Republican Lies category archive

Honest(er) accounting:

For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear, according to administration officials.

(snip)

“The president prefers to tell the truth,” he (Peter R. Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget–ed.) said, “rather than make the numbers look better by pretending.”

You can’t deal with stuff that you can’t see.

It’s a Republican thing. They dumped the country down the toilet, got nothing on their side, so they return to their tried-and-true tactic: Making stuff up.

From FactCheck dot org (emphasis added):

Republican politicians have claimed that the stimulus bill requires that doctors follow government orders on what medical treatments can and can’t be prescribed. But the bill doesn’t say that.

• Rep. Tom Price of Georgia says the measure creates “a national health care rationing board.” Not true. What it creates is a council to coordinate research into which treatments work best, and are most effective for the money. And in fact, the new law states quite specifically that the council has no power to “mandate coverage” and that its recommendations are not to be construed as “clinical guidelines for … treatment.

”

• Betsy McCaughey, a Republican former lieutenant governor of New York, claims that the bill creates a “new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology.” Not true. The office was created in 2004 by President Bush. McCaughey also says the office “will monitor treatments” and ” ‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions.” But that’s nothing new. Bush’s initiative called for creating a health IT system to transmit information to “guide medical decisions.”

Critics of comparative effectiveness research, which the government has been funding for decades, claim that it will lead to treatment being approved or denied based on costs. Proponents say it will improve the quality of care and can, in some cases, show that more costly treatments aren’t as effective as less expensive alternatives.

We can’t predict what will happen in the future, but we can say that several claims being made about the impact of the bill are simply opinions being passed off as facts.

“. . . opinions being passed off as facts.”

Yeah.

Right.

There’s a nice short pithy word for opinions passed off as facts.

Backstory: The Republican myth that autoworkers make $70.00 an hour was created by taking the full personnel costs of the United States unionized auto manufacturers, including all retiree costs (such as pensions and health care negotiated in good faith) and dividing it by the number of active non-exempt employees.

The actual take home pay of an autoworker is less than half that figure on an hourly basis or slightly more than $61,000 a year without overtime.

In other words, the $70.00 per hour thing is a lie.

The lie distracts persons from the vision of old folks losing the retirement homes and health care which they worked honestly to earn. Yes, earn. It pollutes policy discourse while demonizing working persons.

Like any good lie, it has a very Nixonian plausible deniability.

But it’s still a lie.

Here is how to respond to a lie:

Role Model below the Fold

It’s a long report, worth the seven or eight minutes it takes to read it. From TPM Muckraker:

At least nine Bush administration officials refused to cooperate with various Justice Department investigations during the final days of the Bush presidency, according to public records and interviews with federal law enforcement officials and many of the officials and their attorneys. In addition, two U.S. senators, a congresswoman, and the chief of staff to one of them, also refused to cooperate with the same investigations.

In large part because of that noncooperation, Justice Department officials sought criminal prosecutors in at least two cases so far to take over their investigations so that they can compel the testimony of many of those officials to testify through the use of a federal grand jury.

Everything is a nail.

Of course, there is other stuff in the tool kit besides a hammer. There’re pliers and wrenches and Allen keys and screwdrivers and splining tools and all sorts of neat things.

But Republicans don’t believe in them. Therefore those implements do not exist.

Harold Meyerson on the Republican Party’s belief that cutting taxes for the rich is The One True Faith (emphasis added):

So George W. Bush called for tax cuts to deal with the dangerous budget surpluses that Bill Clinton had been running, and then called for tax cuts to close the deficit his earlier tax cuts had created. He proposed tax cuts to finance his war in Iraq. And in that same spirit, defeated presidential nominee John McCain, in his Republican alternative to the Democrats’ stimulus bill, called for nothing but tax cuts to remedy the current meltdown and complained that the Democrats were calling for spending, not stimulus. Never mind that no reputable economist believes that tax cuts get money into circulation as effectively as government spending does. The Republicans’ belief in tax cuts is beyond the realm of empirical argument. Data do not daunt them, nor facts compel reflection.

Tom Ricks on Fresh Air discussing the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq:

“The Surge failed. I say that because the Surge’s purpose was not just to improve security. It was, as the President (Bush–ed.) said, to create a breathing space in which political chance could occur. And the fact is that political change has not occurred. All the basic questions facing Iraq before the Surge are still there and have not been addressed, have not been solved . . . . A lot of people think the war is over . . . . The war is different . . . .”

Follow the link to listen to the interview.

The post title is shamelessly stolen from Susie.

So is the post.

While you’re at it, check out this one also.

Pay attention to their actions; ignore their words.

The Republican definition of “fiscal responsibility” is “make the rich richer and the poor poorer.”

Colbert King:

Remember last fall when House Republicans, led by Minority Leader John Boehner, whined that they were forced to kill the Bush administration’s bank bailout bill because Speaker Nancy Pelosi had given a speech that hurt their feelings?

Well, they are back with another howler — and a reminder why the GOP is no longer the nation’s dominant political party.

This week, House Republicans voted in lock step against President Obama’s economic stimulus package, using as one excuse their deep concern about the impact of government spending on the future debt burden of America’s “children and grandchildren.”

(snip)

In their slavish devotion to Hooverism, today’s Republicans are repeating the mistakes that banished their party to the political wilderness in the ’30s.

