Five of Paul Ryan's verifiably false claims

by T Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:57 am

Here are five of Paul Ryan's verifiably false claims he made during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” --- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

RYAN LIE: President Obama’s economic policies failed to save a GM plant in Ryan’s Wisconsin district.

FACT: The GM plant in question closed in 2008 while George Bush was president. At the time of its closing, Ryan released a statement regarding the closing and requested federal assistance to keep the plant open.
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RYAN LIE: President Obama ignored the Simpson-Bowles report.

FACT: The Simpson-Bowles debt commission did not create a report because it could not reach an agreement on a set of recommendations. This was due, in large part, to Ryan’s hard line opposition. Ryan was extremely critical of the proposal and voted against the commission’s recommendations.
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RYAN LIE: President Obama’s policies were responsible for the downgrade of the United States’ Triple-A credit rating.

FACT: Standard and Poor’s made it very clear that the downgrade was the result of House Republicans refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless further deficit reduction measures were considered. Quote: “The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we have previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.”
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RYAN LIE: At $831 billion, the stimulus was the biggest expenditure in government history.

FACT: The Congressional Research Service estimates that World War II was the biggest one-time expenditure in the history of the federal government, at 4.1 trillion (adjusted for inflation).
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RYAN LIE: The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst.

FACT: According to non-partisan, independent studies, only .0001% of stimulus funding was lost to fraud, making notorious cases such as Solyndra the exception, not the rule. There is no evidence that President Obama’s stimulus package was abnormally corrupt.