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The Big Lie
Republicans are telling Americans a Big Lie, and
Obama and the Democrats are letting them. The Big Lie is our economic
problems are due to a government that’s too large, and therefore the
solution is to shrink it.
The truth is our economic problems stem from the biggest concentration of income and wealth at the top since 1928, combined with stagnant incomes for most of the rest of us. The result: Americans no longer have the purchasing power to keep the economy going at full capacity. Since the debt bubble burst, most Americans have had to reduce their spending; they need to repay their debts, can’t borrow as before, and must save for retirement.
The short-term solution is for government to counteract this shortfall by spending more, not less. The long-term solution is to spread the benefits of economic growth more widely (for example, through a more progressive income tax, a larger EITC, an exemption on the first $20K of income from payroll taxes and application of payroll taxes to incomes over $250K, stronger unions, and more and better investments in education and infrastructure.)
But instead of telling the truth, Obama has legitimized the Big Lie by freezing non-defense discretionary spending, freezing federal pay, touting his deficit commission co-chairs’ recommended $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of tax increase, and agreeing to extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Will Obama stand up to the Big Lie? Will he use his State of the Union address to rebut it and tell the truth? Maybe, but so far there’s no evidence.
In his weekly address yesterday, the President restated his “commitment” for 2011 “to do everything I can to make sure our economy is growing, creating jobs, and strengthening our middle class.” He added that it’s important “to look ahead - not just to this year, but to the next 10 years, and the next 20 years” to find ways to stimulate the economy through innovation. And that it is critical that the U.S. discover ways to “out-compete other countries around the world.”
Become more innovative? Out-compete? Who or what is he talking about? Big American corporations are innovating like mad all over the world, with research and development centers in China and India. And their profits are soaring. They’re sitting on almost $1 trillion of cash. But they won’t create jobs in America because there’s not enough demand here to justify them.
In the Republican address in response, U.S. Senator-elect Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) restated the Big Lie. “The American people sent us to Congress with clear instructions: make government smaller, not bigger,” she said. Deficit reduction “isn’t a Republican problem or a Democrat problem — it’s an American problem that will require tough decision-making from both parties.” And the way to shrink the deficit is to cut government. The extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts over the next two years, she said, was an “important first step” to jump-start the economy.
Starting Wednesday, when the 112th Congress convenes with a Republican majority in the House, we’ll be hearing far more of the Big Lie.
George Orwell once explained that when a public is stressed and confused, a Big Lie told repeatedly can become the accepted truth. Adolph Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that “the size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed” and that members of the public are “more easily prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell big ones.”
Only the President has the bully pulpit. But will he use it to tell the Big Truth?
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Show AllSome people still haven't figured out that government is the only solution to all the problems we created by treating government as the problem.
Grab a spoon:
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/comedy/watch/v20699294R7smZbEc
Well said! This crap has been blowing in the wind since Reagan took the oath of office in '81. Republicans are incapable of governing, because they hate government.
Great quote, Logan! Should be quoted by the media.
I think it's time we realized, to paraphrase Lloyd Benson, that "Barrack Obama is no FDR".
Not only is Obama not FDR, his actions during the past two years have proven that he IS another Herbert Hoover...worse than Herbert Hoover because there is no FDR on the horizon, just a lot of J. Edgar Hoovers on the horizon coming to mow us down.
"Will Obama stand up to the Big Lie? Will he use his State of the Union address to rebut it and tell the truth? Maybe, but so far there’s no evidence."
Will Rush Limbaugh donate a kidney to Dennis Kucinich if needed?
Will Charles Barkley replace the unfortunate Isabelle Caro as spokesperson for "No Anorexia."
After quitting the Papacy, will the Pope reform Cream with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce as a quintet--and headline sold out shows in Kandahar and Kabul?
No.
Why do liberal writers, film makers, economists, & intellectuals keep writing essays where they pose the question: "Will Obama do the right thing?"
Enough already. The answer is no.
He is the Big Lie.
I think that hatred of government actually started during the Nixon years, among working-class whites, when many of them were "tired of welfare", etc.
They want you to hate the government.
But it is akin to getting mad at the wooden dummy with the hand up its ass.
Yes, if your busy hating the government you will eventually give up and leave them alone to their corruption.
