BY SHARON MARTIN
This administration has accomplished one thing: former news junkies dread turning on the news.
Some news channels don’t even try to tell the truth. Unlike Rumpelstiltskin, what they’re spinning isn’t gold.
Others try to present both sides of an issue, but the president’s mouthpieces repeat the same talking points and the same lies.
Here’s an idea: If a person tells a verifiable lie on your news show, ask for a correction. If he refuses, don’t invite him back. Ever.
Freedom of speech might protect his right to lie, but freedom of choice protects your right to refuse liars a forum. This isn’t politicizing anything. It’s about giving citizens access to the truth.
Truth was hard to come by last week. Here are some examples:
Lie 1: Secretary Clinton sold U.S. uranium in exchange for a donation to the Clinton Foundation.
The truth? According to Snopes, “[T]he uranium deal was not Secretary Clinton’s to veto or approve.”
As for that $145 million donation, more than $130 million of it came from a single Canadian who sold his stake in Uranium One three years before the “deal and at least 18 months before Clinton became secretary of state.”
Lie 2: President Obama and Secretary Clinton were the ones who colluded with Russia.
New week, new smear campaign, and about 30% of voters will believe anything they are asked to believe.
Lie 3: Tax reform is good for the American people.
What tax reform?
It isn’t tax reform when you mess with Medicare.
A tax cut for the wealthy isn’t tax reform.
President Trump said, “The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan.”
Actually, according to the Tax Policy Center, more than half of the savings would go to the top 1% of earners, three-quarters to the top 10%.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-TX, says elimination of the student loan deduction and the mortgage loan deduction will not hurt the middle class.
Does the GOP believe its own bull?
He also repeated the lie that giving tax breaks to corporations will help the U.S. balance the budget.
According to the fact checkers at The Washington Post, President Trump has now issued more than 1,000 false statements. More than 1,000 lies!
Why is anyone giving him television time? He isn’t to be trusted.
Neither are the people who keep him in power so they can consolidate their own.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. Her children’s book, Froggy Bottom Blues, can be purchased in hardcover or paperback from Doodle and Peck Publishing. It also is available in paperback from Amazon.
