The Truthiness of Rand Paul

[GMDino]

Thin skinned and fast a loose with numbers and "facts".



http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-truthiness-of-rand-paul-20131017

Quote:October 17, 2013 LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Rand Paul was talking with University of Louisville medical students when one of them tossed him a softball. "The majority of med students here today have a comprehensive exam tomorrow. I'm just wondering if you have any last-minute advice."
(Steve Brodner)

"Actually, I do," said the ophthalmologist-turned-senator, who stays sharp (and keeps his license) by doing pro bono eye surgeries during congressional breaks. "I never, ever cheated. I don't condone cheating. But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important."

He went on to describe studying for a pathology test with friends in the library. "We spread the rumor that we knew what was on the test and it was definitely going to be all about the liver," he said. "We tried to trick all of our competing students into over-studying for the liver" and not studying much else.

"So, that's my advice," he concluded. "Misinformation works."


...


But then, there are the half-truths, cherry-picked factoids, and outright errors that Paul seems steadfastly unwilling to relinquish.

Take health care. Although he's a doctor, Paul repeatedly misrepresents aspects of the Affordable Care Act. For example, all of those crazy-sounding new billing codes he implies are the spawn of Obamacare were in fact released by the World Health Organization 20 years ago and, as The Blaze reported, approved by the Bush administration in 2008, scheduled for 2011, delayed until 2013, and then delayed again until late 2014, so they'll finally take effect the same year as most of the ACA.

In discussing the expenses the law will impose on consumers, Paul rarely mentions the subsidies many people will receive, and he sometimes says a single person making $30,000 a year will have to pay $15,000 a year in premiums. The government is going to require somebody to pay 50 percent of their income for health insurance? "It depends on circumstances," Paul replies. "I can't tell you where the cutoff is for single without kids. But I think there will be people who are single without kids who don't get subsidies who will struggle to pay $15,000 for insurance." PolitiFact labeled that assertion "especially off the mark." Citing available facts, PolitiFact said such a person would pay at most about $3,000 and could pay far less due to the law's caps, subsidies, and bare-bones coverage options.

The Louisville med students were worried and curious about Obamacare, which could greatly affect their future. "I will continue to fight to make it less bad, at the very least," Paul told them. It sounded like he wanted to fix or improve the law. Later, away from those students, asked how he would improve the law, he told National Journal he would try to delay and defund as much of it as possible in hopes of eventually getting rid of it entirely, because "the whole thing is rotten."

Paul's logic in justifying the GOP drive to kill Obamacare is dicey, too. He says that while the president won reelection by "a small majority" in 2012, "a majority of the people believe Republicans should be in charge of the House" and therefore don't want something like the law that was passed solely by Democrats. Obama won last year by nearly 5 million votes. Some people might consider that a small majority. But while Republicans won a majority of House districts, it's not accurate to say a "majority of the people" wanted a GOP House. Democrats won the House popular vote by more than 1.7 million votes nationwide, the Federal Election Commission reported in July.

On another front, Paul routinely exaggerates the size of the annual federal deficit, pegging it at $1 trillion. In fact, the deficit for fiscal 2013 fell to an estimated $642 billion, heading toward $378 billion in two years, according to a Congressional Budget Office report in May.

Paul's misstatements led to a testy exchange with the local press here before the Kentucky Farm Bureau's ham breakfast in August. "Is the deficit going up or down?" a reporter demanded to know, apparently testing whether Paul would fudge or correctly differentiate between the annual deficit (falling) and the cumulative national debt (rising). And the reporter almost got him. "The def—the debt," Paul corrected himself, "is still continuing to expand." As for the deficit, "we used to be alarmed when it was where it is now," he said. "So it's hard to argue that we're in a good place." Still, Paul has persisted with his misleading talking point. He mentioned borrowing "a trillion dollars a year" on NBC's Meet the Press on Oct. 6—six days after the fiscal year ended and nearly six months after the CBO report.

When asked about the fodder he has provided for fact-checkers, Paul erupted with scorn. "The fact-checking is not fact-checking. These are people with a bias. It's purely an opinion. The stuff is so ludicrous I don't even read it," he said, slapping the table as he spoke. He is particularly put out by Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post, who has given him numerous "Pinocchios" this year for, among other things, tweeting that "neocons" want to keep sending aid to Egypt (several prominent neocons want to cut it off); for misleading statements about foreign aid as a proportion of the federal budget; for asking questions about the Boston bomber case that were based on misinformation; and for citing Dwight Eisenhower as an inspiration for his own skepticism about intervention and foreign aid ("Rand has it totally backwards," Kessler wrote). Kessler cited historians on Eisenhower's views, but Paul doesn't buy it. "I can't quote Eisenhower because they say I don't embrace everything about Eisenhower," he said incredulously. "I can't say I like Eisenhower. Next thing will be: I can't like Lincoln. Can I like part of Lincoln?"

Paul's outsized reaction to the scrutiny raises another issue that would be troublesome for a presidential contender: When he is annoyed, he acts annoyed. He considers some episodes closed, for instance, and often cuts off reporters who raise them. Asked about an aide he was forced to let go because of the aide's history of inflammatory statements about race, Paul became exasperated. "I'm sort of done with that," he replied. "If you've got one more question … "

National candidates always face repeated questions about subjects they'd rather avoid. Some of them get confrontational in response (think Newt Gingrich when asked about his marriages). But the successful ones develop canned answers to roll out on cue without getting exercised. George W. Bush, for example, defused questions about his past drug and alcohol use with this classic line: "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."