Obama- what a failure, what a dismal failure at representing the people who stood with him and hoped.
What we all want is GOOD government. Where are the good public servants? What has happened to America?
There IS no popular hatred of government. The popular "hatred of government" is a media creation. Polls show this again and again - most recently the poll that showed that support for cutting SS and Medicare are statistically near zero. A majority of USAns even continue to support single-payer health care for all. Don't let the corporate media lead you to believe otherwise.
Very true SaboCat they fuel the hatred and/or they convince us government is incompetent and we'd be better off with less/smaller government. Of course who fills the voids left by government? Corporations, and they always have our best interests at heart... don't they?
;)
The " Big Truth" is that fascist amerika IS slaughtering its way into the abyss of failed empires; spending gadzillions to carry out terrorist acts against other cultures !
9/11 whistleblower found in dumpster;
Bush jr confidant dead in landfill,
family wants privacy
do you belive that Google has you flaged already for saying this..
The Big Lie | CommonDreams.org
4 Jan 2011 ... benningwentworth January 4th, 2011 6:49 pm. 9/11 whistleblower found in dumpster
; Bush jr confidant dead in landfill, family wants privacy ...
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/04-11 - - Cached
More government spending will not solve the problem. This is for people who have a little common sense and just a little math skill. The federal government had an $860 Billion stimulus spending bill that was additional to the yearly federal budget that to date has only creating a net of 507,000 jobs. (See the jobs report department labor and statistics page 5, lines 4 released December 3, 2010) Then we are spending an additional $1.3 trillion in deficit spending in the prior fiscal year from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010. We have a projected 2011 deficit of $1.55 trillion with prior year’s deficits of $1.4 trillion up to September of 2009 and $482 billion in 2008. Look at how much government deficit spending we have to do to get just 507,000 jobs in the last 12 months and at what point do we conclude its not working?
Adding the last 4 years of federal government deficit spending by a democrat controlled congress we get $5,592 Trillion. It should be obvious to anyone with even minor math skills that government spending deficits or otherwise, is not creating very many jobs. If government spending was working the economy should be booming and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. It’s just like a liberal or a progressive to want to keep doing something that is not working. By the way the last deficit when the republicans were in control of congress and responsible for was $151 billion for 2007 and unemployment was around 5%.
"Will Obama stand up to the Big Lie?"
How obtuse! Obama IS the Big Lie; the "Liar-in-chief."
Here's proof (from this morning's Democracy Now!):
"JPMorgan Exec Considered for White House Chief of Staff"
"President Obama is considering naming JPMorgan Chase executive William Daley to become his new chief of staff, replacing Rahm Emanuel who resigned last year. Daley is the brother of Chicago mayor Richard Daley. He served as commerce secretary under President Clinton and played a key role in pushing the North American Free Trade Agreement. Daley is now the Midwest chair of JPMorgan Chase and a board member of the pharmaceutical giant Merck. Meanwhile, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, is set to replace David Axelrod as the President’s senior political adviser."
It is WAY past time to stop pretending that Obama represents anything other than corporate interests, and WAY past time to think the Democrats offer an alternative to plutocracy.
The best laugh of the 2000 campaign and post-election fiasco was Bill Daley, as Gore's campaign manager, waxing indignant about butterfly ballots. That's what was used in Cook County at least until 1992.
Daddy ran the show, Ritchie was groomed as successor and Bill was always the behind the scenes money man. Rahm Emanuel ran the Clinton campaign in Illinois in 1992.
"Only the President has the bully pulpit. But will he use it to tell the Big Truth?"
_____________________________
Well, he hasn't used his bully pulpit to tell any Big Truths yet, so I'll have to go along with my Magic 8-Ball: "My reply is no".
And so we find that the "Republicans bad-- can Democratic president and party save the day?" theme has not been thrown out with the old, and survives into the new year like the vigorous blubbering of a freshly-spanked healthy newborn.
Well stated. Reich refuses to see that the Dems have never challenged a GOP assumption from trickle down to Iran Contra to now.
Yes, Obama and the Dems are not simply "letting it happen" as Reich asserts...they are 100% complicit.
The two political parties are a highly functional tag team.
move
lol!
Deficits happen when spending exceeds available revenue.
Why are we only hearing about the spending side?!!
