we have learned anything concrete from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, it is that Donald Trump is a magnet for liars.
But even that revelation is far from shocking.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn is the latest in what could be a long list of once sensible people who tried to cling to Trump for political gain and got stuck in his web.
When the president lives in a cocoon made of filthy lies, anyone who drops by for a visit is bound to get dirty.
But while others go down wallowing in the dirt, Trump manages to brush the dust from his shoulders and walk away fresh.
It’s sad, but we have come to expect that anyone who works for Trump is willing to lie.
Even Gen. John F. Kelly, who was considered impenetrable before he became White House chief of staff, fell under Trump’s spell and told a blatant lie about Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
That’s why some of us barely flinched when we heard that Flynn had pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators looking into possible collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russians.
It is no secret that politicians are among the biggest liars around. But still, we are disillusioned when the people we place in Washington to work on behalf of our best interests look us straight in the eye and tell a lie.
While news that Flynn was charged with lying about talking with Russians after the election was breaking on Friday, Senate Republicans were pushing through tax legislation based on some of the biggest lies ever told to the American people.
The level of dishonestly in Congress is more astounding than any lie that has come out of the Russia investigation thus far.
Trump and his enabling Republican cohorts claimed that the GOP tax bill they are ramming through Congress would benefit the middle class. That’s lie No. 1.
The cuts overwhelmingly would benefit corporations and wealthy Americans like Trump. A decade from now, the individual tax cuts would expire and people earning less than $75,000 a year will pay more taxes, according to multiple analysts.
Republicans claim the tax cuts would eventually pay for themselves. Not only is that a lie, it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious.
A study by the Joint Committee on Taxation on Thursday estimated that the bill would add $1 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade and grow the economy slower than Republicans claim it would.
That likely means Republicans would make more cuts to programs and services, inevitably those that affect the elderly and low income.
Since few people have actually seen the tax bill, other lies are slowly trickling out and we’re getting a look at just how devious these lawmakers are.
Unable to repeal Obamacare outright when they had the chance, the GOP is trying to slip through the back door and gut the program.
To help pay for the tax cuts, Republicans would repeal the individual mandate, which requires most people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. That would save the government more than $300 billion in funding, analysts said, but 13 million people would no longer be insured, causing premiums to rise even higher.
Most of us already know that we can’t believe most of what Trump says. But it would have been nice if he had meant it when he vowed during the presidential campaign that there would be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
Turns out, Republicans are looking seriously at cutting those entitlement programs in order to pay for the costly tax cuts.
The lies that came out of Congress on Friday were far more damaging to the American people that any lie Flynn might have told about Russia.
While those of us who would like to see Trump removed from office were excited to hear that Flynn is cooperating with investigators, it’s way too soon to start celebrating Trump’s demise.
There are still lots of unconnected dots linking any of those lies directly to Trump.
That means Trump isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And he has made it clear that he has no plans to veto the tax bill when it lands on his desk, regardless of what it ends up looking like. That, most likely, isn’t a lie.
We cannot allow the news trickling out of the Russia investigation to take precedence over the other dirty deeds going on in Washington. There are too many lies being told by Trump and his Congressional cohorts that deserve our full attention.
Let’s take only a few minutes to revel in Mueller’s success at getting some of Trump’s liars to finally tell the truth about Russia.
But never forget that for every liar who is forced to come clean, there’s another liar in Washington waiting for the chance to tell an even bigger lie.
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