Liar, Liar, Pant On Fire

Liar, liar, pants on fire, if you were a politician, your nose would grow longer than all the cable wire that surrounds the globe.

On November 17, 1973, in denying involvement in the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon insisted, “Well, I’m not a crook.” Worse than a lie, rather than face certain impeachment, on August 9, 1974, he became the only U.S. President to resign from office. Long before, in the 1950 mid-term elections, Democratic opponent for the U.S. Senate seat in California, then-Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, foresaw his questionable integrity when she nicknamed him “Tricky Dick.”

On August 18, 1998, during his acceptance speech as presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention, George H. W. Bush bespoke, “Read my lips – no new taxes.” In January, 1990, he implemented a $4 billion a year payroll tax increase. Although he later stated that “I did it, and I regret and I regret it”, Bill Clinton won the 1992 Presidential Election.

In a deposition on the Paula Jones lawsuit, President Bill Clinton swore, “I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I’ve never had an affair with her.” Indeed, pants on fire, you liar! Impeached by the House of Representatives on December, 19, 1998, he was acquitted of perjury, obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office by the Senate on February 12, 1999.

The Center for Public Integrity claims that President George W. Bush “made 234 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statement about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda.” To support these allegations, the group cited reports from “the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.”

On many occasions during his presidency Bush was adamant that, as stated in November 2005, “This government does not torture people.” And that his administration adhered to "U.S. law and our international obligations." Going back to 2003, he claimed, “The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.” At the time, the administration used what they called “enhanced interrogation techniques”. And yet, on June 3, 2010, the former president admitted, “Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I'd do it again to save lives."

Enough about George W. Vice President Cheney was no truthsayer either, claiming in 2003, "I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years." In 2001, Cheney received a $34 million payout package; two years later Halliburton was rewarded one of the biggest federal contracts in history to take part in the Iraq war.

We pause for a moment from lying leaders to tread heavily on the man who epitomized the greedy excesses of Wall Street investors.

October 20, 2007, Bernie Madoff said, “In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules… but it’s impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time.” On December, 11, 2008, Madoff admitted, “It’s all just one big lie.” Upwards of $65 billion and tens of thousands of victims later, on June 29, 2009, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, while sentencing the Ponzi schemer to 150 years in prison, decreed, “Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extremely evil.”

Recent government unemployment figures continue to be blatant lies. The June jobless rate was 9.5%, down from 9.7% in May but these figures don’t include some 652,000 people who gave up and stopped looking for work. If the truth was told, the June jobless rate would have been reported as rising to 9.9%.

The Obama administration claims the stimulus recovery package has created or saved between 2.5 to 3.6 million jobs when, in fact, the U.S. economy has lost a net 2.3 million jobs since the $862 million was pumped into the economy in February 2009.
On September 12, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a predictable lie, “I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Then came health care reform. This past September, President Obama insisted, “For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax.” Not surprisingly, in defense of mandating penalties for failing to carry ‘minimum essential coverage’, the Justice Department has stated the mandate is “a valid exercise” for Congress to exercise its taxing authority through the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution. So, a tax it is.

During this and all political seasons, keep in mind the infamous words by Adolf Hitler from Mein Kampf: “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”