To the Editor:
Congressman Erik Paulsen released the following statement following the House of Representatives passed (sic) of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“After more than 31 years, the House passed tax reform that will allow our economy to grow and benefit American individuals, families, and businesses,” said Paulsen. “Tax reform for me is about one thing: Restoring the hope for a prosperous future for ourselves, our parents, and — most importantly — our children.”
Paulsen to varying degrees, has committed to “alternative facts.”
Currently, conservatism is an ideology built on them. Consider Paulsen’s tax bill and the trickle down dogma that has been employed to defend it.
The basic assumption has been that slashing taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich will stimulate the economy to such a degree that the changes will be deficit-neutral and the newly created wealth will trickle down to the middle class.
Nonpartisan opinions estimate this bill will add around $1 trillion to the debt over the next decade, and that’s after accounting for economic growth. Paulsen claims the tax cuts will essentially pay for themselves, a proven “alternative fact” simply untrue. The notion of wealth trickling down has been discredited time and again over the past 40 years going back to Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Paulsen used the same logic “alternative facts” to vote against the Affordable Care Act over and over again. Paulsen is hostile to the truth. Facts no longer seem to carry the same weight that they once did.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous maxim — “you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts” — seems even more relevant and timely in the untruth era of Trump.
John E. Mallo, Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, December 14, 2017