GOP Has Convinced A Majority To Believe Two Lies

The GOP's policies are so bad, and so out of touch with reality, that for years now they have been reduced to telling lies to justify themselves. Fortunately, most people have seen through a lot of those lies (like raising the minimum wage will hurt the economy & job creation, Social Security benefits must be cut to save the program, seniors would be better off if Medicare was abolished, it's good for the economy to ship jobs overseas, the rich and the corporations need more tax cuts, etc.).

But as the charts above show, the Republicans have been effective in the spreading of at least two outrageous lies. There's an old saying that says if you repeat a lie often enough, eventually people will start to believe it is the truth. Evidently they have repeated these two lies enough, because a new poll shows a majority of Americans now believe them.

The first lie is about the federal budget deficit. The Republicans want Americans to believe the budget deficit has grown under President Obama, and is now larger than under President Bush. The truth is far different. President Clinton eliminated the budget deficit and left Bush with a government budget that was actually producing a surplus. Bush destroyed that surplus by giving unneeded tax cuts to the rich and starting two unnecessary wars -- creating a huge budget deficit. Since taking office, President Obama has reduced the Bush deficit in every year, and that deficit is on target to be reduced again this year.

The second lie is about undocumented immigration. The Republicans want people to believe that the number of immigrant deportations has fallen under President Obama, and as a result of that we are being inundated with a flood of new undocumented immigrants. Again, that is far from the truth. The fact is that there have been more deportations in each year of the Obama administration than in any year of any past president (including the administrations of George W. Bush and right-wing icon Ronald Reagan) -- and the undocumented immigrant population is no longer growing, but has leveled off since President Obama took office.

Democrats and other progressives must do a better job of getting the truth out, and so does the mainstream media. The Republican claims about the deficit and immigration are no different than their other claims -- they are outrageous lies.

All of these charts were made from information contained in a new Bloomberg Politics Poll -- done between December 3rd and 5th of a random national sample of 1,001 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 points.

That survey did contain a little good news also (as illustrated in the chart below). It shows the public hasn't accepted the GOP lie that it is the president, and not them, that is causing the gridlock in Washington. It shows that a majority of Americans believe the president is acting out of his true vision for how to cure America's problems, while a majority believe the congressional Republicans are acting out of an attempt to antagonize the president.