Raising taxes on working folks isn't a bad idea until you start trying to figure out where to start raising.
Mr Reich is absolutely correct in increasing the earned income tax credit (started by Reagan) and eliminating taxes on those below the poverty level (~$20K). This will reduce the need for hand outs to those folks.
The working rich need to have their incomes re-assessed to include stock options, and then have the tax rate on incomes over $3 million per year taxed at 91%. This would help put a lot of people to work here in our country instead of allowing multi-national firms to take our tax breaks and use them to invest in other countries and their citizenry.
Just do it now Obama!
Robert, since the "big truth" is that the ruling-elite corporate/financial/militarist Empire, which fully controls our country by hiding behind the facade of its 'bought and owned' TWO-Party sophisticated modern 'Vichy' sham of faux democratic government, is really the "big truth", then this complicit emperor-president will never even dare to whisper it, and the only big thing that Obomba will say during his 'State of the Empire' speech is the 'Big Silence" (or BS).
But anyway, Bob, thanks for continuing to try to shame this Empire-clown into doing anything honest.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Both parties tell us the Big Lie. Choose the lie you like the best. Neither political party is working for you and me.
Our economic problems stem from a constant state of war for the last 60 years. Those wars have helped concentrate the wealth of America into the hands of a few. Both political parties are the War Party.
It makes no difference who is in charge. We are at war with a Republican administration, and we are at war with a Democratic administration.
1. Reagan put more debt on the backs of the American people than all of his predecessors combined.
2. The "Big Lie" has continued, unabated, ever since.
3. Proof that Bill Clinton is a part of the problem, not the solution is clearly born out by the actions of his administration in favor of the oligarchs and plutocrats, and their subsequent migration into the Obama Administration. I think it is about time the wide-eyed "progressives" take off their rose-colored glasses and called both of them for what they are.
Isn't it about time we stopped this exercise in self-deception and self-imposed ignorance? You don't have to dig very deep to find all this out. There is power in knowledge and information, but you sure as hell can't rely on the mainstream news outlets. You have to dig a bit deeper than your nightly news on television.
Isn't it about time we came to the conclusion that every facet of our government is broken. We need to set ourselves to the task of cleaning it up and creating an alternative to our sacred "two-party" system that will stand for a fundamental code of morality that we can all have faith and trust in?
What Reich should have added is this: Keeping voting Republican or Democrat and you'll never get of this shit. In fact, the shit will get deeper.
Next time, vote for progressive candidates--that is if you still have the right to vote.
"But will he use it to tell the Big Truth?"
Is this a rhetorical question? Because we all know the answer.
And of course as usual, Reich doesn't mention "free trade".
"The rich get rich and the poor get poorer.
In the meantime, in between times, ain't we got fun!"
"Big American corporations are innovating like mad all over the world, with research and development centers in China and India. And their profits are soaring. They’re sitting on almost $1 trillion of cash. But they won’t create jobs in America because there’s not enough demand here to justify them."
----- Not enough demand? Is that the only reason why Big American corporations won't create jobs here?
Mr Reich, your one sentence answer to why Big American corporations won't create jobs in America is a bit disingenuous.
Could one of the other reasons why Big American corporations choose to not create jobs in America have anything to do with the fact that they have gained absolute advantage in the world's labor market through the policies (NAFTA, GATT, etc) that they lobbied for? And, in turn, wouldn't it seem more appropriate to say that it was these policies that lead to this lack of demand and which has crushed a major section of the American working class folks who now 'no longer have the purchasing power to keep the economy going at full capacity' ??
MARK P: Your final paragraph is wiser than the article itself!
markpaddles,
Yes! You nailed it.
"According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans." http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19539 The top 1 percent now controls the largest amount of wealth since the Great Depression.
Deregulation, NAFTA and the destruction of Glass-Steagall have everything to do with the middle class vanishing and joining the ranks of the poor.
International corporations have NO loyalty to any country! They are concerned with two things and two things only: First, big bonuses for their CEOs and Second, profits for their big money investors. The rest of us are nothing more than a means to their end.
