Republicans Selling Their Tax Cuts For The Rich: "Lies, Lies, Lies..."

As we continue to be distracted by the puerile antics of the moron Man- Baby and his Republican Party enablers, those same "comforters of the comfortable" are in a race with the legislative clock to pass their upward wealth- transferring tax plan. Of course, as Republicans do, they're lying about it.

As a reference, Paul Krugman has 10 of the most obvious lies Republicans tell about their latest attempt to line the pockets of corporations and the one percent at the expense of the rest of us. Please go to his article for the fill- in details; these are just the enumerated lies:

Lie #1: America is the most highly-taxed country in the world
Lie #2: The estate tax is destroying farmers and truckers
Lie #3: Taxation of pass-through entities is a burden on small business
Lie #4: Cutting profits taxes really benefits workers
Lie #5: Repatriating overseas profits will create jobs
Lie #6: This is not a tax cut for the rich
Lie #7: It’s a big tax cut for the middle class
Lie #8: It won’t increase the deficit
Lie #9: Cutting taxes will jump-start rapid growth
Lie #10: Tax cuts will pay for themselves

Senate Republicans are expected to vote later this week on the 2018 budget. If they pass the proposal (not 100% certain due to solid Democratic opposition and a few ostensible Republican deficit hawks), they'll then be working to resolve differences with their fellow stooges in the House.  If and when that's happened, they can pass Man- Baby's tax proposal with a simple majority in the Senate, though the bill is still being drafted and there are a welter of pending issues piling up waiting for resolution (appropriation bills, DACA, Iran nuclear agreement, salvaging Trumpcare (yes) cost- sharing reduction payments, etc.).

A main motivator for these plutocrat lickspittles is the threat from their donor base that not passing their wealth- transferring tax plan will result in the money spigot being turned off, or be re-directed to primary opponents under Bannon banner in 2018. All the more reason to want this piece of sociopathic mischief to fail.

That Texas "Miracle" (Wink Wink) You'll Be Hearing About

Paul Krugman writes about one of the only selling points for former governor and future Lenscrafters spokesmodel Rick "Oops" Perry:  the so-called "Texas Miracle:"

Remember the Texas economic miracle? In 2012, it was one of the three main arguments from then-Gov. Rick Perry about why he should be president, along with his strong support from the religious right and something else I can’t remember (sorry, couldn’t help myself). More broadly, conservatives have long held Texas up as a supposed demonstration that low taxes on the rich and harsh treatment of the poor are the keys to prosperity.

So it’s interesting to note that Texas is looking a lot less miraculous lately than it used to. To be fair, we’re talking about a modest stumble, not a collapse. Still, events in Texas and other states — notably Kansas and California — are providing yet another object demonstration that the tax-cut obsession that dominates the modern Republican Party is all wrong.

Krugman also contrasts the Republican economic governance of Texas and Kansas with the Democratic economic governance of California.  You might guess how that comparison goes, but if not:

For those who haven’t been following the Kansas story, in 2012, Sam Brownback, the state’s hard-right governor, pushed through large tax cuts that would, he promised, lead to rapid economic growth with little, if any, loss of revenue. But the promised boom never materialized, while big budget deficits did.

And, meanwhile, there’s California, long mocked by the right as an economy doomed by its liberal politics. Not so much, it turns out: The budget is back in surplus in part because the emergence of a Democratic supermajority finally made it possible to enact tax increases, and the state is experiencing a solid recovery.

Keep in mind too, the prevailing right-wing philosophy behind Perry's economics is deregulation, which has certainly added greater meaning to the concept of a "booming economy."

Meanwhile, in the Republican-wired newsroom at the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, cub reporter Jimmy Olsen Stephanie McCrummen wonders if Perry is more style or more substance, a question she somehow avoids answering ("we report, you decide").  Is the "Texas Miracle" mentioned?  Why, of course it is, but only with attendant glowing quotes from a corporate  suit who was "incentivized" to build his plant in Texas (no unions, no taxes, no environmental protections, yee-haw!).  So what issue does McCrummen spend the first 19 paragraphs talking about (and refers back to as a theme)?

... a man poses a question about the importance of speaking plainly, and Perry pauses a moment before he answers by asking rhetorically, which is to say confidently: “Did I say anything today you couldn’t understand?”

People laugh, and this is when it happens: Rick Perry winks.  (our emphasis)

Yes, Perry's wink!  Nineteen paragraphs.  He's winking at you, Stephanie! Looks like he made the sale.

Suppressing the Facts, Rethug Style

The Congressional Research Service is a respected, independent research arm of the U.S. Congress that is typically called upon to research and report on a wide range of issues. When it was asked to research the issue of whether tax cuts for upper income people ("job creators"), it reported back that there was no correlation between tax cuts for the wealthy and job creation or economic prosperity: it just make wealthy people even wealthier.

Well, this didn't sit well with the protectors of the 1%. Rethuglican Senate Minority Leader and unintentional turtle impersonator Mitch "Missy" McConnell had the report squashed, obviously because it undermined the most cherished myth of the modern Rethuglican/New Confederate Party that giving the wealthiest more wealth will trickle down to the rest of the country. It also demonstrated that taxphobic Grover "The Pledge" Norquist has the Rethuglican leadership's gonads in an undisclosed location, and is threatening to stomp on them if they depart from the "no taxes, never ever" pledge that they signed.

So add tax cut mythology to the list of Rethug fantasies, along with climate change denial, pregnancies from rape are impossible, and so many more.