{"id":129946,"date":"2012-02-21T16:23:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T21:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=129946"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:07:31","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:07:31","slug":"us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/","title":{"rendered":"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions<\/a> by John Atcheson on Common Dreams.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. Not surprisingly, they aren\u2019t working very well for us.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s run through a few of the most destructive lies and myths.<\/p>\n

Corporations and the uber rich are the job creators:<\/strong> Uh, no. Corporations are sitting on over $2 trillion dollars in un-invested profits. What jobs they are creating are in China and other countries \u2013 which, by the way, engaged in huge government funded stimulus programs when the Great Recession first hit. Which brings us to our next myth…<\/p>\n

Government can\u2019t create jobs:<\/strong> This particular whopper is just plain counterfactual. Obama\u2019s much maligned stimulus program created some 3 million jobs and would have created more if he hadn\u2019t caved to Republicans and limited its size and agreed to put 40% of it into unproductive tax cuts. In short, government does create jobs \u2013 no one else can or will when there\u2019s not enough consumer demand to justify corporate expansion. And as long as the middle class\u2019s wealth is getting siphoned off by the 1%, there will not be enough demand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The deficit is our main problem, therefore we need an austerity budget: The story line from deficit hawks is that a deficit will spook bond markets and make it difficult for the US to borrow. But that hasn\u2019t happened. In fact, demand is so high for our bonds, we\u2019re able to borrow at record low interest rates. And while folks are practically lining up to buy our debt instruments, they\u2019re eschewing investments in countries which instituted austerity plans. Yet the Obama Administration continues to join with the Republicans in insane hand wringing over deficits. Yes, we must bring down the deficit eventually, but not in the midst of a jobs crisis. In the long term, there are two ways to cut the deficit: grow our way out of it, or cut spending to the bone, and face a stagnating economy for the foreseeable future. If we\u2019re to avoid the latter, right now we need government investment to stimulate growth.<\/p>\n

Republicans actually care about deficits:<\/strong> Let\u2019s put a stake in the heart of this one right now. Reagan and the two Bushes created more than 66% of the country’s debt — an amount equal to more than twice as much as all other President’s combined (including Obama). Did you hear any complaints while this record breaking debt was being wracked up? Not a word. Clinton, it\u2019s worth remembering, had a surplus.<\/p>\n

Republicans favor small government:<\/strong> In fact, the size of government exploded under Reagan and Bush II, and we didn\u2019t hear a peep out of Republicans. In the last thirty years, only Clinton reduced the size of government significantly, and he did so while declaring \u201cthe era of big government\u201d to be over. What they really favor is weak government, which brings us to \u2026<\/p>\n

Regulations stifle the economy; deregulation unleashes economic growth:<\/strong> The fact is, laissez-faire, free market policies have failed miserably every time they\u2019ve been tried. They have a nasty habit of causing grotesque income inequalities, huge market volatility and severe financial collapses. In fact, the Great Recession we are now climbing out of should have been strike 3 for the Free Marketeers. Strike 1 was the Panic of 1893 and the depression which followed it. Strike 2 was the Great Depression of the 30\u2019s. In all three cases, these collapses were preceded by conservative, laissez-faire policies featuring deregulation, low taxes and weak governments.<\/p>\n

Three tries \u2013 each resulting in severe income inequality and the catastrophic economic meltdowns they inevitably cause. It doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to figure out this strategy doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Climate Change is \u201cjust a theory\u201d and we can\u2019t afford to address it:<\/strong> Leaving aside the fact that in the pantheon of science, \u201ctheories\u201d are reserved for issues that are about as certain as the scientific method allows, the scientific consensus on global warming is as strong as it gets. And we know that the costs of not acting to prevent it are going to be far more than the cost of taking action, and it goes up with each year we delay. Thanks to Republican denial, Democratic complicity and press malfeasance, we\u2019re literally sleepwalking into the worst catastrophe the human race has ever faced.<\/p>\n

Republicans want to protect your freedom. Except when they want to tell you who you can sleep with, who you can marry, whether or not you can use birth control; when and whether you can choose to die; or when they want to tap your phone or detain you without due process, of course.<\/p>\n

So why is it that these myths and lies \u2013 so easily disproven \u2013 persist. Indeed, why have they become conventional wisdom for many Americans, and why do they shape the national debate?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where the Democrats, distractions and the press\u2019s malfeasance comes in.<\/p>\n

Republicans throw up a lot of flack to keep people from focusing on the fact that they\u2019re basically getting screwed by the 1%. Red meat issues like gay marriage, abortion and contraception, family values, and immigration do their part. Bald-faced lies like \u201cObama apologizes for America,\u201d or he was born in Kenya contribute as well. But it only works because Democrats are too wimpy \u2013 or too complicit \u2013 to confront this bait-and-switch bullshit.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that Democrats are feeding at the same corporate trough. No doubt that explains why they act like the class cowards and cringe in the last stall in the bathroom every time one of these faux issues get raised.<\/p>\n

But the real culprit is the press \u2013 they\u2019ve simply abrogated their responsibility to give people accurate, truthful information. Several weeks ago, New York Times \u201creader\u2019s representative\u201d Andy Brisbane actually asked readers whether reporters should be concerned with the truth. Honestly. He did.<\/p>\n

We are now stuck with a media that puts \u201cbalance\u201d or \u201cobjectivity\u201d before truth. As Eric Sevareid said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur rigid formulae of so-called objectivity \u2026 have given the lie the same prominence and impact that truth is given; they have elevated the influence of fools to that of wise men; the ignorant to the level of the learned; the evil to the level of the good.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is more true today than it was then. And without a press devoted to honesty and accuracy, our ship of state runs on yarns, myths and the modern day equivalent of \u201cbread and circuses,\u201d and we are at the mercy of the evil, the foolish and the ignorant.<\/p>\n

As long as that\u2019s the case, the whims of the 1% will rule and your pay will continue to erode, or your job will exported to China or India or Honduras or anywhere the plutocrats are free to exploit workers and the environment. Or to places like Germany, where they don\u2019t buy into the myths, and an active government role assures high-wage jobs and general prosperity.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, trying to run a country according to the rules of fantasy island isn\u2019t a recipe for success. But it does serve the interests of the 1%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions by John Atcheson on Common Dreams. The Text: The United States is headed for a plutocratic dystopia where a few gated communities sit like islands amidst a sea of bitterness, misery, and want. Why? Because the country is running on lies, myths, deceptions and distractions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUS Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-21T21:23:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-26T21:07:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/\",\"name\":\"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-21T21:23:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-26T21:07:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions","description":"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions","og_description":"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2012-02-21T21:23:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-26T21:07:31+00:00","author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/","name":"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-21T21:23:39+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-26T21:07:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"Republican Hypocrisy; Democratic Complicity; The Press\u2019s Malfeasance; and Why You Don\u2019t Have a Job and if You Do, Why it Doesn\u2019t Pay Squat","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/02\/21\/us-running-on-myths-lies-deceptions-and-distractions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133674,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129946\/revisions\/133674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}