Gail, and don't forget economist Richard Wolff, whose fantastic and very accessible video, "Capitalism Hits the Fan", which graphically proves exactly the points you mention re. obscene income inequality, can be seen on Free Speech TV or purchased and shown to friends.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Exactly Mark, even with a USA demand there are no tarriffs, no incentive to produce in the USA, in fact OilyBomber has given tax breaks to corps that decide to manufacture abroad.
"The short-term solution is for government to counteract this shortfall by spending more, not less"
Speaking of the Big Lie. We just tried this and it obviously didn't work. Not in any way.
There is a bunch of lies being spread around, but please don't ask anyone of intelligence to believe its only the republicans spreading them.
Robert still can't remember the real problems...tax and trade policies thast make us look like fools. Laws and regulations to protect that are not enforced or they are removed.
"Free Trade" Thats where we open our markets and everyone else closes theirs.
This kind of BS is truly getting old.
The needed stimulus (look at history and FDR's use of stimulus) was approximately 1.25 trillion. A large proportion of US economists agreed with this. The GOP, which had thrown the US into deep debt was suddenly concerned about debt and able to reduce the stimulus package to about 0.85 trillion ..... enough to help but not to the degree necessary.... so as to allow right wingers to declare it a failure.
Not to mention that less than half of that 0.85 trillion was stimulus that had more than 0% chance of boosting economic conditions.
Not to mention that no GOP Rep. or Senator voted for said "stimulus", so the Democrats took 100% of the heat. The GOP has the Brer Rabbit strategy down pat.
It worked for their interests. Many corporations are trumpeting the "jobless recovery". Translation - our profits and productivity are back to "pre-recession levels" but we haven't had to hire anyone back and our overhead is lower.
A deep and long recession in North America and Europe is exactly what the corporations want. It is one of the final steps in the global economic redistribution dubbed "globalization".
You know, you really should get a clue about macroeconomics before spreading lies of your own.
The only thing that Dick Cheney ever said, that I know of, that had a grain of truth in it is that "deficits don't matter." And they don't. In a fiat currency system, money doesn't exist until the government spends it and then banks create more via fractional banking. The only upper limit on money creation is inflation, i.e. when there's too much money chasing too few goods. Any of that look like a problem now? Besides, for most of America, inflation is a net benefit . . . you get to pay back your debts with dollars that are worth less. Inflation, it has been said, is the only tax the rich ever pay.
The income inequality is a big problem, even considering offshoring. Higher taxes on the rich are part of the solution. However, we also need to implement a balanced trade policy to keep jobs in the US. That would also allow the stimulus to work better, with the wealthy elites not hoarding wealth and not offshoring jobs, more of the stimulus would go back into the US economy. As far as debt, its pretty clear in a recession we should run a debt but the budget should be balanced when things are better. I think the way Republicans are manipulating things and the short sighted, arrogant attitude of so many Americans, is that tax increases cannot even be mentioned, and the only way to reduce debt is to cut spending...errr, kill the poor and attack the countries ability to democratically control itself, solve its problem, and build democratically operated infrastructure.
The tax cut mentality will lead to much higher income inequality and will also sacrifice the lives of the poor to keep taxes low while demand side solutions are both effective at fixing the economic problems (together with balanced trade and a high tax rate on the wealthy), and combating and minimising suffering and loss of life due to the economic calamity, The job creation serves too purposes, to both alleviate the poverty and stimulate. Direct job creation with direct investment of public money leads to more jobs being created, and less of the money ending up in the hands of plutocrats.
Instead Republicans want to give more tax breaks to the same people who caused the mess we are in, and punish the victims of this disaster, so the people who caused the mess can become even more powerful adn wealthy.
Larry Summers gets job at Harvard.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/01/summers_to_head.html
move
Why is the big lie credible? The first fact which the average citizen understands is that the government action called a stimulus was ineffective at restoring the economy. It doesn't make sense to him that the way he would personally resolve his own financial problems would be to spend more money--so why would it work for the government? Finally the average guy thinks about what he would do if he had money. He would invest it to make more--right? Why aren't the rich doing that now? It must be that the government by taxing them too much is keeping that money which would otherwise be used for investment. It all makes sense to the average IQ low information voter. Do the Democrats or should I say progressives have a narrative half as convincing, half as compelling? No.
