Early polls don’t mean a great deal. However, it’s important for the GOP to reduce its number of presidential hopefuls and find a leader well before the February 1^st Iowa Caucus. After three debates no one stands out as the one person all members of the GOP can rally around.

Here’s what it needs to do. They need to have a true debate, and this debate must be about the lies each of them constantly repeats. The weakness of the GOP is that they expect voters to believe whatever they say, even when a simple fact check exposes them as a party of complete falsehood. Such a debate would reduce the number of candidates immediately.

Last Wednesday the three leading candidates looked directly at the crowd and the cameras and told ‘whoppers.’ That was not a surprise. The surprise was their arrogance. They obviously believed that they would not be exposed.

Mannatech is a nutrition company under federal indictment. Ben Carson denied any affiliation with the company. The truth is that he was associated with it for ten years, attended four paid speaking engagements and was featured in an infomercial. This blatant lie overshadowed his ridiculous tax plan.

Donald Trump denied that he criticized Mark Zuckerberg for stating that the tech industry needed more H-1B visas. The problem with his denial is that it is on Trump’s own website. It was a ‘huge’ lie.

Marco Rubio was questioned about his financial problems and how they might relate to the manner in which he would conduct our nation’s fiscal policy. The Senator called it all a lie, although court records confirm the facts. Rubio has proven to be the most talented of liars.

These lies were not the only ones during another poorly orchestrated ‘debate.’

Bobby Jindal called the Affordable Care Act ‘forced socialism.’ The truth is that it was first created by Mitt Romney when he was the Governor of Massachusetts. Because it is conducted through private insurance companies it has no relationship to socialism. Two very popular programs are true socialism; the Veteran’s Administration and Medicare, and our nation’s people love them.

Jindal also falsely claimed that our nation has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Lie. On paper we have the third highest rate, but in reality they join other nations and have one of the lowest actual payouts of all developed nations.

Chris Christie claims that social security is in danger due to government’s depletion of its funds. Although it is true that politicians have stolen money from social security to fund their pet projects for decades, it is fully funded for decades to come.

Rand Paul showed both his inexperience and lack of fiscal acuity when he claimed that raising the retirement age is the ‘only’ way to protect Medicare. The truth is that a complete overhaul of our health care system, reducing costs for patients, and joining other developed countries which experience proven success, would remedy the problem immediately.

Republicans and the TEA Party receive votes based on the creation of emotion, and attacks on their opponents. They use lies and misdirection to create fear among their constituents. They must expose each other in a true debate about what is the truth, and what is a lie.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of Michael Vadonf

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2