Features

We're tracking the Republican presidential candidates as they strip each other bare, revealing their hypocrisies, sell-outs and falsehoods. Check this page regularly as we document the truth behind the attack lines.

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We've brought together basic facts and charts to help you take on some of the Orwellian, "ignorance is strength" falsehoods used by conservative leaders to control the economic debate.

You've heard all about the GOP's plans to destroy Medicare as we know it, but you've probably head less about their equally destructive plans for Medicaid. That's dangerous.

Medicaid is just as important as Medicare — not just for the poor, but the middle- and working-classes too. The Republican plan to gut Medicaid will have a devastating effect upon millions of Americans.

Forewarned is forearmed. Here's what you need to know about Medicaid and the Republican budget.

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A new Democracy Corps/Campaign for America's Future poll shows that proposals to dismantle Medicare in the 2012 House Republican budget could sink the political futures of those who for it. When the budget is described, using the language of its chief author, support collapses to 36 percent. The proposed cuts to Medicare raise concerns for nearly two-thirds of respondents.

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A funny thing on the way to state budget solvency in Texas and Mississippi, which are among the reddest of the red states. You can't get much more conservative than Texas' and Mississippi's governors, Rick Perry and Haley Barbour. The same goes for their budget solutions, which are firmly based in conservative budget orthodoxy: tax cuts and spending cuts will cure all budget ills.

So, why are Texas and Mississippi having serious budget problems? And why are their governors breaking promises about taxes and spending?

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Public workers in Wisconsin and in several other states where they are under assault are fighting for the dignity of every worker. If these workers lose their ability to fight for fair wages and decent working conditions, we all lose.

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CPAC 2011 was like a trip through the looking glass.

At most political conferences, the mix of pragmatists and true believers results in a message with broad appeal, but rooted in shared principles. That's when everyone "gets it." CPAC was a mass exercise in not "getting it."

Two days at CPAC made the GOP's big problem crystal clear. The conservative movement is split between two factions of "true believers," both wildly out of step with what most Americans want, and both heavily invested in "not getting it."

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The celebration of Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday has begun, but the devotions have been going on for years. For conservatives, Reagan is the lodestar, the genial demigod to whom all must avow fealty.

But take a good look at the conservative mantra that Reagan championed: less spending, low taxes, deregulation, free trade, strong military, family values. On all of these, the Gipper and conservatives got it wrong.

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