GREAT POLITICAL MYTH

Political literature is filled with misleading rhetoric, often in bumper sticker simplicity. In response, I have written extensively in prose trying to counter this misleading information. I have a blog site in which I publish these articles (almost 2,000) ecxpalining and justifying my liberal beliefs. On average, my articles are about 800 to 1,000 words each. As might be expected, this is not a very popular site with only 45,000 page views over it’s the history. People do not want to read something more than 8 to 10 words long, that is an exhausting two-log difference. This I understand, nevertheless, every time I read another misleading bumper sticker, I take it as a personal failure; my failure to change things makes me cringe.

The other day a fellow I consider a close friend posted one of the most misleading political statement I have read in a long time. The statement, reproduced below, is perhaps the most central statement that explains why Republican “working poor” vote the way they do. He is a successful businessperson and obviously above average intelligence. Therefore, it shocked me when I read the following on his page—it received a number of “likes”.

“It is wrong to tax a working person almost to the breaking point, then (sec) give it to a person who is able to work but refuses to.”

Let me explain why this is so misleading. “Working people are taxed to the breaking point . . .” Yes, In North Carolina, for example taxes on working people are going up. I would like to point out that the taxes on corporations are going down. The working people are paying for fire protection, police protection, educations of workers, building, and maintenance of highways, sewer systems, etc for themselves and for the corporations. The Republican governor tells us, the working people who are paying for all of these things, that by lowering taxes on industry, he is crating job; bumper sticker tells us “the 1% creates jobs”. To know this is a lie, all one has to do is look at income disparity to know all the money at the top is going into profits and not jobs; it is obvious; compare CEO compensation verses the rate of unemployment.

The shock of all shock is that many of these corporations do not pay taxes of any kind; income or property. In fact, some of them receive taxpayer subsidies. What irritates me even more is that these corporate executives have the nerve to complain about the high corporate tax rate. Did you see the ad put out by New York State; “come to our state and pay zero taxes for ten years”? Did I mention that in North Carolina corporations, have lower utility rates than do private homeowners?

They last part is what I call the Reagan myth. Remember his “Welfare Queen”, a fat “lady” buying the most expensive steaks and candy with “food stamps”, which she carries to her illegally parked pink Cadillac, a story often embellish with racial overtones. Everyone, who believes the myth, has seen her with his or her own eyes. Sorry, but I have been looking for many years and have yet to see her. Every welfare cheater I have seen, the government has prosecuted. If I see one, I report them. Judging from the number of prosecutions, I would guess there are very few. Again, fraudulent voters, all a Republican has to do is find one to claim they exist in massive numbers.

This myth of “wrong doers on welfare” is the reason several Republican governors have expended great amounts of taxpayer dollars drug testing people before the “tough” governor allows them to collect their welfare checks. The trouble is the tests almost invariable come up negative—all they have to do is find one among 100,000 makes them justify the program. If they truly want to find drug addicts, they should go to corporate boardrooms and the floor of legislatures. Think about that; the taxpayers the government is “taxing to the breaking point”, are paying to test unemployed people for nothing.

There is nothing in that quoted statement referenced above that is true—not one word. Honestly, tell me why you as a Republican “deep in your heart” know it is true. It isn’t good enough to say you have seen a Welfare Queen; by the way, next time take her picture and show it to me—I would like to see one before I die. It isn’t good enough to say you are being taxed to a breaking point without saying why your taxes are so high and corporate taxes are so low. 

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