At a basic level, what bothers me about politicians who lie, especially at a national level, is that the deceptions are insulting. A candidate who knows the truth, but makes a deliberate decision to deceive, is working from the assumption that Americans are suckers.
And last night, Paul Ryan made painfully clear that he thinks we're all profound idiots who'll believe an endless string of lies, so long as they're packaged well and presented with conviction. Jonathan Cohn suggested last night's address may have been the "most dishonest convention speech" ever delivered, and I can't think of a close second.
It was a truly breathtaking display of brazen dishonesty. Paul Ryan looked America in the eye and without a hint a shame, lied to our face.
Ryan lied about President Obama's auto-industry rescue, blaming the administration for a plant closing orchestrated by President Bush. Ryan lied about Medicare, falsely accusing Obama of undermining the system. Ryan lied about the debt downgrade, falsely blaming the president for a downgrade caused by Ryan and congressional Republicans.
Ryan lied about the Simpson-Bowles commission, falsely accusing Obama of walking away from debt reduction, and ignoring the fact that Ryan himself fought to ensure the Simpson-Bowles commission never even released a report. Ryan lied about his plans for the safety net, saying he intends to "protect the weak" when he budget plan intends to gut public investments that benefit the poor.
Ryan lied about the debt, saying Obama "has added more debt than any other president before him," when the truth is, that was George W. Bush -- who added over $5 trillion to the debt thanks in large part to congressional votes cast by Paul Ryan.
Ryan lied about the Recovery Act, calling the stimulus "a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst," when reality shows the exact opposite. Ryan lied about small businesses, accusing Obama of raising their taxes, when he actually cut their taxes.
Paul Ryan, the man the media and Republicans celebrate as a bold truth-teller, told one lie after another, demonstrating a near-pathological disdain for honesty. His speech presented no substantive ideas, no policy solutions, and no bold positions on any key issue, but it included enough falsehoods to choke a fact-checker -- all because he assumes you're a fool and journalists are too incompetent to separate fact from fiction.
Is he right?
Dan Amira called the speech "appallingly disingenuous and shamelessly hypocritical," but added this gem:
Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news 15 hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan's case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan's pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer said he counted "seven or eight" claims that "fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute," but concluded the lies didn't matter because it was "a powerful speech" that gave Republicans what they "were hoping for."
CNN's Erin Burnett added, "There will be issues with some of the facts, but it motivated people."
Let that sentence roll around in your brain for a moment, and ponder what it means for our country.
Ryan lied uncontrollably, but that's not terribly important. It undermines our democracy and the basic norms of the American political system, but no one seems to care anymore. Ryan thinks we're idiots, but his cynicism matters less than the electoral implications.
The United States is better than Paul Ryan's dishonesty. It has to be. Our future depends on it.
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To quote the article Jonathan Cohn suggested last night's address may have been the "most dishonest convention speech" ever delivered. Cohn of course would be most sensitive to the things Ryan said about government healthcare, the focus of his book.
Guess we should all do our own "fact checking" since those in politics and the media can take advantage of us. I did a little for myself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNKfbO_PvkI
Also note that not one of our Representatives in Congress read the whole bill before passing it into law. YES we need healthcare fixed, but for instance how many people know that the new Healthcare Law that the President signed includes a two page provision for a 6,000 person “Ready Reserve” Healthcare Corpse trained by the military? This amounts to a personal army at the president’s command! What the heck is that doing under our healthcare bill and how are they appropriating millions of dollars to fund it? Although the President is Commander in Chief of the military, it is entirely unconstitutional for there to be a homeland army under his control (unless the U.S. was attacked by an outside force). The National Guard is supposed to be under individual State Governors as something the founders had written specifically to block against the possibility of Federal tyranny against the States or U.S. citizens (you know, like Hitler, Saddam, the Iranian Guard)!
What’s worse is that you might trust the man in office now not to abuse this power but you must understand that laws and privileges passed now are inherited by subsequent administrations! Don’t dis this report, it begins with a distraction but gets to the point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGW136RLhSM&feature=related
Perhaps this Healthcare Corpse is planned to administer the FEMA Camps mentioned that Rachel Maddow had previously shown such alarm about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mPZlysCAm0&feature=related MSNBC Maddow
Everyone is talking about the "fact checked" dateon the closing of the GM plant as implicating Ryan in a lie. Ryan never accused President Obama for being responsible for the GM plant closing. Read the RNC transcript! There was absolutely NO LIE involved, unless you consider President Obama’s campaign promise!
Candidate Obama visited the troubled plant while campaigning and assured the workers that with the help of the government that plant would be there for 100 years. Well I guess that wasn’t a “lie,” as the plant is still sitting there as idle as the President’s
promise! Obama has been president almost four years and his government has done nothing to reopen that plant as he implied would happen if he came into office... And by the way those people as union workers overwhelmingly voted for him.
So, Ryan lied because the plant closed a few weeks before Obama took office? If President Obama’s words had been anything more than empty campaign promises it could have reopened! All of those men and women who took him seriously lost their jobs but could have gone back to work at any time if as now “President” Obama assured his government would be there to help. By now many of those workers have lost their homes and had to relocate, and the economy of the whole area has been depressed.
Ryan’s point was that Obama makes promises that he can neither keep nor even expects to keep... Where is the lie on Ryan’s part? All we have heard is spin on the things he said.
And, with the depression of that area after the closing of the GM plant and also the Chrysler plant in the State he represents, should we then blame Paul Ryan for fairly seeking stimulus monies to help that local economy? In doing this, does it mean that Ryan did not see and believe that much of the stimulus money (a small example the billions lost in the Solyndra gamble) as wasteful spending? This does not make Ryan double-minded or dishonest in word or deed on behalf of his constituents.
To quote the article "Ryan lied about the Simpson-Bowles commission, falsely accusing Obama of walking away from debt reduction, and ignoring the fact that Ryan himself fought to ensure the Simpson-Bowles commission never even released a report."
Listen to Democrat Erskine Bowles of "Simpson-Bowles":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzpuqWo6yU
Ryan faulted the President for doing nothing to address the deficit, so it was brought out that Ryan didn’t vote for Simpson-Bowles. So Ryan is called a liar?
Ryan instead proposed several solutions to problems he saw within that budget. The President however rejected any amendments. The clip below begins with an interview with Ryan the day after his RNC speech where he answers his critics and explains why he voted against it. The piece is only three minutes, though appears longer, stop at 3.23:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cETlLlDuT78
Here is a short clip of Ryan and Geitner (Treasury Secretary) discussing the Obama debt reduction plan juxtaposed to Ryan’s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_f20ZDBj5k
People need to get off the merry-go-round of partisan spin and research leadership candidates for themselves. America, our freedoms and way of life are too precious to cast to the wind of partisan politics. As a full disclosure, at this point I think that Paul Ryan is the best thing that could happen to our economy, best for everyone. No matter how altruistic we may be, we must operate within the laws of possibility. I don’t believe Paul Ryan lied but Steve Benen’s article was filled with everything he accused Ryan of.
Want to know more about Paul Ryan's plan for healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, deficit reduction, etc. http://www.americanroadmap.org/ Scroll around at the site and click on each topic for a rundown on the problems and proposed solutions.