Madame L is on a mission: When politicians make claims of any and every kind, Madame L wants to know if they're telling the truth.
Particularly when their main claim to fame (for their 15-minute moment) is that they're telling the truth, Madame L wants to know if they really are telling the truth.
Madame L didn't want to wait for an alert reader to ask her about this, so she found out for herself, and is relaying this information here, for her readers:
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) says in his campaign for the presidency that he's going to be telling the truth.
Sorry, Tim, you're off to a really bad start. According to the Associated Press, which fact-checked your claims, you are wrong on most counts. To summarize, for readers who don't want to read the entire AP article:
---TP says: Government workers are getting paid so much that their salaries need to be frozen. Truth: Federal employees' salaries have already been frozen for the next two years---except for the armed forces, Congress, and the federal courts.
---TP says: "Obamacare" is unconstitutional. Truth: We won't know for sure the constitutionality of Obama's restructuring of health care until the Supreme Court rules on it. Lower courts have gone both ways.
---TP says: Obama has consistently stood for higher taxes. Truth: President Obama has more often CUT taxes than raised them.
---TP says: Minnesota used to be in the top 10 states for high taxes, but I got it out of there. Truth: He didn't do it. Minnesota is still among the top 10.
---TP says: He's one of four governors in the country who got the Cato Institute's highest libertarian rating. Truth: He actually tied for third...But who wants the approval of the Cato Institute?
---TP says: He will be willing to suggest hard choices, not empty promises. Truth: Pawlenty does name several hard choices, like phasing out ethanol subsidies, which he mentioned to Iowa farmers, which does take some chutzpah. Other hard choices he suggests include raising the Social Security retirement age (already being done)...and supporting Rep. Ryan's budget plan which would destroy Medicare. (More about that, later, Madame L promises!)
Madame L presents the truth, and trusts her readers to decide whom to believe.
1 comment:
I think I read somewhere that Pawlenty claimed that he balanced the Minnesota budget, but the truth came out that he told his accountants to try some "creativity": shifted some debt to a place they decided not to count, stole money from a retirement fund, and then left the state in the hands of the next governor with a greater debt.
Who needs this kind of truth.
Cato Institute. Isn't that the bizarro Ayn Rand think tank that feels that poor people should quietly go and die and not complain about it?
Fact check me here, Madame Elle: where does this creepy organization get its money? What do they preach?
Post a Comment