I'VE BEEN READING THE Republican Pledge to America today, in hopes of finding something new, or valuable, to write about.
I had thought that it would be good fodder for a series of posts, outlining the differences between the two parties and their worldviews.
But so far I can't see any real theme in the pledge.
Perhaps I've missed it and the light will dawn eventually, or perhaps it's just the same old political rhetoric, with no real point except to trigger the emotional responses of voters while keeping them from thinking too deeply about the issues.
There was one line, however, which did catch my eye.
It claims that Obama...
...wants to raise taxes on roughly half of small business income in America.
And it goes on to complain that...
Raising taxes on anyone in a struggling economy – especially family owned businesses – is precisely the wrong thing to do.
Economists agree, as do the American people.
As always with the current Republican rhetoric, there are some lies involved on the surface.
I'll just mention them quickly, before getting to my main point:
-
Obama is not planning to raise taxes on anyone.
Republicans crafted the tax breaks for the wealthy to expire this year, back when they wrote the law during the Bush administration.
They are now claiming that this is Obama's fault, because he isn't interested in introducing a bill of his own, to lower taxes for the wealthy again, when theirs expires as they designed it to do. -
Economists do not, in fact, agree that it is always wrong for taxes to increase on the wealthy during a recession.
Republican politicians agree about this, because they represent the wealthy, but that's not the same thing. -
The American people are far from agreement on this issue, as well.
But my quarrel is not with those particular lies this time around.
It's with the bigger lie buried in the first part of the statement—the claim that Obama...
...wants to raise taxes on roughly half of small business income in America.
Almost any Republican spin master who reads this will immediately respond that the above sentence is not a lie—and since I can predict that, I will begin by explaining why it is a lie.
Republicans have gotten very good, in the last 15-30 years or so, at lying between the lines.
They make a statement which is literally true, but they make it in a way that guarantees the listener will hear something else entirely.
Without looking back at the quote in question, which I've now repeated twice, ask yourself what it said.
Was it something like this?
Obama wants to raise taxes on half the small businesses in America.
That's what the quote was designed to make you think.
But it actually says (literally) that half the small business income will be raised.
Why is this important?
Because that income belongs to just 3% of the small businesses, which means two things:
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Virtually all small businesses (97%) will not have their taxes go up when the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, and
-
The 3% that will experience an increase are very, very, wealthy compared to the rest, since they make as much as all the rest put together.
The pledge immediately goes on to talk about these businesses as "family-owned", which is intended to bring to mind the family running the struggling mom and pop store on your local corner, not the Rockefellers.
It's neatly done, and has the advantage of giving any particular Republican politician a nice escape hatch.
Next time, I'll show you how the escape hatch works...
