by Dr. Bob Ross
As anyone who has studied Hitler and Nazi Germany can tell you, they used an expression that was the core of their propaganda strategy: big lies told often enough will in time be accepted as truth. Seems our leadership in Washington has taken that strategy to heart. For instance: “if we give the wealthy more tax breaks, they will create more jobs.” Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that expression in the last decade I’d be one of the wealthy they we’re talking about.
Problem is, it’s a lie. You give the wealthy more tax breaks and they’ll keep it. Period. If you really want to know how to create jobs, it’s simple: you increase demand. But how do you do that if consumers are broke? You use the financial power of the federal government to prime the pump, exactly like FDR did during the Great Depression. Just putting people to work fixing our horrendous national infrastructure would get hundreds of thousands back to work — and spending — putting more people back to work. In other words, with apologies to Ronald Reagan, it’s “trickle up economics.”
But the discussion about how to get the unemployed back to work reveals yet another lie: “Congress really wants to lower unemployment.” In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Why? Again, simple: a high unemployment rate means there is a surplus of labor, which means corporations can treat workers like crap, pay them nothing, cut their benefits, increase their production rates, and fire them at will whenever they complain. This is exactly why you’re hearing that “the recession is over,” which is another lie. When companies can cut their labor overhead and increase their production rates, their profits — and, thus, their stock values, stock options, and bonuses — go through the roof. The methods that they are using to get wealthy is exactly what is causing the rest of us to get poorer. The recession for the “other America” is far from over.
So, when you hear Republicans saying that they are only interested in reducing our national debt so the economy will grow and jobs will return, understand you’re hearing yet more lies. In fact, when the economy constricts like it has and consumer spending is down, the role of the government is to step in and stimulate it with an infusion of money roughly equivalent to the amount it has constricted. The Republican strategy of reducing government spending will, of course, have the effect they desire — more pain — for us. More pain means it’s less likely Obama will be re-elected. Great bunch of guys, eh?
Now, where the really big lie comes in is here: the Democrats all run on campaigns that shout, “we’ll save you from those horrible Republicans!” And, of course, wanting to be saved from those horrible Republicans, we vote for them — only they never save us. They just whine things like, “we need to compromise.” The truth? Due to the fact that elections are so grossly expensive now, they have to get the millions of dollars it costs to run their campaigns from the same corporations that now fund the Republicans. And that means the Democrats have to advance the same radical right agenda as the Republicans — “starve the beast!” Which means the end to entitlement programs, unions, safety regulations, the middle class, and the American Dream.
So, both parties are nothing but corporate stooges, spouting nothing but corporate lies. Ready for some truth? Good. That’s what this page is all about — separating lies from truth, fact from fiction. The first big lie to be exposed is: there are two independent political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats. Truth: they are both funded by, and take their orders from, the same international corporations that are systematically destroying every single aspect of the American Middle Class. Most of the rest of the lies we expose will flow from that major lie.
