Political Irony

© Matt Davies

Billions of dollars to bail out the banks, but nothing for the unemployed who lost their jobs because of the financial crisis brought on by the banks. What makes this doubly ironic is that the Republicans claim that extending unemployment benefits would only encourage people without jobs to avoid looking for work. But by the same token, won’t bailing out the banks (and even worse, letting the bankers keep their million dollar bonuses) just encourage them to keep making the risky investments that caused the whole crisis in the first place?

And the irony doesn’t stop there. Since a bad economy tends to encourage votes against the party in power, Republicans will probably be rewarded for their filibusters against extending unemployment benefits, including getting more votes from the very unemployed people they are deliberately hurting.

Further evidence that when reality doesn’t match their political needs, Republicans will just ignore reality and lie. The tax cuts for the wealthy that Bush and the Republicans got passed in 2001 and 2003 were completely insane, marking the first time in our nation’s history when taxes were cut during war time. But now those tax cuts are about to expire, and the Republicans want more tax cuts. But there is just one problem — Republicans are currently attacking Obama and the Democrats over the deficit, even filibustering extending unemployment benefits. So how can they block unemployment benefits (because they will raise the deficit), while simultaneously wanting to hand out more money to the rich (which will dramatically increase the deficit)? Easy, just lie.

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) started it by saying on Fox News that he wanted to extend Bush’s tax cuts, but that they didn’t have to be paid for, even though he insists that unemployment benefits be paid for by cutting other government programs. But the real whopper came from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who claimed:

There’s no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.

McConnell is trotting out the old myth that cutting taxes for the wealthy raises revenue, because it stimulates the economy. That may be his opinion, but when he said that there is no evidence that Bush’s tax cuts diminished revenue, he is blatantly lying.

Bush ran the largest deficit in the history of our country, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, over 75% of the deficit was due to Bush’s tax cuts. Less than 25% of the deficit was due to increased domestic spending, such as Medicare Part D, which Republicans crammed down the throat of Congress, and which was actually a huge giveaway to the drug companies.

But you don’t have to believe the CBO. The Atlantic has put together a lengthy list of hard evidence that Bush’s tax cuts diminished revenue. Most damaging to McConnell’s claim that there is “no evidence” are statements from Bush’s own economic advisors:

• Hank Paulson, who was Bush’s Treasury Secretary, said “As a general rule, I don’t believe that tax cuts pay for themselves.”
• The chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors said “I certainly would not claim that tax cuts pay for themselves.”
• The chief economist of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors said “No thoughtful person believes that this possible offset [the Bush tax cuts] more than compensated for the first effect for these tax cuts. Not a single one.”

So even Bush’s economists don’t believe that his tax cuts didn’t decrease revenue, and yet this is not only exactly what McConnell is claiming, he is doubling down and saying that there is “no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue”.

UPDATE: Read this article about conservatives and deficits.

Dana Milbank has an excellent list of the lies that are being told to stir up fear against illegal aliens: tall tales of beheadings, claims that border violence is increasing when it is actually decreasing, fantasy claims that Phoenix is the #2 kidnapping capital in the world, blaming illegal immigrants for most police killings, and whoppers about the majority of illegal immigrants being drug mules.

In fact, it is hard to find a reason being offered for the Arizona immigration crackdown that is not based on a lie. For example, in addition to blaming illegal immigrants for pretty much everything that ails Arizona, they also claim that the racist Arizona law is necessary because the feds are not doing anything about illegal immigration. But this is simply not true. The Obama administration’s crackdown on companies that hire illegal aliens is far more effective than the work-site roundups of illegal workers done by the Bush administration.

And most of these lies are coming from people who should know better. Governor Jan Brewer doesn’t even seem to care, repeating lies over and over again that have already been debunked. Even more disgusting is Senator John McCain, who has cravenly done a massive flip-flop on the issue and is now spreading even more falsehoods.

I’m nauseated that the mainstream media seems willing to go along with many of these lies. There are exceptions of course, including this brilliant piece from Jon Stewart: