Why This Particular Lie

IN THE PREVIOUS TWO posts, I've pointed out how a few lines in the Republican Pledge to America attempt to mislead the public.

The lines in question imply, while very artfully not actually saying, that Obama is responsible for a tax increase which Republicans actually put into effect, that the increase is on half of small businesses when it isn't, and that those small businesses are poor mom and pop affairs, when they are actually the wealthiest in the country, taking in more than the other 97% together.

At the end of the last post, I pointed out that this mislead was intentional, and that Republicans didn't mind that all of those things were lies, just so long as enough people believe them to affect the next election.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The more important question is why the Republican Party would pick this particular topic to lie about.

On its face it seems like a bad choice.

Most people don't run small businesses of any kind, so why would they care about taxes on small business?

Aren't there issues which would be an easier sell?

Especially if you're willing to lie to make a case?

The answer to that question is:

1. Yes, there are issues which are easier to sell—and the pledge lies about them, too.
2. But Republicans have reasons for including the tax issue, and the lies about the tax issue, that go far beyond this election.

A major constituency of the Republican party consists of rich people who do not want to be taxed.

That constituency has for a very long time now been working to sell a lie to Americans about taxation.

The lie takes several forms.

1. The most basic of these is the idea that taxing a wealthy person does damage to the economy, while cutting taxes on the wealthy automatically improves the economy.
   
   George Bush senior call this one "voodoo economics"
   
   We all saw how increased taxes destroyed the economy during the Clinton years, and how cutting taxes on the wealthy created a booming economy under Bush.
   
   Those of us with memories that go back to the fifties remember the middle-class prosperity of a strong America which was financed, in part, by marginal rates on the wealthy around 90%.
   
   But that was the good old days—the America of traditional values.
2. A second form of the lie is the idea that if businesses have their taxes cut they will automatically hire more people and pay them more.
   
   I've explained elsewhere why this is the exact opposite of what actually happens—the short version of my explanation is that employee's wages are deductible, and therefore the higher my marginal tax rate, the less I actually have to pay out of pocket when I hire a new employee or give an old one a raise.
   
   To go back to the fifties, any wealthy company that wanted to hire an employee, or negotiate a salary, with a 90% marginal tax rate could do it for 10 cents on the dollar.
   
   Do you think this was a discouragement to job creation?
   
   Right now, that same company would have to pay out a great deal more for the same worker or the same wage.
3. A third form of the lie is that government can't do anything efficiently, therefore taxes on the wealthy just take the money away from the free market where it would do some good, and put it in the hands of people who don't know how to use it.
   
   Try walking into UPS and getting them to deliver a letter to your aunt on the other side of the country for under 50 cents.
   
   Or take a moment to consider what happened to California when we privatized electricity not so long ago.
   
   Yes, we all like to complain about government inefficiency, but the real reason we're so easily disappointed is that our expectations are unreasonably high—and it's worth considering how they got that way.
4. From a political point of view, Republicans like to combine the above lies with one about fiscal conservatism—the Democrats, they tell us, just want to tax and spend, and this leads to greater and greater deficits.
   
   Never mind that Democrats, when you look at the big picture, are more conservative fiscally than Republicans.
   
   Or that historically Republicans spend more than Democrats.
   
   They do, however, have a record of cutting taxes, drastically, on the wealthiest Americans.
   
   Which means more money going out and less coming in: a recipe for disaster in any household.
   
   Democrats, on the other hand, tend to spend less than Republicans and tend to increase taxes on the wealthy, thus paying for what they spend.
   
   And they tend to spend in ways that help the middle class, and help the poor work their way into the middle class where they can contribute to a stronger economy.

Republicans, or their wealthy constituents, want you to believe these lies because it helps them to do more than simply win an election:

1. It helps to keep unemployment high.
   
   They won't say that, not in those words—they'll call it "keeping the cost of labor competitive".
   
   But the bottom line is the same.
   
   Lower marginal tax rates mean that it costs an employer more to hire an employee, which translates into fewer hires, fewer jobs, and a larger pool of unemployed people who have no bargaining power and therefore can be hired cheaply.
   
   The employer doesn't have to compete for workers with bargaining power anymore.
2. It keeps government from lending a hand to the poor and middle class, thus making them even more dependent on the wealthy and corporations—and even less able to drive a hard bargain.
3. It keeps all those things that government might do better in the hands of wealthy businesses, where it can provide opportunities for profit.
4. It keeps the government poor and in debt, so that it can't afford to police corporate abuses, like the ones that created our current economic problems.
5. And, of course, there's just the motive of simple greed. Even if you have multiple yachts and houses, it's always nice to have more of money.
6. I won't argue that the final effect of all that—recessions and depressions and other financial disasters—are part of the plan.
   
   I don't think even the least honorable of the wealthy, or of Republicans, would intentionally cause such disasters.
   
   But I will say that they are more willing to risk those disasters than Democrats or average Americans.
   
   After all, who came out ahead during the Bush recession? The big financial corporations, the wealthiest of the wealthy, or the middle-class family who lost their jobs or their house?
7. Finally, the combination of lies above—both the big lies about taxation and government, and the little ones about Obama and small businesses and mom and pop stores—help them to win elections.

At least, the lies help them win so long as the American people don't see through them.

It's time we used our x-ray vision.

At least, that's what I think today.