The Republican War on Reality Continues

From Mother Jones

—By Kevin Drum| Fri Nov. 2, 2012 10:25 AM PDT

A recent report from the Congressional Research Service concluded that cutting taxes on the rich had no correlation with higher economic growth rates. This is hardly surprising. Outside the right-wing think tank bubble, that's been the conclusion of practically every economist who's looked seriously at the evidence.

Nonetheless, congressional Republicans were shocked, and made their displeasure known. Shortly thereafter the report was withdrawn. Jared Bernstein calls this "existentially scary," because it means that nonpartisan analysis is becoming more and more impossible. Say something that contradicts a Republican talking point, and you'd better retract it. There's a budget markup coming soon, after all.

However, Steve Benen reminds us that this is hardly new:

This was consistently one of the more offensive hallmarks of the Bush/Cheney era. In 2005, for example, after a government report showed an increase in terrorism around the world, the administration announced it would stop publishing its annual report on international terrorism. Reality proved problematic, so rather than addressing the problem, the Republican administration decided to hide the reality.

Soon after, the Bush administration was discouraged by data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.

When Bush's Department of Education found that charter schools were underperforming, the administration said it would sharply cut back on the information it collects about charter schools.

And Bruce Bartlett emails to remind us that this attitude goes back even farther than that. Earlier this year, Newt Gingrich called the CBO "a reactionary socialist institution," a statement that came as no surprise to anyone who knows his history. After the Republican landslide of 1994, Gingrich did more than most to destroy congressional access to analytical information:

When he became speaker in 1995, Mr. Gingrich moved quickly to slash the budgets and staff of the House committees, which employed thousands of professionals with long and deep institutional memories.

....In addition to decimating committee budgets, he also abolished two really useful Congressional agencies, the Office of Technology Assessment and the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. The former brought high-level scientific expertise to bear on legislative issues and the latter gave state and local governments an important voice in Congressional deliberations.

And Bartlett points out that the current GOP routinely attacks not just the CBO and CRS, but also the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Government Accountability Office. They just don't like having anyone around that might mess with their preferred version of reality.

The Democrats War On Reality

The Democrats War On Reality Originally Posted by gnadfly

Change your handles to "GOT NO BALLS"... You are too blind to see the system is crashing.

My God!!!! JFK was wrong? He cut taxes by reducing the top rate in order to stimulate the economy. Wait! No, it worked. Cutting tax rates did stimulate the economy under JFK and RWR. I guess MJ is the magazines for dipshits.

JDB, strikes again in the war of apples vs oranges.

Uh, dumbass, check the rates at the time and how much the cuts actually were.

Someone has to tell you how and what to think because it's obvious you are an intellectual cripple.

You are too blind to see the system is crashing. Originally Posted by TheEnd5

No shit Sherlock. Blaming Bush isn't going to fix it though. Neither is calling the same people who voted for Colin and Condi "racist." Neither is raising taxes to gain a few days of revenue.

The GAO is correctly attacked when they just become the mouthpiece of the Administration's Obamacare legislation saying it'll pay for itself and then turn around and say no it won't but we had to work off the figures they gave us.

So, if Congress just lets the Bush Tax Cuts expire as was intended, what exactly will happen?

So, if Congress just lets the Bush Tax Cuts expire as was intended, what exactly will happen? Originally Posted by Jackie S

The tax cuts will expire and the rate will return to the same as it was when GW took office!

Is that a bad thing? I think not! It was the best sustained economic period during my lifetime.

So, if Congress just lets the Bush Tax Cuts expire as was intended, what exactly will happen? Originally Posted by Jackie S

The tax cuts will expire and the rate will return to the same as it was when GW took office!

Is that a bad thing? I think not! It was the best sustained economic period during my lifetime. Originally Posted by bigtex

Tax rates will go up...but automatic across the board spending cuts also go into effect. The combination of the two is the issue, Dems want rates to go up and Repubs want spending to go down. Its the perfect storm as no one is going to get everything they want no matter if the cuts continue or if they are allowed to expire. The gnashing of political teeth is quite fascinating to watch.

While the tax increases and spending cuts would reduce the size of the national deficit, many economists feel as though the sudden changes would plunge the country into another recession.

Doesn't look to me like the Dems are playing it right. The GOP asskicking has had the effect of finally getting the republicans to the table on the tax cut issue...but, it's apparently made some of the dems so proud that they're saying entitlement cuts are off the table. Not smart.

They'll end up doing something that just kicks the can down the road a year or so.

You are probably right Tim. But with as much attention that this has generated publicly it would be political suicide, for all of them, to just patch it for a short-term fix. Both sides could beat each other over the head with it in elections for years to come.

Doesn't look to me like the Dems are playing it right. The GOP asskicking has had the effect of finally getting the republicans to the table on the tax cut issue...but, it's apparently made some of the dems so proud that they're saying entitlement cuts are off the table. Not smart.

They'll end up doing something that just kicks the can down the road a year or so. Originally Posted by timpage

Quite true, and it looks like The Washington Post editorial board agrees with you as well:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...ab3_story.html

And they're not exactly a bunch of conservatives.

Doesn't look to me like the Dems are playing it right. The GOP asskicking has had the effect of finally getting the republicans to the table on the tax cut issue...but, it's apparently made some of the dems so proud that they're saying entitlement cuts are off the table. Not smart.

They'll end up doing something that just kicks the can down the road a year or so. Originally Posted by timpage

The question is one of truth..the Republic-tea Baggers, want people to beileve that Social Security and Medicare are draining funds from other areas such as Defense...the opposite is true...Social Secuity and Medicare are running surplus'...certainly there are savings to be had.

Such as allowing Medicare to negotiate on the prices charges for drugs...but that would require Republican obstructionist to vote to allow it to happen...which, they won't.

...Social Secuity and Medicare are running surplus'... Originally Posted by Raa1965

Complete nonsense.

I suggest that you spend a little time doing some fact-checking.

Tax rates will go up...but automatic across the board spending cuts also go into effect. The combination of the two is the issue, Dems want rates to go up and Repubs want spending to go down. Its the perfect storm as no one is going to get everything they want no matter if the cuts continue or if they are allowed to expire. The gnashing of political teeth is quite fascinating to watch.

While the tax increases and spending cuts would reduce the size of the national deficit, many economists feel as though the sudden changes would plunge the country into another recession. Originally Posted by Chica Chaser

You overlook the best thing about the so-called "fiscal cliff." Fifty percent of the $1.2T in spending cuts come from the Department of Defense and none from SS, Medicare, or Medicaid. That alone is worth a small recession. It's high time we slashed defense spending. Our costs for military imperialism are ridiculous. We spend as much as the next sixteen countries combined. We could defend ourselves on far less and could still project offensive force on significantly less even if we still want to be an international bully.