Let's see. I have been around for about 58 years now and have had the "privilage" of hearing politicians lie for a long time. However certain BIG LIES keep coming back time and again, and the American voting population keeps believing them and voting for the same old political "BS". Unfortunately, I do not see any end to this. A large percentage of the US population is completely uninformed after watching years of network TV (you know shows like RealTV, Friends, Cheers, Jerry Springer, and other highly intelligent sitcoms.) Our schools are not helping any by continuing to graduate students that are functionally illiterate. Believe me I know since I must hire them in my business! Todays kids have little knowledge of political or world history and events, and even less knowledge of what capitalism really means. So in an effort to bring these BIG LIES to you.......... here are the best of the best lies. Think of it as a Public Service Announcement!
"The budget has been cut. " Don't fall for this LIE! The budget has never been cut. A cut is when you reduce the total you spend to BELOW last year. This just does not happen in Washington. A "cut" in Washington means that the budget will increase at 4% next year instead of 6%. This will cause old folks to be put out on the street, children to starve, and social security to fail - or so they say. Washington budgets always increase from one year to the next. And guess what the Education budget has INCREASED DRAMATICALLY during the last 6 years- have you seen any improvements in kids learning abilities yet?
"The tax cut is just for the rich." Another BIG LIE! Right now about 4 out of every 10 Americans pay NO INCOME TAXES! ( and many of these folks receive "the earned income tax credit", because their total wages fall below a certain level.) How can you get a tax break if you DO NOT PAY ANY TAXES!?????? The "Earned Income Tax Credit" is just a fancy politically correct word for welfare payments. So what you really want to do is raise taxes on everyone but yourself! Right!? Right now Americans who pay the Federal Income Tax are paying about 40-45% of their total income to federal, state, and local taxes. Add them up for yourself ...let's see Fed Income Taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, car taxes & license plates, fishing licenses, hunting licenses, franchise taxes, personal property taxes, driving licenses, park entrance fees(taxes), road tolls and on and on.....................all of these are government taxes collected even though many of them are called "fees" and or "licenses". Remember 4 out of 10 Americans pay NO INCOME TAXES! and many GET MONEY BACK AT THE END OF THE YEAR!
"Only the government can solve that problem." or hello we are with the government and we are here to help you! Name one country anywhere in the world where the government has taxed their citizens into prosperity! The government has the legimate role of making sure that interstate competition is on a level playing field, that infrastucture is in good repair, (like our highways, sewers, and telecommunications), and that the country is properly defended against its enemies. YOU are responsible for your own "pursuit of happiness". Government does not generate any profits......it only takes money from one person or one company and distributes it to another person or group(using the high-minded argument of "the greater good".) In my 58 years on earth no one from the "government" ever helped me with anything! They just keep asking for more and more money.
"All of our problems are the result of the current administration." What a joke! The President and his Administration have very little to do with the US Economy. The President only purposes budgets- Congress must pass the budget, usually after numerous amendments and changes. Congress on the other hand can enact laws restricting business development, and making job growth difficult. So your local congressman and/or senator has much more to do with the US economy than the President ever could. So blame the last lifetime job dummy you elected to national office before you blame a short term administration. You know that guy or girl that has been in office since he or she graduated from college back in 1972 and has never held a real job, or had to produce employee payroll, benefits, or company profits. YOU just keep falling for the same "its the President's fault" political BS speaches!
"This is a seperation of church and state issue". Are you sure it is? Remember our founding fathers only wanted to protect us against a state run church, not eliminate all references to religion from general society. In fact many of our founding documents and original founder's letters and communications refer to a "higher power" where the goverment's and people's power originates. Just read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and see for yourself. They did not want a STATE SPONSORED CHURCH- like the Church of England.
"If we only had MORE money we could educate our children better." This goes right along with classroom size is to large(their ideal size is 22 students per teacher-HA!). Most private schools have larger class sizes than public schools, and smaller budgets. So how is it that children in private schools receive a "better" education and attend and graduate more students from our colleges than public school students? Can't be class size or dollars per student. Maybe private school student's family environment has a lot to do with succeeding in school. The city of Washington DC spends huge sums of money on education and has one of the worst performing school districts in the country. More money is not the answer. Better family participation and involvement is. And don't forget that every penny we spend on "administration" is money not being spent on teaching. Fire the administrators and government agencies and give the money we save directly to our teachers; and forget about the ideal classroom size!
"We must protect the Social Security Fund." Nice try but a little to late. There is NO FUND! Just IOUs from the Treasury Department. Your favorite politician has already spent the Social Security surplus by mixing it in to the general revenue fund. There is NO LOCK BOX; and social security will start running negative numbers in the next decade as the baby boomers start to retire. This is a gigantic legal pyramid scheme where current workers pay for retiring workers. Yes, your grandparents had a great deal. They collected much more than they put in. Now it's time to "pay the piper" on social security by either raising the retirement age or substantially increasing payroll taxes(the number I hear is 20-25% higher!!). We are almost at the point where three workers are supporting ONE retiree. During the next decade we will decrease to TWO workers supporting ONE retiree! This cannot be supported by the current payroll tax alone without substantially changing Social Security benefits, retirement age, or by dramatically increasing payroll taxes. Your children will pay through the nose on their paychecks to support you! Hope your happy now!
