Lies, Lies, Lies: Blizzards of Lies

If you do not recognize when you have been lied to, you will be lied to.
If you are not upset when you have been lied to, you will be lied to.
If you confuse truth with fiction, you will be lied to.
The result is that we have been lied to—time and time again. Indeed, scarcely a day goes by when we are not bombarded with further political lies.
Let us start with one of the biggest whoppers. Time and again we have been assured that half a trillion dollars of the projected costs of healthcare reforms will be covered by eliminating waste, abuse and fraud. But when has this ever happened? In particular, when has a Democratic administration significantly reduced either waste or fraud? In fact, the current crew has not even been able to curb these with respect to the subsidies for first time homebuyers. Its watch dogs have been perfectly happy to see these awarded to illegal immigrants and four-year olds.
Does anyone seriously believe that there will not be similar, even larger, health care overruns or that these will be financed by inflation and/or additional taxes? Then again, maybe the costs will be with offset by fines or user fees?
And how about those shovel ready projects? Do you remember the trillion-dollar stimulus package had to be passed unread within twelve hours lest these ventures be delayed? Unfortunately someone apparently mislaid the shovels. Or maybe they never existed. And what about those million jobs that were to be created or saved? The only problem is that no one seems to have been able to document these. Do you think that they too might not exist?
But the Obama administration has an answer. It knows that the best defense is a good offense, hence it accuses the insurance companies of lying, the chamber of commerce of lying, and the tea party goers of lying. Everyone else is apparently lying except them.
Except that they keep fibbing about Afghanistan, cap and trade, and global warming. They certainly haven’t bothered to tell the truth about Acorn or Fox News.
One Democratic operative has even bragged that belief in government-sponsored health care is in his party’s genes. Given that the so-called public option has had at least nine-lives, this may be true. Certainly a single party payer solution seems to be in Nancy Pelosi’s genes.
In other words, the Democratic insistence on leading the nation into bankruptcy for the sake of a government take-over of the health care system is like schizophrenia. Members of the party cannot help lying because they are in the grip of what amounts to a mental disease. If so, perhaps we should pity them.
Or maybe they are just terminally naïve. Liberals have long argued that people should retain the spontaneity, creativity, and sense of awe of the very young. They claim to hate the alleged bitterness and rigidity of purported grown-ups. According to them, it is much better for us if we preserve our hopes and dreams.
Assuming that this is so, perhaps we should keep on believing in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. After all, isn’t Obama a real-live incarnation of eternal generosity? Hasn’t he proven that there actually is a free lunch?
The point is that lies are lies however well intended some of these may be. This means that what is not true cannot become true, whatever it is called. Nor can falsehoods become true just because people sincerely believe in them.
So where is the outrage? Where are the adults who are deeply offended by this never-ending series of deceits? These are no longer charming; no matter how affably they are delivered. Like it or not, they are lies, and because they are lies, they may one day bite on the backside irrespective of our desire to believe.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University