Boehner and his colleagues should worry less about what today’s children and grandchildren will inherit from an Obama administration and spend more time trying to undo the present-day lessons taught by business chieftains, to wit, that:

• Need and greed are synonymous. (How else do they give themselves $20 billion in bonuses as their companies sink in a sea of red ink?)
• Government bailouts trump creating and saving jobs.
• Business tax credits are superior to investment in programs that repair holes in the social safety net.

Still lying after all these years.

John Cole sums it up and suggests a remedy (emphasis added):

Remember that CBO report I linked to earlier this week? The one that supposedly said the stimulus package as proposed would not spend fast enough to be stimulus. Guess what. It doesn’t exist . . .

(snip)

From now on, anything the Republicans say I am just going to have to assume is a lie, until proven otherwise. I don’t know how else to handle this, as they simply can not be trusted to tell the truth or do the right thing, regardless what the stakes are.

Follow the link for the evidence.

. . . The Nation’s editorial board wrote the editorial from which I took the excerpt below and which they republish in this week’s edition.

Some things have not changed.

Remember, it wasn’t Bush. He is just another Republican doing what Republicans do:

Making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

It was Republicanism.

Follow the link. Read the whole thing. And realize that history can indeed repeat itself when citizens do not pay attention to it.

But we are taking leave not merely of a single Administration. For twelve years the Republican Party has been in power. During ten of those years it controlled the executive and legislative branches of the government. When, a few years hence, an attempt is made to minimize the disaster of this last quadrennium, and to point to a preceding eight year period of material development and growth, let it be noted that in a purely material sense the American people are much worse off today than they were twelve years ago. Far more than was gained has been swept away. Savings have been dissipated, lives have been blasted, families disintegrated. Misery and insecurity exist to a degree unprecedented in our national life. And spiritually the American people have been debauched by the materialism which made dollar-chasing the accepted way of life and accumulation of riches the goal of earthly existence. The record of Republicanism must be judged as a whole, although, in fairness, the consequences of the World War and the major responsibility of the Democrats for putting the United States into it must not be forgotten. The Republicans were as eager to make war—and both parties continued, until well after the crash, to be proud of their attitude in 1917. Moreover, economic disaster has been only a part of this sterile decade’s legacy, the burdens of which will descend to unborn generations. Our worthiest traditions have been impaired; vital tenets of American life have been destroyed. What has become of that fundamental American axiom “salvation by work”? In all our previous history it has been taken for granted that ours was a land of opportunity, and that rewards bore some relation to initiative, effort, and ability. Granting the large mythical content of these beliefs, they were more nearly valid in America in the first century and a half of our national existence than anywhere else on earth. They are no longer true today. The promise of American life has been shattered—possibly beyond repair.

Via Lawyers, Guns, and Money.

Criminal proceedings are not necessary, though, no doubt, deserved.

Truth, though, should be mandatory.

Paul Krugman:

. . . about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

Here’s the lie (don’t go there if you’ve just eaten a meal).

Here’s the truth.

Life must be so easy in their parallel universe.

H/T Karen for the wingnut.

More lies. It’s the only weapon they have.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,’ it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’

(Quotation from Through the Looking Glass.)

The poor man’s not even in office yet, but . . .

. . . right-wing mouthpieces from Rush Limbaugh to Fred Barnes began blaming Barack Obama for the Bush recession literally within hours of his election. But as a quick glance at the data shows, across virtually economic indicator from GDP, unemployment and consumer confidence to home prices, foreclosures and manufacturing output, ownership for this mushrooming economic calamity squarely belongs to George W. Bush.

Then, again, what would else can we expect from this bunch. Look at their record.

Avoiding responsibility.

It’s a Republican thing.

Folks who work in call centers don’t make much money, unless they are members of TCU (my old union), which, in this case, is extremely unlikely.

And they still walked. Some indication of how disgusting the script must have been.

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Via TPM.

. . . They prove you wrong.

Republican candidate caught stealing his opponent’s yard signs.

I heard about this on the radio this evening:

Johnson County, Kan., Commissioner John Toplikar has been charged with theft in connection with the theft of campaign signs belonging to his rival, Calvin Hayden. Over the weekend, Hayden campaign worker Teri Atwell captured the theft on video. She says she initially did not suspect the commissioner.

Thanks to Steve, here’s the video:

Rachel Maddow used to refer to the “Bush crime family.”

Her phrasing caused me discomfort. However much I contemn (yes, that’s the proper spelling) the shrub, I did respect his Daddy and thought he tried to do his best as President. I didn’t agree with him much, but I did–and do–believe that he tried to exercise his responsiblities with integrity.

Now, I have concluded Ms Maddow understates the case.

It’s the Republican crime family.

The Republican Party is united in its lack of respect for the law, for truth, and for the American Way.

Headline:

Chester man arrested in voter fraud

Crucial quotation (emphasis added):

Representatives of ACORN, an advocacy group for low-income and minority citizens that says it put 1.3 million new voters on the rolls in the past 15 months, said they were not surprised. The group’s mainly low-income work force is paid $8 an hour to solicit registrations.

“Workers are told that we will not tolerate fraud and that we will cooperate with authorities,” said Krista Holab, political director of Pennsylvania ACORN. “We tell them a felony is not worth $8 an hour.”

Holab said staffers immediately noticed problems when trying to verify information on the cards Barksdale submitted, and he was fired after eight days on the job.

“We called it to the attention of the Board of Elections in June,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that it has taken this many months for the D.A. to take action.”

Holab said ACORN is required to submit the cards to election officials even if fraud is suspected.

(Man, I’ve had to add a new category just for this stuff.)