Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

The debate over vouchers isn't about school choice. It's about whether to divert money
from public schools (where it can fund programs like this one) to private schools. The Harlem
story is about innovation within the public school system and, specifically, about the
proven benefits of reducing the size of large schools. The federal Smaller Learning Communities
Program aims to replicate the Miracle of East Harlem nationwide. In his 2003 budget,
however, President Bush put the program on his hit list for termination.
LIE #2: THE NO-GROWTH NINETIES
This is a simple one. For some reason, in the midst of making a point about something
or other on page 205, Hannity lets this one rip: "Decades of liberal no-growth policies have
seriously endangered our economic and national security."
Here's a chance for you, the reader, to write your own joke. You might want to include
a reference to how Clinton presided over the longest economic expansion in the history
of the United States of America. I'm sure Hannity's publisher, HarperCollins, will get a kick
out of seeing what you come up with.
Send your rib-tickler to: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
LIES #3 THROUGH #7: THE CRAZY TABLE
During the first 190 years of our great democracy's existence, our government racked up
$789 billion dollars in debt. That might sound like a lot. But during the eight years that
Ronald Reagan occupied the White House, he managed to nearly triple that number. The day
he left office, our national debt stood at $2.191 trillion dollars. That's a hard number to even
comprehend. If it helps, picture a stack of 2,191 billion-dollar bills. Lot of money, huh?
It is a sacred tenet of the lying right that Ronald Reagan did not cause the massive
budget deficits of the eighties. Republicans keep trying to find new and creative ways to disprove
the truth on this one. A hallowed favorite is the old saw that, as Hannity puts it, .the
deficits of the eighties were caused by the insatiable spending demands of congressional Democrats."
To prove it, Hannity pulls a table, not out of his ass, but out of his "e-ass." That is, he
takes the trouble of going on the Arpanet—oh, I'm sorry, thanks to Gore, it's the Internet—