With over 20 million people who are unemployed or who have stopped looking for work, the last thing we should be doing is raising taxes on job-creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners across America.
- Mitt Romney
A tax hike would wreak havoc not only on our economy’s ability to create private-sector jobs, but also on our ability to tackle the national debt.
- Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)
It’s become an article of faith among those on the Right. After all, where do you think the “job-killing tax hikes” mantra/talking point came from? The beautiful thing about propaganda, though, is that by its very nature those employing it are freed of the burden of having to prove, or even support, their “argument”. It’s the modern-day version of Josef Goebbel’s “Big Lie”: repeat something often enough and with enough fervor and conviction, and eventually it will be aceepted as Gospel. The truth (or lack of same) is really beside the point, because when what you’re doing is pushing an agenda based on ideology, truth can become whatever you need it to be. If you need to convince the Sheeple that taxing the rich will kill job growth…well, you insert the phrase “job-killing tax hikes” into the conversation every time you step in front of a camera or microphone.
That there’s literally no correlation between the tax burden on the rich and job growth really need not even enter into the public discourse. Truth, fact, and reality only serve to muddy the waters and confuse the Sheeple, most of whom couldn’t be bothered to think critically if their life depended on it.
[C]onservatives believe that a key driver of overall job growth is the tax rate that rich people pay on their last dollar of income. They argue that these very rich people are the ones who “create” the jobs and therefore taxing them at even slightly higher rates will make them less likely to invest, expand their businesses, and hire more people. That sounds plausible, but it turns out to be completely baseless.
In fact, they are just as wrong about this as they are about the relationship between marginal tax rates and overall economic growth. In the past 60 years, job growth has actually been greater in years when the top income tax rate was much higher than it is now.
Being wrong isn’t something that particularly troubles Conservatives. For them, simply holding a belief ipso facto makes it true. All that remains is to marshal the propaganda and talking points required to convince the American Sheeple of the undeniable certitude of their position.
No, I’m not going to launch into a diatribe and try to convince y’all that Conservatives are the only ones consistently factually and logically challenged. We all know that propaganda is something employed by both sides when it serves their purpose. The problem, though- at least from where I sit- is that while Progressives at least generally try to live in the realm of fact, reality, and truth, Conservatives seldom seem to bother with anything that doesn’t support their pre-conceived narrative.
Life is SO much easier and simpler when you accept the premise that truth is fungible, and that truth can be massaged into whatever form necessary in order to advance your agenda.
STILL glad you voted Republican??
