Lately, some Republicans have been warning of “call-out culture,” as they are worried about being called out for both their words and their actions.
The thing is, they’ve been practicing doing “hair on fire” callouts for years. So let’s take a moment to remember all their false accusations in the past, and call THEM out on them.
Just in the past year, Republicans have called out the following:
- COVID-19 is a hoax.
- Masks, social distancing, and washing hands will make no difference in the pandemic
- There is rampant voter fraud.
- Climate change is a hoax.
- Laws to improve automobile fuel efficiency will kill the US auto industry.
- Environmental protection laws requiring companies to clean up their pollution will kill businesses.
This is nothing new. So the antidote to their fake call-outs is to match the call-outs – with facts.
Here are just a few times where Republican call-outs were wrong, fake, or fear-mongering:
Passing Medicare – In the 1960s, Republicans claimed that the passage of Medicare would be the end of capitalism. Instead, since the passage of Medicare, capitalism has thrived and millions of elderly Americans have had longer, healthier lives and greater personal freedom. Medicare remains the most popular form of health insurance in the US today.
Taxing the uber-wealthy – In 1993, when Democrats and Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.5%, Republicans predicted a recession, increased unemployment, and a growing budget deficit. The exact opposite happened. The country experienced the seven best years of economic growth in history.
Passing gun safety laws – That same year, the Democrat-sponsored Brady Bill was passed, which mandated background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun. Republicans predicted increasing rates of crime and murder. Wrong again, Republicans. The passage of this bill was a causal factor in crime dropping dramatically.
Implementing trickle-down economics – In 2001, when Republicans and George W. Bush cut taxes using the failed “trickle-down economic theory”, Republicans predicted record job growth, increased budget surplus, and nationwide prosperity. Not so fast, my friend. The budget surplus immediately disappeared, the budget deficit grew to $1.4 trillion, less than 3 million net jobs were added, and the poverty rate began climbing again.
Finding Iraq’s WMDs – In 2002, Republican Bush administration predicted that we would find Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) even though UN weapons inspectors said that those weapons didn’t exist. And Saddam Hussein had not resumed his nuclear weapons program as they claimed. Ultimately, both President Bush and VP Cheney had to admit that there were no WMDs in Iraq.
Risking terrorism by electing a Democrat – In 2008, Republicans said that if we elected a Democratic president, we would be hit by Al Qaeda again, perhaps worse than the attack on 9/11. But during Obama’s presidency, we had zero deaths on U.S. soil from Al Qaeda and Adm. McRaven’s Navy Seal team 6 killed Bin Laden along with other high ranking Al Qaeda leaders.
Doing stimulus to deal with a recession – In 2009, Republicans predicted that the Great Recession economic stimulus package would only make the recession worse and cause more unemployment. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ended the recession after only a few months. After the Recovery Act was passed the rate of job loss immediately decreased each month and within a year the economy showed positive job growth.
Deregulating businesses – Republicans say we must deregulate businesses so they can be more profitable. This theory failed in the 1980s when the Reagan administration deregulated the Savings and Loan industry. All the S&Ls collapsed, and it cost taxpayers billions of dollars to bail them out. They were proven wrong again in 2008 when years of deregulation of the financial industry resulted in the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression.
Passing Obamacare – Republicans predicted that Obamacare would hurt the economy and kill jobs. Senator Mitch McConnell claimed Obamacare would cost the economy two million jobs. During the first full year that Obamacare was in effect, the United States saw the fastest rate of job creation in 14 years and the best rate of economic growth in over ten years. Not only did Obamacare not harm the economy, it coincided with the best economic expansion in a dozen years.
Passing the ARP – Republicans are at it again, taking time out from Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss, calling the American Rescue Plan a “stop work plan”, a Democratic wish list, and nothing to do with COVID-19. Instead, economists predict that the Biden rescue plan will cut child poverty in half, create thousands of new jobs, and speed up the recovery from the pandemic.
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There you have it. Republicans are worried about being “called out” when they don’t deserve it. Based on the above list (any many more examples we could list), they actually need to be called out regularly.
And until they learn to tell the truth, we’ll keep calling them out.
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