Decades of Conservative Spin=Americans Hopelessly Confused About Taxes, Spending and the Deficit

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

Thanks to Decades of Conservative Spin, Americans Are Hopelessly Confused About Taxes, Spending and the Deficit
Conservatives have spent 30 years divorcing the taxes we pay from the services they finance -- no wonder the public doesn't know where their tax dollars go.

May 6, 2011 |


A few weeks back, Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, felt compelled to take time out of what is presumably a busy schedule to explain that “taxes are, first and foremost, about paying for what the government buys.” That he felt compelled to do so is a sad reflection of the state of our economic discourse.

A good number of Americans are hopelessly confused about taxes, deficits and the debt. And it's no mystery why – conservatives have spent 30 years divorcing the taxes we pay from the services they finance. They've bent themselves into intellectual pretzels arguing that cutting taxes – on the wealthy – leads to more revenues in the coffers. They've invented narratives about taxes driving “producers” to sunnier climes, killing jobs by the bushel, and relentlessly spun the wholly false notion that we're facing “runaway spending” and are “taxed to death.”

And they've had great success. But they haven't done it alone – credit the media with an assist for muddying the waters around our fiscal situation. Consider a poll released this week by the highly respected Gallup organization. Their headline reads, “Americans Blame Wasteful Government Spending for Deficit.” Is that true? Well, here were the options – the only options – that respondents were offered:

Which do you think is more to blame for the federal budget deficit: Spending too much on government programs that are either not needed or wasteful, or not raising enough taxes to pay for needed programs?

“Accordingly,” says Gallup, “Americans generally favor spending cuts rather than tax increases as the way for Congress to reduce the deficit going forward.” According to that distorted narrative – that false choice -- of course they do. I'm sure the results of a poll asking if people would prefer an ice cream sundae or a sharp stick in the eye would prove equally conclusive (not to mention bipartisan). ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150826/thanks_to_decades_of_conservative_spin%2C_americans_are_hopelessly_confused_about_taxes%2C_spending_and_the_deficit/

[mrcheerful]

1. Some are not so innocent of being confused or wrong they are

willfully choosing to be lead down the path of misinformation because they can not handle any truth that doesn't fit into neat little boxes that allows them to ignore having to fit complex ideals that messes up their neat little boxes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. It's been a thirty year psy-ops.

They destabilized their own country. I'm sure their mothers are proud of them.

[RKP5637]

4. They've been feeding doses of arsenic to the populace for years and now the

real symptoms are showing up, the victim well might die.

[OHdem10]

3. Of course, even this Liberal would say Spending

Cuts sound better than tax increases.
We are all human.

Since I am a bit more informed than
the average Joe, I look at things
differently.

How about this question, Spending Cuts includes Medicare, Medicaid
and Social Security, would you prefer Congress only do spending cuts?
Would you prefer tax increases and if necessary smaller cuts to
SS Medicare,Medicaid.

Who is going to explain that everytime we have had tax cuts,
this has been cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. They just do
not tell you. How much more must be cut from Medicare??

[classysassy]

6. Tax cuts

for the needy not the greedy,simplistic but true,why tax cuts for billionaires who do nothing to help the needy,the horde and cause suffering but the use their shill to confuse the average tax payer and we who know better let them get away with their evil schemes.Don't blame the rich for cheating on their tax,we vote for their enablers and all of us are at blame,make everyone pay his or her fair share,get rid of the tax shelters,tax cheats should go to jail not the country club jails but the one where the violent criminals reside let them have a taste of reality that would remind future cheats what awaits them.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)

[Scuba]

7. Try this....

...scroll down to the graphs. They're eye-opening.

http://defendingthepublicgood.org/

[ctsnowman]

8. Thanks for the link

NT