His lies are shameful yet he
remains Shameless
If there is one trait we expect from our elected officials, and especially from the President, it would that they do not lie to us.
Washington Post
FACT CHECKING HERE and HERE of 10 of Trump’s most-notable speech
claims that he made to Congress and the public in his Joint Address to Congress
(Feb 28, 2017) – show clearly again that Trump is a pathological serial liar and
all the while he blames the media for covering his lies:
1. “We have begun to drain the swamp of
government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive
branch officials — and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign
government.”
Trump
did sign an order that he said would result in a lifetime ban on administration
officials lobbying for foreign governments. But his five-year ban on
lobbying as promised for his cabinet and members of congress only applies to
their former agency or office, not for becoming
a general lobbyist to others.
In
essence, he weakens some of the language from similar bans under Presidents
Barack Obama and George W. Bush and thus, overall reduces the level of expected
transparency.
2. “We’ve defended the borders of other nations,
while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to
pour in at a now unprecedented rate.”
The
data are mixed on the amount of drugs coming through the borders. The amount of
marijuana seized at the border continues to decline — probably a reflection of
drug use in the United States, as more states legalize marijuana for medical or
recreational use. In fiscal 2016, 1.3 million pounds of marijuana were seized, down from
1.5 million the year before, and lower than the peak of nearly 4
million pounds in 2009 (CBP data). The amount of cocaine seized at the borders
overall in fiscal 2016 (5,473 pounds) was roughly half the amount seized the
previous year (11,220 pounds). But the amount of heroin and methamphetamine
seized has increased in recent years. In fiscal year 2016, 9,062 pounds of
heroin (compared to 8,282 in fiscal 2015) and 8,224 pounds of methamphetamine
(compared to 6,443 pounds in fiscal 2015) was seized. Illegal immigration flows
across the Southern border in 2015 were lowest since 1972, except for a spike
in 2011. Apprehensions in 2016 totaled 408,870 – it exceeded 2015 (331,333) and
it all indicates an overall decline since the peak in 2000 of some 1.6 million.
3. “Since my election, Ford, Fiat Chrysler,
General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart and many others have
announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and
will create tens of thousands of new American jobs.”
He
again takes credit for business decisions made before his election. For example: Ford’s decision to abandon
its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant has
more to do with the company’s long-term goal – Ford chief executive Mark Fields
said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico:
“The
reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just
demand has gone down for small cars.”
Sergio
Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler chief executive, said his company’s
plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for
more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump. Marchionne credited instead talks
with the United Auto Workers.
4. “We’ve saved taxpayers hundreds of millions
of dollars by bringing down the price of the fantastic new F-35 jet fighter,
and will be saving billions more dollars on contracts all across our
government.”
Trump
once again takes credit for the lowered cost of the F-35 program. The Pentagon
had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began
meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Sometimes Trump says he saved
$600 million, other times $700 million. (We
previously awarded Four Pinocchios to this claim).
5. “We have cleared the way
for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — thereby
creating tens of thousands of jobs — and I’ve issued a new directive that new
American pipelines be made with American steel.”
Trump appears to be combining
two disputed figures — 28,000 jobs for Keystone XL and 12,000 for the Dakota
Access pipeline. The actual number of Keystone construction jobs is 3,900 annualized.
As for the steel, workers in Arkansas have already built about half of the
high-strength line pipe needed for the project, some 333,000 tons. And, TransCanada
said in 2013 that it had already purchased all of the steel pipe it needed for
the Keystone XL, with the rest coming from a Russian-owned plant in Canada, Italy and
India. Experts say the plant in Arkansas (owned by an Indian company)
is the only one in the United States that could build the pipe — and
it gets its steel from India.
6. “By finally enforcing our immigration laws we
will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions and billions of dollars
and make our communities safer for everyone.”
Trump
exaggerates the impact of illegal immigration on crime, taxpayer money, and jobs.
