Debunking the Conservative's Economic Boogeymen

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/03-0




Bogeyman number 1: The deficit is exploding and needs to be reined in.

Fact: The deficit is shrinking. Deficit hawks and austerity mongers raise the specter of debts and deficits as if we were in uncharted territory. In fact, we are, but not the territory they warn about. Within the last year and a half, the US deficit has been shrinking faster than at any time since World War II. In fact, one reason our economic recovery has been so anemic is the collapse of public spending, at a time when banks and corporations are shipping money overseas, playing bingo on Wall Street with our money, and hoarding it for CEO bonuses and other non-productive uses.

Bogeyman number 2: Takers and moochers are the reason for the (non-existent) deficit problem.

Fact: Most of the “welfare” and government handouts go to corporations and the uber-rich, not some massive cohort of permanently dependent citizens. For example, the federal Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that there will be $154 billion in special corporate tax breaks in 2013. If you count state and local taxes the total exceeds $230 billion, with much of it going to “needy” companies like Walmart.


***SNIP

Bogeymen number 3: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are threatening to bust the budget and plunge us into permanent, dysfunctional debt.

Fact: Social Security is not bankrupt and can be fully funded for as long as we can forecast with relatively simple fixes. For example, lifting the cap on payroll taxes – now at $113,700 would make the system whole for as long as we can forecast. Even if we do nothing, Social Security can still pay out 70% of benefits well into the century. Oh, and social security is money we earn and pay into the system, so it has nothing to do with the budget deficit.

As for Medicare and Medicaid, they actually reduce overall debt by slowing down the rate of cost increases. Absent these programs, people would pay far more for medical care. In short, net personal costs would go up without these programs. True ideologues might take comfort that much of their expanded debt is owed to the far more costly, far less effective private health insurance sector, but for most citizens, debt is debt and the less the better. Oh, and there are measures which can bend the cost curve even more – which bring us to

[pampango]

1. "Bogeyman number 4: Obamacare is going to bankrupt us …

Bogeyman number 5: If we increase taxes on the rich, the economy will stall and unemployment will increase."

Seems that, if you repeat a "Bogeyman" often enough, a lot of people (particularly those who live in a world of half-truths and fear) will believe you.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth