I’m going to go on a series of posts disproving some of the wildest distortions that have been beamed into the minds of those who believe that they have some kind of a novel new notion, about government and taxation. The Tea Parties may have started as a grass roots phenomenon, but it would never have been as big a deal as it became with out the aid and active participation of Fox News and Republican talk radio. Furthermore, what is clear as you try to puncture the bubble of what the folks accept as “facts” is that the basic talking points were not created by the protesters themselves. Rather, they are simply recitations of things they heard on Fox News.
That’s fine-everyone is entitled to an opinion. However don’t get angry when someone has the temerity to call their “bedrock truths” into question.
Especially when those “bedrock truths” don’t turn out to be true:
It’s true that projected deficits have gotten larger since January. But much of this resulted from deteriorating economic conditions that would have occurred even if John McCain were president. Moreover, it is absurd to assume that McCain would not have enacted any stimulus programs had he been elected…
I strongly suspect that many of those that loudly denounced the Obama stimulus package for its impact on the deficit would have cheered the McCain stimulus package even though it would have increased the deficit by about the same amount……..
The truth is that the greatest addition to national indebtedness occurred in 2003 when Bush rammed through the Republican Congress a massive expansion of Medicare to provide drug benefits even though the system was already broke….
Same thing goes with the idea that taxes are spiraling out of control. Historical data suggests that proposition may need a little more thought:
Effective Tax rates were higher under Reagan for all income groups than they are now. Higher income groups paid a little more under Clinton-but the side benefit was that the budget came into balance. I think most of the tea party protesters do not realize that-it was not in Glenn Becks talking points. However the information is there for any one who wants to find it.
Another point that was conveniently left out of the “Party like its 1773” rhetoric, was that if the top 1% are paying more taxes, part of it is because that unlike the rest of us whose wages essentially are flat lined, they experienced the greatest growth in after-tax incomes, too.
They might also have neglected to tell you that the US is not the most highly taxed nation in the world-its actually 23rd in that race. (#1 is Belgium).
Next up: The 40% don’t pay taxes myth.