"The government owes me lifetime health care and prescription drugs." Since when? I don't see any mention of that in the US Constitution or Bill of Rights. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? This is just another way for politicians to retain increasing power over the folks that elect them. So let's create another gigantic goverment agency and tax "THE RICH" and pay for this deal. (By definition "The Rich" is anyone paying income taxes .) Remember 4 out of 10 US taxpayers do NOT pay any income taxes. (We recently paid an emergency room bill for a dislocated finger. The finger was put back in place in about 5 minutes- the bill was $1800 dollars which included and x-ray of the finger.) You and I, with insurance, are now paying for the multitudes of lazy Americans and illegal aliens without insurance. The cost is just being added to OUR medical bills! YOU, the uninsured American, and illegal alien, should be hanging your head in shame!
Bonus Lies: Let's change the usual word we use because it might offend someone or some group. Examples are : Illegal Aliens become Illegal immigrants or Migrant workers; Homosexuals become Gays; Handicap becomes Challenged. The national media does this all the time- and no one "challenges" them. Start looking for this when you watch CBS, NBC, ABC, or read any of the nationally recognized newspapers like the New York Times or LA Times. Your local newspaper will pickup the new word and start using it. Can you believe this NONSENSE!
Global Warming- Folks we are now overdue for the next ice age which occurs on average every 11,000 years. The last ice age ended about 11,000 years ago. Weather records only go back about 150 years so there is not enough data to predict what the climate will be like 100 or 200 years from now. As a point of fact it was much warmer (than at the present time ) during the 11th to 14th centuries (readings obtained from measuring tree rings and old hand written weather documents. How can this be ???? No one drove cars and there was no petroleum based industry during that time. Also the global population was much smaller back then. Think - ICE AGE ! On a geological time scale that is what is coming next. Maybe the strange weather and extremely slight temperature rise (if it really exists at all) is just the forerunner of another ICE AGE. Who really knows? Certainly not me ----- or "them" for that matter! Just another way to get soccer mom's and Berkley graduates to send money.
Thousands of animal species have become extinct due to mankind's encroachment on the environment. Just another way to get soccer moms and Berkley graduates to donate to their favorite animal species association. Mother nature is a much better eliminator of animal species than we could ever dream. Several times in the planet's history almost the entire animal and plant populations were wiped out! This includes all dominant land and ocean species. (All those bones you see in the Natural History museum.) Humans had not yet arisen and may never have acheived dominance, as a species, had these terminal extinction events not taken place. Remember 90%+ of ALL land, ocean, and plant species ELIMINATED by good old MOTHER NATURE!
LOCAL LIES! Dallas air pollution is terrible and not improving! Back in the 60s and 1970s Dallas averaged 25-35 days each year of air pollution alerts. Today it is down to 5-10 days. During the same time Dallas's population has doubled, and automobile registration has more than doubled! In 2003 Dallas ranked #10 in air pollution with seven cities in California ranking #1 to #7. Dallas is the 5th largest city so why is our air pollution ranked #10? We must be doing something correctly. Dallas was not in the top 10 US cities in particle emissions. Again the facts do not match what you hear in the local major media sources! The truth is Dallas's air pollution has vastly improved during the past 25 years. New cars like the Honda Accord or Toyota have virtually ZERO emissions based on the 1970 standards; so they upped the standards in the 1980s and 90s in order to calculate "new" emission standards and keep getting "new" tax dollars from you and your family! How many times have you seen the weatherman announce that tommorrow will be an ORANGE Pollution alert!... only to discover that you can see for 30 miles in all directions!
AND FINALLY...... We are loosing the war in Iraq! Let's see. About 700+ U.S. solders have been killed IN COMBAT in Iraq during the past year(June 2004 data)..........the other 200+ casualties were NON-COMBAT........ during the same time frame over 2000+ Californians were murdered. So I guess that California is THREE TIMES as dangerous as Iraq! In fact the murder rate in the USA closely matches the death rate in Iraq. (per capita ) The current Iraq war along with "Desert Storm" are and were both precision strike wars, with exceptionally low loss of US military or Iraq civilian lives. However, the major print and TV media would like you to think it is like Vietnam to boast the liberal anti-war agenda of their editorial staff. When was the last time you heard any good stories about Iraq or US forces on any of the major media outlets? Virtually nothing about the new interim government or the new constitution, polls that say that most Iraqies want US forces to remain in place after the June 30th power transfer, new schools and infrastructure built, food and water now available, or normal business being conducted on Baghdad streets. But you will hear about anything that detracts from our success in Iraq IMMEDIATELY and in prime time on the major TV stations or newspapers. Bad news reporting has to be running 8 to 9 times more frequently than good news.
Oh.......by the way.........we actually won the Vietnam War after the TET offensive. But media and anti-war factions convinced us that we had lost! Don't let them do this again.