Chapter 4 - The BIGGEST Republican Lie

We will Reduce the Deficit - the Biggest of Many Republican Lies

The Republican party and their surrogates have staked much of their supposed advantage over President Obama with promises to reduce the deficit. But they are strongly supporting policies that will, instead, INCREASE the deficit compared to the policies of the President.

This isn't hard to prove. First, lets start with the sources of our current deficit. This article from the Washington Post makes it clear. The primary sources of our debt, in order are: 1) Bush tax cuts, 2) Economic downturn, 3) Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (e.g. defense spending), 4) The stimulus, and 5) Everything else.

So what does Mitt want to do about these sources of debt?

• Bush tax cuts? (No. 1 source of the deficit): Keep the tax cuts for all! Compared to President Obama this will INCREASE the deficit by as much as $5 Trillion.

• Economic Downturn? (No. 2): Romney promises to cut money to the poor, to welfare recipients, student loan programs, to Medicare, etc. These reductions in programs that serve the neediest Americans will of course lead to greater economic hardship, an increased economic downturn, and lower taxes as a result. Remember where this country was headed when Bush left office? We were losing 700,000 jobs a month. Mitt's policies will take us back there. The result will be a huge increase in the deficit due to lowering of tax revenues.

• Wars (aka Defense Spending)? (No. 3): Under president Obama, we've ended one expensive war and are winding down another. But Romney promises to increase defense spending. His proposals would add $2.5 Trillion to the deficit over the next decade.

• Stimulus (No. 4): The Stimulus spending is largely over, which means that neither candidate is proposing anything that would have an impact on future deficits. But it is worth noting that the Congressional Budget Office documented that the Stimulus created up to 3.3 Million jobs - that's 3.3 million people who were paying taxes rather than being paid unemployment. The Republicans like to use the term "Failed Stimulus". That therm is wrong. The Stimulus kept this county going during the worst of the recession and prevented a depression.

And he would further decrease taxes in many areas: capital gains, interest, dividends, corporate taxes, etc. By promising to repeal  Obamacare, which even Fox News has reported  will reduce the deficit by $200 Million, he makes the problem worse. He claims that these reductions will be offset by unspecified cuts - which means he has no real plan to make any meaningful cuts.

The Republicans claim that the president is a huge spender. Its another lie. The truth is that he is one of the most frugal presidents of the modern era. In fact, Forbes Magazine (hardly a Liberal publication) states that " Amidst all the cries of Barack Obama being the most prolific big government spender the nation has ever suffered, Marketwatch is reporting that our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.".

In the spirit of George Orwell, truth becomes a lie, and the big lie becomes Republican truth. If Mitt becomes president, defense spending (one of the largest components of the deficit) will increase, taxes will decrease, and the deficit will soar.

Think it won't happen? Are you willing to take the risk?

Chapter 3 - How Can the Republican Party Lead us to a Better Future When it Denies Science?

How Can the Republican Party Lead us to a Better Future When it Denies Science?

We all understand that our World has been made much better through the advances in science over the past 500+ years. Humans used to believe that the Earth was the center of the Universe and the Sun revolved around it. They also used to believe that the disease came from evil spirits. We now know  these things to be untrue, but at one time these were all accepted facts. In each case, one or more scientists developed theories (Gravity, Germ Theory, etc.) that went against the accepted understanding of the day but we now accept as fact.

But two of the most important theories of science today are denied by the Republican Party. These are the theory of Evolution, and the theory of human induced Climate Change. The evidence for both of these theories is overwhelming in its weight. You can't begin to explain biology without invoking Evolution - it is a fundamental to Biology as gravity is to Physics. And you can't explain any of the changes that we are all experiencing in our daily world (winter without snow, widespread drought, increasingly violent storms, etc.) without Climate Change. Republicans say that the science is "unproven" - which is technically true of virtually every theory, including the theory of gravity (You explain how the sun exerts a gravitational pull on the Earth across 93 million miles - nobody ever has). No theory has been "proven" to be perfect, but when a theory predicts, with a VERY high degree of confidence, a certain set of results, it becomes adopted as the basis for policy decisions by those in charge. Until now, the US has been a leader in adopting science-based policies, which has been one of many factors that has driven our success over the past two hundred years.

Someone recently offered a simple analogy. If your child was sick, and you took her to 100 doctors, and 98% of them diagnosed the same disease, and gave the same prescription for recovery, would you listen to the opinion of the 98% or the 2% who (even if loudly) gave a different diagnosis and proposed a different (or no) treatment. With Climate Change, the science is about 98% (read what the American Meteorological Society says) to 2% today. With Evolution, the science is about 99.5% to 0.5%. Yet Mitt Romney said, "We don't know what's causing Climate Change".  The National Republican's Platform doesn't say anything explicit about Evolution, but the Republican Texas Party wants to teach Creationism (Religion) as an alternate to science. Although Mitt Romney does not talk about his beliefs on the topic, the Mormon Chuch has repeatedly warned against the "deceptions' of Charles Darwin.

