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Pants on fire. (photo: luna715 / flickr)
Sadly distortions of the truth are all too common in our politics, and even outright lies are heard frequently, but last night Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan did something truly remarkable with his shameless disregard for the truth. Ryan didn’t just tell several lies about President Obama’s record; more incredibly, he actually had the chutzpah to blame Obama for things he himself is directly responsible for.
In his speech to the Republican National Convention last night, Ryan blamed President Obama for not doing anything with the deficit reduction recommendations from Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. From Ryan (via NPR):
Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.
Paul Ryan was a member of the bipartisan debt commission. The only reason the recommendations weren’t turned into a fast tracked piece of legislation is because Ryan, along with other Republicans on the commission, voted against it. Obama did “nothing” with the report because Ryan worked to prevent Obama from being able to turn it into law.
Personally, I think it is a good thing the recommendations were not acted on and I assume Ryan feels the exact same way, which is why he voted against them. But to work to prevent Obama from doing something, then have the gall to blame Obama for not doing something takes cynicism to a new level.
Remarkably this was not the only time in the speech when Ryan blamed Obama for something Ryan himself did. Ryan seemed to blame Obama for the United States credit downgrade, claiming in the speech Obama term “began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.”
If you read the reason why Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States credit rating, it is because they were worried about House Republicans’ willingness to use the debt ceiling vote as a political bargaining chip, and also their refusal to raise revenue. Ryan, as the House Budget Committee Chair, deserves a large degree of the personal responsibility for what House Republicans do regarding budget matters, yet he blamed it on Obama.
33 Comments
When even Fox calls him a liar you know that at least some Americans are getting the message – fingers crossed.
Ryan will get away with his blatant lies if (1) the media don’t do their job of fact-checking, (2) the Democrats do a poor job of refuting them and (3) voters are too dumb to figure them out. The odds are better than 50-50 that this trifecta will come to pass.
I think it was the movie/musical “chacago” this comes from (or something similar)
“They get rid of all the umbrellas and then complain about the rain’
it’s better then that but you get the idea
or was it;
“they brought the clouds and then complaigned about the rain”
something along those lines
The msm refuses to do their job. Almost all of these speeches are provided to the msm ahead of time. wolf and erin had time to look at them to catch the fabrications, but could on say there were eight or nine points that might be disputed. If they knew that, they should have said what the problems were. Saying so, however, might have been a job killer.
Toes too.
THis guy is even more a lying sack o shit than his running mate. There’s one thing people with a brain in this country really hate, it’s liars.
He will get away with his lies or at best say he was misunderstood. He thinks many will just believe him and move on. So does romney. It is the new way.
Those zombie eyes are scaring me.
That seems to be a population confined mainly to FDL and parts of other such blogs.
In that I disagree. I think we have a good 60-65% chance that some of the media will call him on that. The DNV, bunch of ignorant wimps, not so sure. The voters, some are smarter than we think. GOd, I hope they are smarter than we think.
Charlie Pierce calls Ryan “the zombie-eyed granny starver.” I can’t improve on that.
You have a valid point. But, in areas other than politics, the American people have shown little tolerance for liars. Example, all the baseball players who said they didn’t use PED’s.
I say we put a copyright on that.
Yahoo is headlining that Ryan took “factual shortcuts”. Newspeak is all we have now in MSM.
Hitler lied and misrepresented facts to the German people, for political gain. Those that dissented where first arrested then killed.
Hitler blamed those not responsible for the economics of Germany for the the problems of Germany, while protecting his corporate fascist friends and doing business with Standard Oil to carry out the Blitz.
Ryan must suffer from Dementia or just selective memory loss. Fascism is alive in America. It was just witnessed!
I just did!
I was at a tattoo shop and Pinocchio was getting a tattoo of Paul Ryan.
You will tolerate your next dose of Obama better because of the hateful narcissistic bullshit artist hypocrites running against him this time.
I don’t tolerate or believe anything from asselephants, period!
Why have the election. Ryan is already more powerful than Obama.
The stupid will believe.
The stupid will be wondering how the Democrats are responsible for their miserable next four years when the Republicans are in charge.
Obstructionist power doesn’t equate to Presidential power.
Which is like saying Jeffrey Dahmer had an eating disorder.
Let’s see how well Democrats rebut the Romney Ryan lies.
You mean “factual shortcuts” right. Lying is so crass a word to describe fucking bullshit.
Lincoln sure let the south know they obstructed constitutional protections for “…all men,” while exploiting slave’s “energy” for economic gain, at slave’s and republic’s expense! 650,000 dead Americans fight over servitude?
It was called the “Emancipation Proclamation,” an executive order. An exercise of Presidential power so that monopolies on labor gained under the color of law would not obstruct the intent of the Bill of Rights! Guess what? The “Bill of Rights” has been pissed on by corporatism buying government and law, just like the slave owners.
Truth hurts when you tell a “drunk” he is a stiff……..
It is called protect the slave owners… Deja Vu!
Hitler employed
“factual shortcuts”abject lies also, while blaming “others” for the economic conditions of the day, didn’t he?THE BIG LIE just because it is our time,,,,it does not mean the big lie no longer works….Joseph gobbels and adolf used the big lie to perfection with only newspapers, radio and public speaking….the big lie works and the defense must be based on the same emotional pulp that dickwads like ryan used…….
Ryan likes to put on an innocent altar-boy act, but he voted for every Bush tax cut, for wars that added trillions to the National Debt, and for the unfunded Medicare Part D. Now he claims to be concerned about deficits, but won’t consider taking away tax cuts for the rich.
If one can stomach watching Willard tonight, it will be interesting to see how many times he uses ‘fail’ or “failure”.
Drinking game fodder?
I’m missing the point here. Does the fact that Ryan lies about Obama make Obama’s candidacy more relevant or truthful? Both duopoly party candidates are lying through their teeth and ignoring the real issues. We should be talking about candidates who are trying to address the issues in a truthful and legitimate manner.
Exactly.
The title of this diary might as well have been “Obama Blames Ryan for Things Obama Did (or professed to doing in his 2nd term)”.
Apparently it trumps it.
The anger over peds in sports is because sports and the “heroes” thereof are much more important than politics; police, politicians, and administrators of incorporated political areas lie a great deal without much of a ripple among the populace.