LETTER: GOP came ‘to spew falsehoods’
On Friday, Washington County hosted a group of Republicans who came to the area to spew falsehoods and to lay out a plan that they promise will make our lives a utopia in no time if, God forbid, we return control of Congress to them.
U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Reps. Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik, Steve Scalise, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and Washington County’s own hater and divider Guy Reschenthaler were present.
All of these individuals are election-deniers who sought to overturn the legitimate victory of Joe Biden in 2020. Immediately after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, McCarthy held Donald Trump responsible for inciting his mob to terrorize him and all who were unfortunate enough to be present at the Capitol on that modern day of infamy. He quickly learned that telling the truth was not consistent with his aspiration to become Speaker of the House, so he backtracked and sought to mend fences with the insurrection instigator.
Taylor-Greene is a pal of QAnon who is known for making idiotic assertions, and like Donald Trump, has promoted many of its crackpot conspiracy theories. She is a member in good standing of today’s unrecognizable Republican Party while truth-telling patriots like Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are excommunicated.
One of the friendly questioners at the event: a small business person, referenced the Biden administration’s plan to hire “87,000 armed IRS agents” and asked whether she should seek protection from them. For those who care about the truth rather than social media lies, here it is: the Internal Revenue Service has been starved of revenue in recent years through budget cuts. It does not have modern computer systems, is unable to consistently respond to customer inquiries, and is stymied in its efforts to pursue wealthy individuals and corporations that cheat, denying the government of hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year. About 1% of IRS agents are required to carry a firearm, not 100%. Within the period that 87,000 new IRS employees will be hired, 50,000 are expected to retire, thus the net number of new employees will be 37,000.
No one likes the IRS. When the Republicans took on the issue of tax reform in the first year of Trump’s term, they could have changed the system. They could have voted to kill it in favor of a consumption tax. Instead, they chose to simply tinker around the edges, retaining a complex Internal Revenue Service Code with tens of thousands of pages. They have no right to complain now about the IRS which they left intact.
Unspoken amidst the Republicans’ promises is how they would work to take away rights. We know that they would fight for a nationwide abortion ban and to diminish voting, civil, labor, and LGBTQ rights. After telling us that abortion rights are an issue for each state to decide, South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has proposed a nationwide abortion ban. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid funding could be on the chopping block. Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has already pushed a plan to re-evaluate and consider changing or ending every federal program every five years. Right-wing U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested that other rights, such as the ability for gay men and women to marry and the right to practice contraception, could be next. Apparently interracial marriage is fine with Justice Thomas. He has not suggested that action, which would serve to annul his marriage, should be considered.
Shame on anyone who would take the word of a band of anti-democracy “leaders” who do not believe in the system of governance in which they serve.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township