on global warming.
Yeah, ok, let's assume that you, there, with a can of beer in your hand, sitting in a lounger are smarter than all those scientists and computers. You're right, they're wrong. OK, wise-ass.
It's still better to do all those things that they recommend to curb global warming ANYWAY, because all you are doing is getting better gas mileage, reducing dependence on foreign energy and demand on fragile American resources.
But if by some chance you AREN'T as smart as you think you are, Bill O'Reilly, THE PLANET'S GOING TO FREAKING DIE!
- The GOP is the party of family values.
How many parents are going to drag their happy asses home from work tonight too exhausted to do anything with their kids?
How many people don't get time off or can save enough to take a vacation this year?
Did you even know that the divorce rate in states Bush won is higher than the rate in states that Kerry won?
How many kids don't have a home tonight that would be gratefully taken in by a gay or lesbian couple?
"Family Values" does not just apply to two-parent opposite sex White families.