Never has the old adage, "If his lips are moving, he's probably lying," been more true than in the case of Paul Ryan.
He was at it again on Sunday, making up numbers and just flat out lying about unemployment and bankruptcies under Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
ABC fact checks Ryan's latest prevarications and finds that he's either ignorant, lying or both:
In comparing President Obama to Jimmy Carter, Ryan said in July 1980 the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent and "for the past 42 months it's been above 8 percent under Barack Obama's failed leadership."
... but in July 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president, unemployment was at 9.4 percent. In July 1982 it was higher at 9.8 percent.
In July 1992, when George H.W. Bush was president, unemployment was at 7.7 percent.
Is what Ryan said factually correct? Yes, but it leaves out some important data.
Oh, but Ryan was just warming up. What he does next is pull numbers directly from his rectum:
The next statement Ryan made was that in 1980 "330,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy. Last year, under President Obama's failed leadership, 1.4 million businesses field for bankruptcy."
This is not true. According to American Bankruptcy Institute, under Carter 331,264 businesses and non-businesses filed for bankruptcy.
...
In 1980, there were 43,694 business bankruptcies and 287, 570 non-business bankruptcies.
Ryan also got it wrong with regard to the number of business bankruptcies last year. In 2011, there were 1, 410, 653 total bankruptcies. Of that number 47,806 were business bankruptcies and 1,362,847 were non-business bankruptcies.
Ryan spokesman, Brendan Buck, brushes off the facts:
"He obviously misspoke, but it's still an apples to apples comparison. The point remains: bankruptcies are up dramatically under President Obama compared to the Carter years."
No, it's not true, you lying sack of shit.
By the way, when did business bankruptcies reach their peak? Under Republican presidents, of course, including under St. Ronnie!
Business bankruptcies hit a record 71,549 in 1991, when George H.W. Bush was president, second only to 1985, under Reagan, when 71,277 businesses filed.
And last, but not least, who was president when personal bankruptcies hit their all-time high in the U.S.? Did you guess W? You are correct!
A record number of Americans - more than 2 million - filed for personal bankruptcy in 2005.
Paul
Ryan,
PRevaricator.
I guess it's good to be relentless about something. But lying? Not sure that helps you, Paul.