Truth of the matter

Beauty, it is said, is in the eye of the beholder. As the president’s State of the Union address and the Republican response to it show, so is truth.

The president called out Republicans for wanting to cut or kill Social Security and Medicare. His hecklers responded with shouts of “liar.” Who was telling the truth?

Paul Krugman in The New York Times recently presented a short history of Republican efforts to kill these two popular programs going back 40 years. Every time it appeared they might have a chance, Republicans proposed cuts, going back to Reagan. Remember Dubya’s proposal to privatize? Most recently Sen. Rick Scott called for “sunsetting” all federal programs, and that would clearly include Social Security.

Remember that Obamacare passed without a single Republican vote. Then, states run by Republicans took advantage of a politically motivated Supreme Court ruling to turn down billions of dollars in federal aid and opt out of extending Medicaid benefits to many of their lower-income citizens—a move at once cruel and stupid. Arkansas can thank God and Mike Beebe that we avoided that disaster.

The historical record is clear that President Biden was perfectly correct in claiming that Republicans have long worked against Social Security and Medicare and that they have opposed any programs that actually help ordinary citizens.

In her response to the State of the Union address, our governor called Biden and his administration “crazy” at least three times, and Biden himself “unfit.” If crazy means beliefs unrelated to reality, it sounds like the term may apply better to Republicans, though my personal choice would be “evil.”

ROGER A. WEBB Little Rock