Too often we say, “That’ s just politicians spouting off” when they say something outrageously off-track or untrue. Why should they get a pass? Why don’t we hold them accountable to a higher standard?
Cases in point:
For the past two years democrat/liberal/progressive/socialist leaders and candidates have insisted, “There is no crisis on the border.” They have since transitioned to, “The crisis on the border has been manufactured by Trump.” However, the numbers tell the truth: 63,624 UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN so far this year (more than all of FY 18) and total apprehensions is 780,000 so far this year vs 521,000 for all of last year. Yes, the facilities are overcrowded and unsatisfactory but it is not a “concentration camp” as alleged by the vocal left. Where is the intellectual honesty when every senior Home Land Security and Border Patrol chain of command leader has been begging congress for funds to improve conditions.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez lit up the media with her pronouncement that, “Women at a border facility are being forced to drink out of toilets.” While the nation is left with that mental image, one network finally showed a picture of what AOC actually saw during her border tour. Yes, it was a toilet but the water tank on the back is extended upward to include a drinking fountain on the top. Referring to the hundreds of honest, hard-working, compassionate Border Patrol officers as “concentration camp guards” is the ultimate insult. While the Border Patrol concentrates their efforts every day to care for thousands of illegal immigrants in facilities designed for hundreds, AOC goes back to Washington and votes AGAINST funding for improved border facilities.
The democrats will not say the words “amnesty for all” or “open borders” but all of their rhetoric and actions point directly to that intent. Current studies suggest that at least 150 million adults world-wide want to immigrate to the US. With amnesty and open borders they would come and those numbers would overwhelm our nation’s welfare, medical and educational systems and destroy America. The democrats are intelligent enough to understand the ramifications of amnesty and open borders yet they persist in telling us that it is the “moral” thing to do. Destroy America to make a moral point? Is that intellectually honest?
The democrat presidential candidates conveniently depart from the truth when they tell us, “The Trump economy is only benefiting the wealthy while minorities are left behind and the middle class is suffering.” The reality is that wages are rising at the fastest rate in a decade for lower-skilled workers and unemployment among less-educated Americans and minorities is near a record low. Nearly one million more Black Americans and two million more Hispanics are employed than when Obama left office and minorities account for more than half of all new jobs created under the Trump presidency. Yet I do not see the media fact checking this daily barrage of misinformation by the candidates.
The democrats like to remind us that, “we are a nation of laws.” Yet, when federal judges issue approximately 1 million FINAL DEPORTATION ORDERS and expect them to be executed the democrats go crazy. Speaker Pelosi held a news conference to instruct illegals on how to avoid being taken into custody. ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for executing the judges’ orders. Democrat candidates and political leaders call for the elimination of ICE. Do they honestly believe ICE is a, “menace to society?”
Affordable government funded Medicare for all is what many of the democrats are telling us we need. But, have they done the math? Currently, the total annual federal tax revenue is around $3.5 trillion, which is about the same amount government-funded Medicare for all is estimated to cost per year. Do they believe we are so stupid they can get away with these kinds of promises?
“The Trump tax cut was just a tax cut for the rich”, they say. Actually, according to the joint Tax Policy Center, Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute, Americans in the top 20 percent paid an estimated 87 percent of income taxes for 2018. This was UP from 84 percent in 2017 which means that the Trump tax cuts actually made the tax code more progressive. We will hear that lie from the candidates hundreds of times leading up to the November, 2020 elections.
The point of these few observations is to offer the question, what has happened to intellectual honesty and common sense? What has taken candidates to the point of political desperation that those seeking office feel obliged to offer up solutions that are unworkable, beyond unreasonable and cannot be paid for?
Marv Covault