Extensive research shows non-citizens are not more prone to criminality than
U.S.-born citizens. The vast majority of unauthorized immigrants are not
criminal aliens or aggravated felons. Trump appears to reference the cost of
illegal immigration from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which
supports lower levels of legal and illegal immigration.
According
to the group, the annual cost of illegal immigration at the federal, state and
local levels amounted to about $113 billion as of 2013. But this calculation
makes assumptions that are not necessarily tied to illegal immigration, like
enrollment in English proficiency classes. In general, economists have found
that immigration overall results in a net positive to the U.S. economy. There
are slight negative effects, which are felt most strongly by less-educated and
low-skilled workers. Illegal immigration, in particular, tends to affect
less-educated and low-skilled American workers the most — groups
disproportionately consisting of black men and recently arrived less-educated
legal immigrants. The U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights 2010 report found that illegal immigration has tended to depress
wages and employment particularly for black men. But factors other than illegal
immigration contribute to black unemployment, the report found, including the
high school dropout rate and low job-retention rates.
7. “Millions lifted from welfare to work is not
too much to expect.”
Welfare
is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving some
government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it
doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working. Not all people eligible to
collect welfare benefits. When they do, many of the benefits are contingent on
the recipients working or actively searching for jobs, as a result of an
overhaul of welfare signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. And
even low-income families receive some level of public assistance. Trump
is apparently unaware that participation has declined in means-tested programs
such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps).
8. “Ninety-four million Americans are out of the
labor force.” This earns an
absurd 4-Pinocchios and that is based on a real number.
The
BLS relying on a monthly survey known as the Current Population Survey (CPS),
shows that as of January 2016, 94.4 million Americans 16 years and older were
“not in labor force.” What does that mean exactly? We have a civilian
non-institutional population of 254.1 million people, and 159.7 million are in
the labor force. Okay, that difference yields the 94.4 million figure.
But
the unemployment rate is only 4.8 percent because just 7.6 million people
actively are looking for a job and cannot find one. They are considered part of the overall labor force. In
other words, you have to be seeking a job to be counted in the labor force. So,
who are the 94 million not in the labor force he mentioned?
The
BLS has data for the year 2015. It turns out that 93 percent do not want a job
at all. The picture that emerges from a study of the data shows that the 95
million consists mostly of people who are: retired, students, stay-at-home parents, or those disabled. Trump
is doing a real disservice in citing this 94 million figure and suggesting it
means these people are looking for work.
[Note: Again, BLS data say only 1 in 25
people in that 25-54 age group looked for work and could not find it.]
9. “America has spent approximately $6 trillion
in the Middle East, all this while our infrastructure at home is crumbling.
With this $6 trillion we could have rebuilt our country — twice.”
Trump
often incorrectly claims that the United States has spent $6 trillion on the
wars in the Middle East, and here he uses the figure in a particularly
misleading way. The wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia)
together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. The $6 trillion
figure adds in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and
veterans care for the next three decades.
10. “I can tell you the money is pouring in. Very
nice.” (He
implies that is NATO’s reaction to his tough talk recently about their “fair
share” to us).
Trump
ad-libbed this line after mentioning that he was pressing NATO allies in “very
frank and strong discussions,” to meet their financial obligations to the
alliance. But the comment is a bit
nonsensical. NATO’s guideline,
established in 2006, says that defense expenditures should amount to 2 percent
of each country’s gross domestic product.
In
2016, only four countries besides the United States met that standard, but NATO
documents also show that defense spending has increased about 3 percent from
2015 to 2016. In any case, the money would not be going to the United States or
even necessarily to NATO; this is money that countries would spend to
bolster their own military forces.
The part that
truly amazes me and I’m pretty millions of others as well is the ease of which
Donald J. Trump lies and seems to not even know it or if he does, he does not
care.
Worse is how can those who support him and his trail of blatant lies, and lies sometimes
presented to him with video and audio proof of his own words that are sometimes
only days or hours apart, be so easily discounted or worse totally ignored?
Have we reached the bottom of the proverbial barrel? Sure seems like it.”
Folks,
it is not very pretty at the bottom of that barrel.
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