March 14, 1998
MORE OFFICIAL LIES!
Many of our readers have been outraged over the lies they believe President Clinton has told regarding his relationships with various women. Sunday night’s edition of “Sixty Minutes” may add new fuel to that fire, as presidential aide Kathleen Willey
adds her name to the list of presidential accusers.
Lying in Washington is an old and hallowed tradition, and politicians lie about much more important things than their
extramarital shenanigans.
“Official Lies: How Washington Misleads Us” is written by two academics, Jim Bennett and Tom Dilorenzo. But the book is
anything but academic in tone, thanks to the editorial and writing talents of Bill Kauffman.
Although “Official Lies” was published in 1992, not much has changed since then. In fact, the ability of politicians and
bureaucrats of both parties to tell bald-faced lies and get away with it remains one of the most enduring, if not endearing, aspects of official Washington.
Politicians in Washington, and the world over, don’t just lie about a few things; they tell Outrageous lies about almost
everything. Their political agenda is simple: by making it seem as if the world is falling apart politicians hope that they will gain more power to “solve” “problems”. (Often the same problems they helped create in the first place.)
Government propaganda affects almost every aspect of life. Welfare policy, the environment, AIDs, alcohol and tobacco,
farming, and natural resources are just a few of the topics on which the federal government spews forth an almost endless amount
of misinformation.
Perhaps one of the more amusing ways in which politicians try to provide support for their power-grabs is by having celebrities front for their policy agendas. Stars of stage and screen may not really have any grasp of the complexities of public policy, but their appearance is sure to generate exposure. That explains why:
– Members of the folk-rock group The Grateful Dead appeared before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to provide
information about rain forests in Malaysia.
– Movie star and heart-throb Richard Gere discussed Tibet before a congressional panel.
– TV star Mary Tyler Moore read a poem about animal trapping to a subcommittee of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
– The late singer John Denver regaled the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs with the song “Ode to Alaskan
Forests”.
Not only does the federal government use movies stars to formulate policy, the government actually produces its own films.
Some gripping titles include “Fuel Pump Disassembly”, “Hacksaws, Part Three”, “Hospital Housekeeping: Mopping, Two Bucket Method”, “Handling and Storing Apples in Pallet Boxes”, and many more thrillers that will leave you screaming for an encore.
Here are some more tidbits from “Official Lies”:
– In order to encourage welfare spending, the government inflates the numbers of those officially counted as “poor”. For instance, more than 22,000 “poor” Americans have a heated swimming pool or Jacuzzi.
– The Prince of Liechtenstein and his Texas business partners were paid more than $2 million in a program ostensibly designed to help “distressed farmers.”
– Senator Larry Pressler declared that the annual $100 million honey subsidy to beekeepers must be maintained because “without the honey bees to pollinate crops, the diet of American consumers would be limited to nuts, cereal grains, and meat.” With drones like Pressler buzzing around Congress, several queen beekeepers received over $1 million a year in subsidies.
– Government at all levels spends enough on poverty programs alone – excluding social security – to give $5,790 to each man, woman and child below the poverty threshold. That adds up to $23,160 for every family of four.
© Copyright 1996-98, The Outrage is produced by Athens New Media. All rights reserved.
