Mike Pence and Eric Cantor, Pinocchio GOP Minority Members
Republicans on Capitol Hill are just plain stupid and functional economic illiterates and liars. Their strategy, which hoodwinked millions during the Dubya prevarication era, was: repeat a lie often enough, no matter how egregious, and you will be believed. Mike Pence and Eric Cantor, twits number three and two respectively in the House prove the point and think it will work again. They keep pounding the tax cuts as stimulus lie; even though debunked after failing miserably in the Reagan era and during their former leader's criminal GOP regime. Jonathan Stein at Mother Jones writes: "The one thing that Pence pointed to as a panacea, both for the nation's economic problems and for the bill's lack of bipartisan support, was tax cuts... "The problem is that few people who study economics see things the same way as the Republican leadership. Liberal economists such as Paul Krugman, James Galbraith, and Dean Baker, have been clamoring since the beginning of the stimulus debate that massive infrastructure investment is a far better stimulant than tax cuts. But the conclusion is not an ideological one. Mark Zandi, the universally respected chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, released data (represented in several handy charts floating around the web) that showed food stamps, unemployment benefits, and infrastructure spending are all better at stimulating the economy than tax cuts. "...thousands of reports from the Congressional Research Service, which exists to provide unbiased answers and info to curious lawmakers, makes it clear that the GOP's talking points place ideology over good economics. 'Economists generally agree that spending proposals are somewhat more stimulative than tax cuts since part of a tax cut may be saved by the recipients," says the report. "The primary way to achieve the most bang for the buck is by choosing policies that result in spending, not saving. Direct government spending on goods and services would therefore lead to the most bang for the buck since none of it would be saved.' "The CRS report also says that if tax cuts must be used they should be slanted toward low-income Americans, never Republicans' favorite constituency. 'The effectiveness of tax cuts also depends on their nature... tax cuts received by lower income individuals are more likely to be spent.' "Particularly useless are corporate tax cuts, which are one of the cornerstones of the GOP's stimulus alternatives. "One wonders what the congressional Republicans' sin is. Have they simply not read the economic research, including some from within the Congress itself, that suggests their ideas are not good for the nation? Or are they aware of the truth but choose to ignore it, because their united opposition makes life difficult for the new president and their embrace of tax cuts at all costs will always be popular with voters? They must hope that as they push debunked economic proposals, voters don't come to the conclusion that their party is either incompetent or disingenuous." That conclusion would be correct in any case. Pence and Cantor, are both illogical, right wing, government for the wealthy few and corporations, GOP Pinocchio legislators, having proved it continuously during the Bush years and now again for good measure as obstructionist, anti-working people, anti-Main Street minority members. |
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