One of the problems that Americans encounter in understanding the economic issues facing us today is that Republican lies have muddied the water. Further complicating the matter, main stream broadcast media usually present Republican lies without debunking them, or worse yet, proclaim them as fact. To counter these lies, Robert Reich has put together a powerful presentation that shreds six of them so clearly that only those who refuse to hear will not understand.
Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme as Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry claims? Noted author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich debunks that claim and five other lies the right-wing tells about taxes, government and the economy. The lies Reich debunks:
1) Tax cuts to the rich and corporations trickle down to the rest of us. (No it doesn’t and it never has.)
2) If you shrink government you create jobs. (No, you get rid of jobs that way.)
3) High taxes on the rich hurts the economy. (No, the economy grew when the US did this under Eisenhower.)
4) Debt is to be avoided and it is mostly caused by Medicare. (No, if debt is properly used to grow the economy, it becomes a smaller part of the budget because of increased revenue and Medicare has the lowest overhead of any health insurance plan out there.)
5) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme (No, its solid for 26 years. Rick Perry is "lying through his teeth" says Reich. Social Security is solid beyond that if the rich pay the same percentage in social security taxes as the rest of us do.)
6) We need to tax the poor. (This is what Republicans have been proposing when they say any tax reform needs to involve all Americans because poor people pay no income tax. The poor have no money and taxing them will not solve our budget problems.)…
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
Here’s the video:
Reich was on point when he said that Republicans want us to give up our democracy, speaking figuratively. Republicans are trying to establish a permanent corporate plutocracy with one party rule guaranteed by sham elections. Unless we prevent them from taking control, even if it means voting for someone who is not perfect, they will succeed.
22 Responses to “Robert Reich counters Republican lies”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
They probably think Reich is a commie-pinko-fag. After all, he does teach at Berkley, the haven of hippies.
But even the WSJ gave him top ratings,
I’ve been arguing those very points my whole adult working life with co-workers, to no avail. There is no such thing as “trickle down” and poor people don’t have money to stimulate the economy, much less pay taxes. I don’t know why a lot of working people can’t understand this. It’s not complicated.
Amen, Johnny. Trickle down always gushes up.
This ignorance of logic comes from decades of GOP erosion of educational standards & funding AND southern religious brainwashing that has expanded with Tea Baggers all over the Nation.There is only ONE reason not to educate….religious dogma will be rejected, and religion is used to control the masses! ALWAYS support education & makes sure it is REAL education that teaches children to THINK…anyone can learn to recite.
Or take a test. Our kids need to learn critical thinking and thinking on their feet.
When I was a kid, we learned how to think. Now learning what to think is all that matters.
In the middle ages, the Roman Catholic church had all the marbles — the people did not read or write. Not even all priests could read and write. By keeping the populace uneducated, the Church tried to control what people thought and believed. The priest said this or that so it must be true. This is how the Church maintained control. And if there were up starts stirring the pot, things like the inquisition and witch hunts were ways to bring things around.
As Mussolini would always say, “The more confusion the better.“
Welcome Severetus. 🙂
True, but Mussolini could not get nominated here as a Republican. He was far too liberal.
They are so blind and so committed to an ideology , that logic will never reach them-
Many are. We’re after the reachable ones and the ones on the fence.
Republicans are not interested in fixing the economy. They are interested in channeling money to the wealthy and big corporations.
…and in establishing permanent one party rule.
We also need to make our Supreme Court justices accountable for their sins of commission and omission concerning tax evasions, being entertained by corporations and their lobbyists when a case involving those entities is to come before them. The Citizens United ruling was a blow struck against Democracy and the people of the United States,
Reich was right on target when he exposed the lies of the GOP in this address. We must offset Fox pseudo-News and somehow get the truth out to the people that their lives are in peril: Tea Partiers, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Green Party members, young, old, middle-aged, white, black, brown, yellow and all between. This is a fight for the life of our nation now. We, the people, must take a pro-active role in our survivorship.
Welcome, Emily. 🙂
I fully agree. I think at least four should be impeached.
Providing accurate information is what I try to do.
All is not bleak-the only people who actually swallow the MSM pablum these days are the elderly. The elderly also happen to comprise the bulk of the Klanbaggers, but that is also no accident. The Koch brothers birthed the “Tea Party,” and the MSM fed it and changed its diapers.
A sizable majority of us do not believe anything the MSM says. But many of them don’t know what the truth ACTUALLY is. Those are the ones who need the truth, and we must continue to try to reach them.
Do you really think so, JR. To me it seems that many young ones do too, because they are too apathetic to care.
Elect Reich President, or at least VP with Bernie Sanders as President.
Reich is so spot on. I think that apathy is probably the foe that needs to be overcome. I hear it here in Canada all the time.
Bernie isn’t running, and Reich should be in charge at Treasury or the Fed.
Yeh, I know. But I can still dream good things for you guys can’t I?!
Yup, and I’ll dream that Harper gets caught with a hooker. 😉