Another SOTU,Another Pair of Pants on Fire

Of course you all remember the Niger uranium lie from the 2003 State of the Union. Well, two years later, The Big Turd Sandwich decided, hell, he's got himself one of those big ol' man-dates, he might as well really lie his ass off this time. Bob Harris has the details...

Let's look at just a few of the hard-and-fast, indisputable lies from last night's bullfest...

"Our society has changed in ways the founders of Social Security could not have foreseen. In today's world, people are living longer and therefore drawing benefits longer - and those benefits are scheduled to rise dramatically over the next few decades."

Unquestionably false.

In 1934... the actuaries predicted that the proportion of Americans over 65 -- then only 5.4 percent -- would rise to 12.65 percent in 1990... They were just a tad high; the actual figure would be 12.49 percent.

Bush glossed a lot of details, but he did give at least one plain, specific fact on the numbers... I quote:

"By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt."

Horseshit. According to the Congressional Budget Office's authoritative numbers, updated just last Monday: if absolutely nothing changes, benefits aren't even projected to begin declining until 2053, at which point (prepare to quake in mortal terror):

CBO finds that the benefits paid will be 22 percent lower than the scheduled benefits.

Bankrupt? Bankrupt? Bullshit. Even something as mainstream as CNN's Money section is now running a "Reality Check" article, politely saying Bush "may have overstated Social Security's problems," given that (in the exact words of the head numbers guy at the GAO) "the program will never go bust."

And that was just his SS lies. Bob's got plenty more...