History tells us what happens to nations that deny the evidence of Science and make decisions based on dogma. For forty years, the Soviet Union espoused the theory of Lysenkoism rather than the theory of genetics (which was not consistent with communist dogma) as the underpinning to its agricultural production policies. The results - millions of Russian people starved to death, and the Soviet Union today has ceased to exist.

If the Republicans gain control, they will make decisions based on dogma rather than science. In a world dominated by science, where our Nation's (and the world's) success is based on maximizing the possibilities that science offers, how can they lead this county forward if they deny basic science?

Think it won't happen? Are you willing to take the risk?

Chapter 2 - Mitt and a Tea-Party Dominated Congress Will Destroy America

The Combination of Mitt and a Tea-Party Dominated Congress Will Destroy America

Americans voted two years ago in anger to elect a very conservative, Tea-Party led Republican majority in the House. Given that a vast majority of all incumbents win re-election, the next House will probably again have a Republican majority. And given the large numbers of Tea-Party members of the Republican majority, virtually nothing will be approved by the House unless the Tea-Party supports it. Look at the results of the 112^th Congress – they have passed the fewest laws passed of any Congress in history, shut down the FAA, and nearly brought us to a completely unnecessary default; but they voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (voting for a Bill that they KNOW will never become law) 33 times! 33 times!

The Tea-party is such a sad joke. They say taxes are too high. Compared to what? The truth is that in the US in 2009 (the last year data is available) the taxpayers paid the total LOWEST tax rate for the past 30 years. The US now has some of the lowest tax rates in the world and the lowest in recent history. And the result is clear: huge deficits, decaying infrastructure, and a massive reduction in investment in education.

If the Tea-Party really wanted America to be great again, they would push us to return to the period when America was strong; when we had the ability to invest in our roads and bridges, the education of our youth, and could run a surplus and reduce our debt. And it was so not that many years ago. Under Bill Clinton, the US government ran a surplus for four straight years. And we were unquestionably the strongest nation on the planet. Within eight short years, George Bush had damaged our finances, our military, and our international standing so badly that we have fallen a long way. We need to invest in ourselves, to make ourselves stronger and better. The Tea-party has exactly the WRONG solution for America.

What is their real agenda? Simple: I’ve got mine, and I don’t care about you. The Tea-party serves the 1%, or really the 1% of the 1% (like Mitt) who know they will be OK even if everyone else crashes and burns. They are not Patriots. They are greedy, self serving leeches who are willing to hurt this nation so they can own yet another house in a gated community, or Cadillac, or Swiss bank account. Mitt is their poster child.

For the past two years the Tea-party leaders have tried to destroy this great nation, but have been stymied by the President. But if Mitt is in the White House, he will follow their lead. Why are the very rich pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Mitt’s campaign? It’s an investment in a politician who will give them what they want – at the expense of the rest of us. A vote for Mitt is a vote for the most conservative Tea-Party Republican agenda. An agenda that will the push the US to default on its debt, devastate our military, and crash the world’s our country’s economy.

Think it won't happen? Are you willing to take the risk?

Chapter 1 - Abortion will become a crime

Abortion - including all abortions in the past - will become a crime.

It is obvious that the Supreme Court is nearly evenly divided between liberals and conservatives. When abortion was declared legal in 1973 by the famous 7-2 Roe v. Wade decision, the court was much more liberal in its makeup. Four members of the court are now 73 or older (two liberals and two conservatives). It’s very likely that one or more of

them will be leaving the bench in the next four years. The President who serves from 2013-2017 will make the appointment(s).

Despite the fact that Mitt Romney has clearly flip-flopped on this issue in the past, during the debates he stated: "..you can count on me, as president, to pursue a policy that protects the life of unborn,whether here in this country or overseas. And I'll reverse the policies of this president.". What would he do if confronted with a vacancy on the Court? On January 23, 2012 he stated regarding Roe v. Wade: “..today we recommit ourselves to reversing that decision..”. Based on his recent words, and because of his past record of flip-flopping, he will undoubtedly bend over backwards to satisfy the social conservatives in the Republican Party and nominate a candidate who definitely will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. And there are plenty of Republican-backed states who will quickly develop cases that will test the law.

Within a short time, Roe v. Wade would be struck down and states would be free to enact legislation banning a woman's right to choose. At least seven already have such laws on the books ready to go into force. Others will follow. The result will be a return to the 60s. Women will die from botched self-abortions and backroom hacks. Millions of unloved, unwanted babies will be born, ending up poor, uneducated, and very likely in prison. Other states will follow the example of Virginia, whose state Legislature passed a bill in February that required women to undergo an invasive, state mandated penetration (the definition of rape). Only after the bill had passed and was about to be signed into law did the public’s indignation stop this from becoming law.

But there's more. The Republican war on women continues. Some states are now in the process of enacting "personhood" legislation declaring abortion to be murder. The 2012 Republican Platform supports a "human life amendment to the Constitution" that would make abortion a crime. If these ideas become law, think of the potential result - anyone who had a legal abortion in the past could be charged with first degree murder, which in many states is punishable by death. Anyone living in those states, or anyone who might travel to those states could be arrested, tried for murder, convicted and executed.

Think it won't happen? Are you willing to take the risk?