Political Lies and Lying Politicians - 2015

If there is one thing we can almost always count on during the political season, it is that the politicians are going to stretch the truth, distort the truth and downright lie ... not occasionally, but almost continually.  In the fall of 2015, here are some of the lies we have been hearing, and I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceburg.

Carly Fiorina's Misleading Claim Against Planned Parenthood

During the September 17, 2015 Republican debate on CNN, Carly Fiorina looked straight into the cameras and gave a convincing and graphic description of an aborted fetus she claimed to have seen on a hidden camera video taken at a Planned Parenthood clinic.  The problem is that there are NO scenes such as the one she described on any of the hidden camera videos that were taken in Planned Parenthood facilities.  It just didn't happen.  It is possible that she confused it with another video of a miscarriage in a facility that had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood, but no one is sure.  FactCheck.org verified that this scene was not related to Planned Parenthood and, so far, the Fiorina campaign has not refuted it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/ct-carly-fiorina-donald-trump-hewlett-packard-perspec-0920-20150918-column.html

Hilary Clinton and Top Secret Emails

Hilary Clinton has been widely criticized for using a server in her own home as her email provider during the term she served as Secretary of State.  She has insisted that there were no Top Secret emails that were transmitted using her personal email.  However, she apparently overlooked a few.  While the vast majority of her emails were not labeled Top Secret, the special panel that is reviewing her emails did find at least two that were labeled Top Secret at the time she sent them.  Oversight ... or a lie?

http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/08/special-review-confirms-hillary-clintons-email-had-top-secret-information/

Trump Criticized Gov. Scott Walker for Having a Huge Deficit in Wisconsin

While Trump may have believed that Wisconsin had a $2.2 billion deficit while Scott Walker was governor, as he claimed in the CNN Republican debate, in truth the state is required by law to have a balanced budget and the state actually was able to provide tax cuts to its citizens.

Trump Lied About Not Wanting Casino Gambling in Florida

During the CNN debate, Jeb Bush brought up the fact that Donald Trump made a $50,000 donation to his gubernatorial campaign and sent lobbyists to Florida in an attempt to get casino gambling approved in Florida.  Bush insisted that he could not be bought and Trump was not successful in his attempt to get casino gambling.  Trump claimed that Bush was wrong and he had not tried to get casino gambling in Florida.

However, it is a well-known fact that Trump actively pursued a deal to put casinos on tribal land in Florida, but he failed, partially because Bush did not support him in this quest.

Donald Trump vs. Dr. Ben Carson on Vaccines

Donald Trump repeatedly made the claim while running for office in 2015 that vaccines cause autism.  Dr. Ben Carson, who is a pediatric doctor and also a presidential candidate, disputed the claim, referring to a number of large studies that have proven there is no relationship between vaccines and autism.

Eventually, Trump backed down and simply said that it would be better if inoculations were spread out more.  Dr. Carson agreed and they seemed to compromise on the issue, but it was only after Trump had spread this misinformation around the country.

Other Trump Exaggerations and Errors

While nearly all the politicians who are running for president seem to be stretching the truth, Donald Trump has made the most statements that could be considered exaggerations, at the very least.  Here are a few of those statements, along with the truth:

"Our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent."  PolitiFact tried to reproduce his numbers.  The highest recent formal unemployment rate is 10.6 percent and even when they used alternative methods and stretched it as much as possible, they could not get it past 16 percent, and that seemed a "considerable stretch."

"Last quarter ... our Gross Domestic Product ... was below zero."  In truth, our GDP is in the trillions of dollars, nowhere near zero.  Growth in GDP is sometimes below zero, but that is not unusual to have happen in a quarter.  In fact, it has happened 42 times in the past 68 years.

To be fair, observers are uncertain whether Trump has intentionally lied about some of these issues or if he simply did not understand the information and, consequently, misinterpreted it.


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/sep/17/fact-checking-second-gop-presidential-debate/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/jun/17/fact-checking-donald-trump/

There are sure to be more political lies in the coming months, so look for more articles on this topic during the 2015-2016 political season!

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo credit: morguefile.com

Factual Errors in Paul Ryan's Convention Speech

This blog is reluctant to play political favorites during an election.  The last post I made on dishonest politicians was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.  Neither party has a lock on absolute honesty.

However, whenever mistakes are made in political speeches, it is important that they be pointed out so that politicians are held accountable for their remarks.  It doesn't matter which party to which they belong.

When Paul Ryan gave his speech during the August, 2012 Republican convention, he made several factual errors or, in some cases, painted a somewhat dishonest picture of his views vs. the policies of his opponents.  These errors were pointed out in the Yahoo News article "FACT CHECK: Ryan takes factual shortcuts in speech."  What is especially surprising is that his speech writers and the fact checkers for the Republican Party did not catch these errors before he went on national television.

Factual Distortions in the Paul Ryan Speech

Ryan:  President Obama told the residents of Janesville, Wisconsin that their GM plant could be saved.

Truth:  The GM plant was already closed weeks before Obama took office.  He never made such a promise to the people in Janesville. In addition, Ryan actually voted for an auto bailout under President Bush, but criticized bailing out the auto industry once Obama was President.