Because the Democrats lack the audacity to explain with any skill or energy. Maybe they fear that if they call a spade a spade the corporate powers will punish them. A Democratic President and other "leaders" must have the audacity to must stop assuming the people have been too dumbed-down to understand, and appeal to them directly. But, one has to wonder if the dem leaders really care, since the polls on many major issues show the public (despite our horrible media) are well out ahead of Obama on such things as Afghanistan and tax cuts for the rich. Get enough voters believing in what your doing and you minimize the need for corporate funding (bribes) and perhaps lay that need into the grave where it belongs.
Corporate punishment equating to death would put a chill down anyone's spine, especially if one has a family. I think this is accurate for our time, not overblown or understated. Daring like Gandhi-ji's is really quite rare. Bernie Sanders took some serious risks on that 8 1/2hr. Friday speech, even if it was to a nearly empty chamber.
Several thoughts,
First, Why oh why, does Robert Reich keep asking if Obama will stand up and do the right thing for the working people of this country? Every major decision he's made has been detrimental to the working class and both he and his administration are PROUD of it. Obama has taken the economic policies of Reagan and put them on steroids, he's taken the foreign and national security policies of G.W. Bush and put them into overdrive, and his anti union stance would make Sam Walton proud. Obama do the right thing for the working class - give me a break and go back on your Meds.
Second, I have to agree with Mightymite on this one. The reason short term government stimulus has worked in our nation's past was that we actually still manufactured things. With our industrial base all but destroyed and our total dependence on imported goods the only thing more stimulus money would do at this point is give a very short boost before petering out.
Third, There are things that the government could do. Things that the president could do without congress. He could halt the outsourcing of government jobs and services. He could order a criminal forensic accounting of our nation's banks and Wall Street firms. He could stop his administrations attack on teachers and public schools. He could order government agencies to buy local where possible. He could conduct a criminal investigation of the nation's mortgage lenders and order a halt to foreclosures until it is completed. He could start to fill the many thousands of government job vacancies that currently exists.
So very many things Obama could do. Will he do them? The answer is in, has he done any of these things in the past?
Waiting for our current government - either Congress or the Presidency to do the right thing is like expecting a broke, drug addicted, career criminal not to steal your wallet.
"As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human mind."
- Cleveland Amory
"Every major decision he's made has been detrimental to the working class and both he and his administration are PROUD of it. Obama has taken the economic policies of Reagan and put them on steroids, he's taken the foreign and national security policies of G.W. Bush and put them into overdrive, and his anti union stance would make Sam Walton proud."
Better still, Obama is G. W. Bush on steroids!
With you.
Waiting for them to do the right thing, yes, expecting it even- good government, because.. its our money they have been given the right to. Citizens work too hard in this country and expect good values and public benefits for their work-not f..ing punishment and scapegoating for the white collar conspiracies and crimes. This is the big lie- that what is ours is being stolen and the crime is becoming apparent. What do we do to bring back good government for America? Dump Obama to start, since he is not a good leader and won’t recognize our cause which is large and great. Then, we need to stop giving them our $ until we see proper democracy.
Of course the Iraq and Afghanistan war spending as well as military spending in other countries - giving the Israeli army 3 billion a year, has nothing to do with Americas financial problems. We must cut big government which really means _social services_. Defense is by far the biggest chunk of our spending and oh wait the people in defense are growing rich and richer like that income gap the title piece is talking about.
If they really wanted to cut big gov no problem - cut the defense department and the TSA. Oh wait, they meant medicare... Call it medicare then, not "big gov". The Defense department is big Gov. Medicare is social services and takes a far smaller portion of the money.
If we had an honest president and presidential cabinet, we wouldn't have financial problems. The defense spending would be shuffled into social programs. As it stands the defense industry owns the crook named Obama. Remind me again why my voting for him was better than the Republican candidate? I keep forgetting. I guess it comes down to whether you'd rather be lied to and pillaged(dems) or just pillaged(reps).
We all know that Obama won't speak any truth, anybody reading commondreams has figured that out. We know about how income inequality led to the crisis through an arrangement in which the rich had too much, the poor too little and so blew up the financial industry to cycle the money between them to mask the fact the poor were falling behind. The only question is how to get those not reading these threads to see the Big Truth.
http://theendisalwaysnear.blogspot.com/
this is the guy that was Clinton's sec of labor? what did he do in that post?
why would we listen to him about anything, NAFTA that job?