The truth about lies is that they cause us to distrust people. We lose faith when we discover a lie. We lose confidence in people we want to trust.

The same could be said for organizations and governments. That is the state of our electorate now.

We are in a state of confusion and denial about things we hear and hope are not lies but turn out to be. Case in point: supply-side economics. You know, the trickle-down theory of cutting taxes for the wealthy to grow the economy? If that were truly the case, then the wealthy should be supporting a $15 an hour wage as a natural result of their wealth trickling down to us! Or does supply-side economics mean that those who have the supply of money get to make more?

Then there are the lies about our president: that he is not an American citizen; that he is a Muslim; that he has ruined the economy; that Obamacare has killed jobs.

Majority Leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell must have been fools or chose to ignore the constitution if they allowed a non-citizen to be president of the U.S. Yet they did not dissuade people from believing that. No, they used that lie for their political advantage.

Then there is the lie that Obamacare would create death panels. Where are they? Why hasn’t Obamacare ruined the job market? We have had the longest monthly job growth in American history. Surely that could not have happened on Obama’s watch!

When President Obama raised taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year back in 2013, why did the unemployment rate drop to 4.9 percent? Shouldn’t it be 7 percent, 8 percent or higher if we are to believe supply-side economics?

Our beloved balanced budget concept is also a lie. We had a balanced budget in 1999-2000 when we had $200 billion to $300 billion federal surpluses. But we chose not to pay down the principle on our debt. No, we cut taxes and got more in debt when we chose to fight wars without paying for them.

Pay-go legislation signed by George H.W. Bush helped create the surpluses that could have paid for the wars we had. Instead, we chose to override pay-go legislation to keep the supply of money going to the 1 percent, perpetuating the lie and disorienting the middle class who thought they could believe in supply side “trickle down” economics.

Lies are very disorienting when confronted with the naked truth.

Edward Vos is a Jamestown resident.