The Biggest Republican Lie

Republicans tell lots of lies. That's probably because their economic policies have been disastrous and their social policies hard-hearted and mean-spirited. Telling the truth would expose them to public ridicule. But there is one lie they have been telling for years, and that lie irritates me more than any of the others. It is when they tell Americans that they are the party of fiscal responsibility and that is why they want to cut the deficit.

The chart above, which I have used before, shows that Republican presidents have not been fiscally responsible at all, but have been the biggest spenders in recent times (especially the "trickle-down" proponents, Reagan and Bush). The Republicans love to talk about fiscal responsibility, but they never exercise any when they are in power.

The other day, Willard Mitt Romney claimed that President Obama has increased the national debt more than all the presidents before him -- an outrageous lie. The truth is that while the debt has risen under President Obama (largely due to GOP obstructionism), it has risen only half as much as it did under President Bush -- and the deficit is actually smaller than it was under Bush. Romney's statement is a prime example of the lies the Republicans will tell to cover up their malfeasance.

While Republicans ignore the profligate spending of Reagan (since they cannot speak ill of their icon), some will admit that the Bush years were not good. They tell us they have learned their lesson though, and are now determined to be fiscally responsible and reduce the deficit. That is nothing more than another lie.

The budget proposed by their presidential candidate, Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie), and the last two budgets passed by the House of Representatives (the "Ryan" budgets) would actually increase the deficit by billions of dollars -- by increasing military spending (even though the Pentagon says they don't need the increase) and by cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The only thing they would cut are the programs that help hurting Americans (and that could not cover the increases in spending and the tax cuts for the wealthy).

They Republicans are still telling the same old lie. They don't want to cut the deficit or be fiscally responsible (and none of their budget proposals would do either). They just want to take the money currently being spent to help hurting Americans, and give it to the wealthy and the corporations. And that is reprehensible.