Robert Reich: GOP Is Spreading a Big Fat Lie About the Economy -- We Need Obama to Put an End to It

The GOP Is Spreading a Big Fat Lie About the Economy -- We Need Obama to Put an End to It
Only the President has the bully pulpit. But will he use it to tell the Big Truth that government is the only way we're going to get out of this mess?
January 5, 2011 |



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.

..........................

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.”


more:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/149426/the_gop_is_spreading_a_big_fat_lie_about_the_economy_--_we_need_obama_to_put_an_end_to_it/

republicans had no problem spending like drunken sailors when they were in power....bu$h* NEVER VETOED A SPENDING BILL and congress never complained

One major aspect of their spending: it always, without fail, was designed to benefit the wealthy, big-money, corporate oligarcy. Notice when Obama or any other Dem proposes spending on social programs, health care, social security, etc (you know, the things that benefit ALL of us) and hear the rethugs squeal like pigs about the deficit, yet in the same breath fight to keep tax cuts for the wealthy and spend trillions on the MIC and wars.

Truely disgusting.

This is hardly something new. The "government's too big" issue has stuck like white on rice since it became the Reagan mantra around 1980. That's more than 30 years. A generation.
Is Bob Reich just realizing this?

They should just go along with it since there's no point in doing anything else.

But this shouldn't be something my friend Robert Reich should be suddenly bringing up now, as if Democrats and Obama himself haven't ever addressed the issue. We should have been yelling it all throughout the Bush years and, frankly, during the Clinton years ... when Democrats co-opted the "smaller government" mantra and used it to their own ends.

I'm getting a little tired of all these "advice" columns. They're self-promotional, and have more to do with the advisors' own interest in gaining readership than they do in serious advice to politicians ... many of whom, after all, are not that dumb.

Or maybe they agree with the Republicans.

He's been teaching, he's written books.

....and get rid of that useless peice of shit Gietner and bring Robert Reich on board. Yea, fat chance. Gotta keep Wall street happy for all that campaign cash they're gonna fork over to the dems in 2012.:sarcasm:

After all we love what Republicans have done with the country, just love it.

I love Robert Reich but this article needed to be written long ago. It's like waiting to prepare for a tidal wave until it's inches above ones head.

That's right up there with "Supply Side Economics."

The problem may not be that Obama allows them to tell it. The real problem is that after all this time the right winger base is so stupid that they still haven't figured out that their politicians haven't a clue as to how the economy works.

Good luck with that one!

precinct that he would. nt

Just ain't gonna happen.

He knows exactly what the problem is. (And so do numerous other Americans.)

Obama is the kind of Democrat that likes to blur the distinctions between the parties.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

Naw, it would be a demotion.
Great article.
Thanks.

"I am absolutely convinced that was the right thing to do. But families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same. So tonight, I'm proposing specific steps to pay for the $1 trillion that it took to rescue the economy last year.

Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't. And if I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will.

We will continue to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work. We've already identified $20 billion in savings for next year. To help working families, we will extend our middle-class tax cuts. But at a time of record deficits, we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can't afford it.

Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we will still face the massive deficit we had when I took office. More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That's why I've called for a bipartisan, Fiscal Commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The Commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans."

if Obama said it it obviously will be so!

He's never walked back on any promises yet, has he?


Has he?


The truth is, you cannot count on a single word he says. Just watch his actions, then we'll know which way the wind is truly blowing.

*sheer disgust*

When the former U.S. Secretary of Labor, columnist, and regular guest on the nation's punditry shows, starts citing Orwell and '1984', Hitler and 'Mein Kampf'...

Something is very very wrong...

:kick: & Rec !!!

As you know pundits from all over the political spectrum have voiced alarm about this and other issues that continue under Obama. Like extending the tax cuts for the ultra wealthy for example. Like continuing two unpaid for wars for another. I mean, this is right in our face but over half the population remains clueless.

Reich addresses the topic at UC Berkeley in 2005- http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=9521

Daley, his latest appointee, proves it.

But then I'm sure it's our fault for not "making him do it".

kr

Yes Mr. Reich We need President Obama to do a lot of things on our behalf. But he SUCKS at doing what he needs to do. I guarantee we will never hear a word about this from the complicit Obama.

Government spending tends to be inefficient, therefore the GOP is right, big government can be a cause of economic malaise. However, we should remember the GOP was in charge during the Bush years, and they were the ones who blew the budget and caused the yearly deficit.

I prefer to focus on cost cutting where it can really help, and there are very easy moves we can make: take our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and cut about $400 billion from the Pentagon budget by bringing troops from overseas bases and mothballing aircraft carriers and nuclear subs. Other areas which seem ripe for cuts are such as the budget for the International Space Station and aid to Israel (which is after all a very rich country so it is irrational to give aid to the rich).

We (I use the term loosely) dismantled the oversight and regulatory functions of government, allowing the financial monsters to create their insane leveraged hocus-pocus, we no longer protect properly against monopolies, we no longer provide adequate training assistance for the needy, we allow corporate lobbyists to literally write our legislation, it goes on and on. Shrink it till it's small enough to drown it in a bathtub, Grover Norquist, that's what caused our problems.

The big government of homeland security and the military also were part of the problem, but these are not what people usually mean when they attack big government.

No, the GOP is not right.

Regulate, regulate, regulate. No free trade without fair trade. Shrink the military until it's small enough to drown it in a bathtub (it's the corporate empire's military, not our military, and we are only under attack because of its excesses). Sounds like we agree about this part.

If a republican is talking, he or she, is lying.

I try to look at it from an investment point of view. How can we best invest our tax dollars for the benefit of the country? For instance, tax cuts for the rich don't stimulate the economy. A Moody's study said you get $0.31 stimulus for every dollar "spent" on tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the middle class, though, now THAT stimulates the economy. You know what else does? Unemployment benefits and food stamps. Government "giveaways to the poor" produces $1.58 and $1.73 stimulus per dollar spent. Road building falls in between. Yes, food stamps are a better stimulus than road building.

Not all government spending helps. Defense spending has historically been a bad stimulus. A lot of that money goes overseas, far more than we spend on what we explicitly call foreign aid. And a lot of Defense spending goes for things we intend to blow up. NASA used to brag about how much indirect economic benefit we got for spending on space. The actual dollars don't end up in space, and the high tech developed for the space program provides a big boost for other industries. The space program is one of the best investments our government has ever made.

The Republicans keep getting this wrong. Even when their goals are laudable--more jobs, better economy--they go in exactly the worst direction.

let Republicans define Democrats (like making "liberal" a dirty word) and let Republicans define the terms of the debate ("death panels") all of which constantly put Democrats on the defensive. Republicans are good at this and Democrats are good at letting them get away with it.

I don't think this will happen since this administration is just a continuation of the coup....