Ryan:  Obama stole $716 billion from Medicare.

Truth:  Ryan's plan would take more money from Medicare.  Obama's plan doesn't affect Medicare recipients; it affects hospitals and other medical providers with the goal of making them more fiscally responsible.  Ryan's voucher plan for senior health insurance would affect Medicare recipients directly.

Ryan:  Obama didn't follow the recommendations of the bipartisan debt commission.

Truth:  It is true that Obama did not follow the recommendations; however, Ryan was on the commission and he voted against the recommendations that they made.  Neither Ryan nor Obama agreed with the suggestions.

Ryan:  Obama was responsible for Standard & Poors downgrading of the U.S. Credit Rating

Truth:  Standard & Poors made a public statement that the reason for the downgrade was because the Republicans in Congress continued to resist any measure to raise revenues.  They were very clear and specific about their reason for the downgrade, and they did not attribute the decision to any Obama policies.

I prefer not to make any additional comments on any of these factual errors and will let others decide whether or not they are important.  In addition, I promise to point out any factual errors that are made during the Democratic convention, if they are brought to my attention.

Let's try to keep politicians honest and politics clean.  We need to made decisions based on the facts, not distortions of the truth.  It can be very difficult to learn the facts, but this blog will make every effort to try.

You may also want to read these non-partisan articles:

The Collapse of Lehman Brothers
Politics and Lies
The Government Will Not Pay Your Utility Bills
Misinformation about Affordable Healthcare Act

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo of President Obama and Paul Ryan courtesy of www.wikipedia.com/commons

Politics and Lies

It has almost become a cliche to say that politicians lie.  Sometimes we minimize the severity of their lies by saying that they exaggerate.  In other situations, we choose to believe them when they say they were mistaken, confused, or they just didn't remember what happened.  However we explain it away, Americans have shown a willingness to repeatedly accept the fact that our politicians are going to lie to us.  One of the decisions we have to make each time we go to the polls is whether or not we believe one of the candidates more than we believe the other!

This is an election year, and I prefer to avoid mentioning some of the exaggerations, missteps and controversial comments that are being made daily by our current group of candidates at the federal, state and local levels.  There will be plenty of time to enjoy them after the election is over.  However, I thought my readers would enjoy this little trip down memory lane as we review some of the more outragious lies that have been told to the citizens of this country.  Interestingly enough, these lies were told by both Republicans and Democrats.  It appears that neither party has a lock on honesty ... especially when the subject of sexual activity is brought up!

Representative Anthony Weiner (Democrat)

After a naked picture of his private parts was Tweeted to a young woman, he insisted that his Twitter account had been hacked.  When asked if what was shown on Twitter was truly a photo of him, he answered that he wasn't sure.  (How many of us actually have pictures of our private parts available for others to Tweet at their convenience?)  When the truth came out, he was forced to admit that no one had hacked his account.  Incredibly, he had sent the Tweet himself!

Senator Larry Craig (Republican)

This venerable gentlemen was accused of "coming on" to another man in a public restroom at an airport.  He had apparently stretched his foot out under the partition between the stalls and played "footsie" with the man in the next stall.  The only problem was that the man in the next stall was really an undercover cop who was trying to catch men who were engaging in homosexual activities in this particular public restroom.  The Senator's defense was that he didn't intentionally touch the cop's foot; he said, "I have a wide stance."  I'll let other men who have "wide stances" decide whether or not this was a lie!

President Bill Clinton (Democrat)

Who can forget President Bill Clinton appearing on national television to sincerely swear, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman!"  At first it was just his word against hers, and who would believe a lowly 22 year old intern rather than a United States President?  That is, of course, until a certain infamous blue dress turned up.  Eventually, even a president can be humbled enough to admit that he really did have an "improper relationship" with Monica Lewinsky.  It must have just slipped his mind.

Governor Mark Sanford (Republican)

In 2009, from June 18 until June 24, the governor of the state of Georgia disappeared.  Not only did his wife not know where he was, Georgia State Law Enforcement had also "lost" him.  He did have the forethought to tell his staff that he would be hiking on the Appalachian Trail; however, he did not answer calls to his cell phone and he didn't even call his family on Father's Day.  Surprise! It turned out that he was not in Appalachia at all.  Instead, he had flown to Argentina to be with Maria Belen Chapur, a woman whom he called his "soul mate."  It appears that he had forgotten all about the woman he had been married to for 20 years!  As a consequence of his disappearance and affair, his wife left him, he had to resign as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and he had to reimburse taxpayers for some of the public money he spent on trips to see his Argentinian lover.  Did he really think that no one would miss the governor of a state if he left the country for almost a week?

There are plenty of other stories that can be told about political lies, of course, and I am sure more will be mentioned in the months ahead!

You may also be interested in reading:

Politician John Edwards
Common Lies Men Tell Women
Misinformation about Affordable Healthcare Act

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com/

Official government photo of Representative Weiner was courtesy of www.wikipedia.com/commons

Above information is from various news reports and sources, including news coverage on ABC news.  Exact dates and similar details were confirmed on Wikipedia.