The Republican war on reality continues ...

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rubato
Posts: 14245
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 10:14 pm

The Republican war on reality continues ...

Post by rubato »

The CBO is a rare example of a straight-down-the-line non-partisan analysis of economic data. The party devoted to lying about science would like you to think otherwise:

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http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2 ... -continues
The Republican War on Reality Continues

—By Kevin Drum
| Fri Nov. 2, 2012 11:25 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 Shortly thereafter the report was withdrawn.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 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.


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rubato

dgs49
Posts: 3458
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2010 9:13 pm

Re: The Republican war on reality continues ...

Post by dgs49 »

I wonder if the dickhead has noticed that the only ones saying Romney is going to cut taxes on "the rich" are democrats. People who have some understanding of the Tax Code understand that cutting RATES does not necessarily mean cutting TAXES.

But of course that group does not include the dickhead.

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