Do politicians lie?

Do politicians lie or are they merely forgetful? After listening to the latest batch of political ads, perhaps the question should be rephrased to, do politicians know how to tell the truth?

Out here in Nevada we have a woman who sounds like she should be living in the Deep South. Her accent is so up front she makes Paula Dean of the Food Network sound like a Midwesterner. Dina Titus is running against incumbent Congressman Jon Porter and the TV ads are flying fast and furious.

Porter ran an ad dripping with noir images in black and white. One of the indictments against Titus was that she voted to give herself a 300% raise in her legislative pension. On its face this is true. Titus was a member of the Nevada Legislature that raised the pension from 25 cents to 75 cents. What Porter’s ad doesn’t mention is that the raise was passed with nearly unanimous support from both parties. There are plenty of other bits of baggage he could go after, but why tell the truth when lies are so much more interesting?

Titus responds with the same old lefty talking point that Porter voted in lockstep with Bush. She fails to mention that every single bill the Democrats are complaining about are also bills the majority in Congress passed. The majority happens to be Democrat. In essence, do what I say, don’t do what I do. She also claims she passed a property tax cap. Well…not exactly. She wanted a much higher cap and argued for that and then grudgingly accepted a compromised that violates a provision in the Nevada Constitution. She claims to be in favor of reducing the tax burden on working families, but she also proposed a tax on weight and distance for commercial trucking while insisting the tax would not affect the costs to consumers. An economics professor should know that business does not pay taxes without passing the cost along. If a tax is raised on shipping groceries, won’t the price on those goods go up? Most certainly.

Local politics or national, the lies and half truths continue. The real problem is, if someone comes along and actually tells it like it is, their own party will turn on them. I know, it happened to me. More on that later. I’m shopping for body armor.