 It's not just the big lie. Republicans are telling three other lies they hope will swing the midterm elections. They involve crime, inflation, and taxes. Here are the GOP's claims followed by the facts. First, they claim crime is rising because Democrats have been, quote, soft on crime. Well, that's rubbish. Rising crime rates are due to the proliferation of guns, which Republicans refuse to control. While violent crime rose 28% from 2019 to 2020, gun homicides rose 35%. States that have weakened gun laws have seen gun crime surge. Clearly, a major driver of the national increase in violence is the easy availability of guns. The violence can't be explained by way of any Republican talking points about soft on crime Democrats. Lack of police funding? No. On average, all cities, whether run by Democrats or Republicans, saw an increase in police funding in 2022. Criminal justice reforms? No. Wherever bail reforms have been implemented, re-arrest rates remain stable. Data shows no connection between the policies of progressive prosecutors and changes in crime rates. In fact, crime is rising faster in Republican Trump supporting states. In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Trump than in those won by Joe Biden. Republican policies have made it easier for people to get and carry guns. Republicans are lying about the real cause of rising crime to protect some of their biggest supporters, big gun manufacturers in the NRA. Second, Republicans claim that inflation is due to Biden's spending and wage increases. First of all, stop the madness. All these multi-trillion-dollar spending bills, that's what's driving up inflation. Well, that's baloney. Biden's spending can't be causing our current inflation because inflation is broken out everywhere around the world, often at much higher rates than in the United States. Besides, heavy spending by the United States government began in 2020 before the Biden administration in order to protect Americans and the economy from the ravages of COVID-19, and it was necessary. Wages can't be pushing inflation because wages have been increasing at a slower pace than prices, leaving most workers worse off. Look, the major cause of the current inflation is the global post-pandemic shortage of all sorts of things, coupled with Putin's war in Ukraine and China's lockdowns. According to this chart, what is the biggest driver of inflation during the pandemic? The dark blue is the recent period. It would be corporate profits. The biggest domestic culprit for America's current inflation is big corporations that are using inflation as an excuse for raising prices above their own cost increases, resulting in the highest profit margin since 1950, while consumers are paying through the nose. The biggest domestic cause of inflation is corporate power. Republicans are lying about this to protect their big corporate patrons. Third, Republicans say Democrats voted to hire an army of IRS agents who will audit and harass the middle class. Well, that's wrong. The IRS won't be going after the middle class. It'll be going after ultra-wealthy tax cheats. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in July provides funding to begin to get IRS staffing back to what it was before 2010. The extra staff are needed to prevent high-end tax evasion. It's estimated that the richest 1% are hiding more than 20% of their earnings from the IRS. Republicans are lying about what the IRS will do with the new funding in order to protect their ultra-wealthy patrons. Now, look, none of these three lies is as brazen and damaging as Trump's big lie, but they're all being used by Republican candidates in these last weeks before the midterms. So know the truth and please share it.