Robert Reich Debunks 6 Big GOP Lies About The Economy

Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme as Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry claims? Noted author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich debunks that claim and five other lies the right-wing tells about taxes, government and the economy.

The lies Reich debunks:
1) Tax cuts to the rich and corporations trickle down to the rest of us. (No it doesn't and it never has.)

2) If you shrink government you create jobs. (No, you get rid of jobs that way.)

3) High taxes on the rich hurts the economy. (No, the economy grew when the US did this under Eisenhower.)

4) Debt is to be avoided and it is mostly caused by Medicare. (No, if debt is properly used to grow the economy, it becomes a smaller part of the budget because of increased revenue and Medicare has the lowest overhead of any health insurance plan out there.)

5) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme (No, its solid for 26 years. Social Security is solid beyond that if the rich pay the same percentage in social security taxes as the rest of us do.)

6) We need to tax the poor. (This is what Republicans have been proposing when they say any "tax reform" needs to involve all Americans because poor people pay no income tax. The poor have no money and taxing them will not solve our budget problems.)

Reich was speaking at the "Summit For A Fair Economy" in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 10, 2011.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• robert reich
• rick perry
• lies
• taxes
• tax cuts
• rich
• trickle down

[noahrichards]

@icouce Assuming the figures on wikipedia are accurate, the total net wealth of the US was $54.2 trillion in 2009. For the wealthest 25%, then, 87% would be $47 trillion, significantly more than the national debt.

I'm not saying I think we should actually do that, just that we should all be careful about the factual assertions we make.

[thatguyontheright1]

@davidmaren2000 *look it up* is a Tea-hadist cop out when they don't have any sources.

[NotMuchNU]

You mention scapegoats... And I am seeing antisemitism on the rise, Jews being blamed for all the world's ills, for all America's ills, for every real and perceived financial badness... You didn't list Jews among the scapegoats, but this ugly bit of history, dating back well over a thousand years, is rearing its ugly head, again, and it's getting angrier and more hateful with each passing day.

[timber2403]

Robert Reich is perfect here

[timber2403]

OBAMA 2012

[stonytina1]

@triox64 Many companies go overseas because they can achieve better scams there. That's the result of a shareholder's economy. #1 priority is maximizing profit. In a somewhat more workers-based economy the biggest priority would be to keep jobs for the workers. Which, by the way, does not mean the world becomes a socialist conservative's noghtmare. Companies would still have to be run in a sensible way or else the workers would still end up jobless.

[stonytina1]

46 Republicans have watched this vieo too....

[mwells219]

@triox64 right so the "job creators" can make more money than they already have and then magically make more jobs and make life better for all of us. Give some real life examples where this was sustainable.

The most propserous time in this country from the 1950s to the 1970s, happend when the tax rate on the top 5 percent of income earners was 70 to 90%. It's not a "socialist lie" it is fact.

[cooljj82]

@TheLoveMonkey Those wealthy corporations and individuals aren't doing anything because of uncertainty. Not knowing if the capital gains tax is going to change, and how employment costs will change because of health insurance changes is causing them to wait. Once congress makes up its mind, businesses will resume hiring and investing. That is what I have been hearing from the heads of the top 500 corporations for about 4 years.

[cooljj82]

@johnbeingjohn Medicare has several trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.

[cooljj82]

He didn't really debunk anything he just disagreed.

[cooljj82]

Why is it than when we the right talks about cutting federal jobs, the left always talks about teachers, cops, and firefighters, which are state, county, and local jobs?