The Great Divide: Political Rhetoric and Political Reality

In an article for Vox, Ezra Klein challenges the Republican talking point that “America is doing terribly.” Klein points out that although the GOP presidential hopefuls may be now attracting some support with this message, it will create two longer-term problems for them: “The first is that the economy simply isn’t as bad as they’re making it out to be — so the apocalyptic rhetoric may well run into month after month of good jobs numbers during the general election. (Of course, if the economy unexpectedly falls into recession, then Republican rhetoric will look much better.) The second is that Republicans are increasingly focused on economic problems they don’t really know how to solve, and don’t have much credibility to say they will solve.”

More specifically, Klein’s article includes two graphics that illustrate very pointedly how far the campaign talking points about the need to address economic inequality and to reduce government deficits are completely contradicted by the actual proposals for tax reform that they have advanced:

 

Klein--Economic Inequality

Klein--GOP Tax Plans and Deficits

 

Klein’s complete article is available at: http://www.vox.com/2015/11/13/9727132/republicans-economy.

 

 

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