To the Editor:

I just don’t get it.

Many Republicans think that Obama is a Kenyan socialist out to destroy the country by creating a permanent welfare state with money stolen from rich people. But why would they not believe that since most Republicans live in a fact-free Fox News bubble. What I don’t get, though, is independent voters, people who still believe in provable facts who continue to believe in that extreme Republican narrative.

 Take for example the Romney-Ryan budget. They claim that it will benefit the middle class and create jobs. Yet, what it actually does, is create new tax breaks for the wealthy; tax cuts which will be added to the already budget busting Bush tax cuts. By their own figures the top 1 percent would get more than $155,000 in tax breaks. This budget also calls for almost no taxes on investment income, which is most of their income.  Mitt Romney’s own taxes rate would be about 1 percent. No that is not a misprint but a provable fact.

So if under the Romney-Ryan plan, the wealthy pay almost no taxes on invested wealth, who do you think will be paying for the government services we all depend on? Answer — the middle class. The poor have little to give. As for creating jobs, their budget  depends only on trickle down money from the top, an idea that was thoroughly disproved during the Bush years.

If you listen to their billionaire paid for ads, you would think that the national debt was the worst crisis facing this country. But the Romney-Ryan budget would not balance the budget for nearly 30 years, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. And during that time, it would add $4 trillion more to the national debt.

 Republicans accuse Obama of removing the work requirement for welfare. It is an unmistakable attempt to anger white voters using the tried and true “welfare queen” stereotype. Every credible news organization has characterized the ad as outright lies. Yet they continue to run the ad because they believe emotions are more powerful than facts.

On a local level we have only to look at what the N.C.  Republican legislature has done to education funding in to see the disconnect between what they say and what they do. There have been a billion dollars in education cuts in the current budget according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. But Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, says that the legislature “continues to fully fund at the state level all classroom teachers and teaching assistants.” That statement would probably come as a surprise to the Macon County Board of Education, which is facing a $550,000 deficit at the end of this year.

If facts don’t matter and emotions rule, then billions in false advertising will work. If you still believe in the truth and provable facts, then make your vote count. 

Louis Vitale

Franklin