Eminent economist Thomas Sowell quipped that if Washington were to pass a law prohibiting mendacity, there would be an eerie silence in the nation’s capital. Over the last year, esteemed officials gracing the country with their presence told some delicious whoppers, much like the ones sold at Burger King (yes, even the Impossible Whopper). Data and reality exposed these lies, but, as George Costanza asserted, “It is not a lie if you believe it.” So, who uttered falsehoods, spoke mistruths, and spread misinformation in 2021? Well, cover your body with personal protective equipment (PPE), shield yourself from Omicron, and travel through a wormhole to gaze into the past year.
Everyone: Inflation Is Transitory
The White House, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and many fine folks on Wall Street insisted that inflation would not engulf the nation in 2021. The likes of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen quickly upgraded this to inflation being a transitory event, one that would vanish faster than guests at Alec Baldwin’s Christmas party. It turns out that they were wrong, as any person with common sense understood in 2021, forcing these fine individuals to retire the ridiculous term and concede that a sizzling consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI), and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index would linger well into 2022.
Joe Biden: Spending Trillions Costs Nothing
Did you know that spending trillions of dollars costs nothing? President Biden first tweeted this poppycock at the end of September, telling the world, “My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.” He then uttered this fib to reporters and during a town hall, a so-called fact repeated by members of his administration, Democrats, and allies in the mainstream press, furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came in like a ray of sunshine on a miserable day, informing the public that they did not, in fact, lose their minds. The BBB will add $200 billion to the federal deficit and, if all the provisions are permanently enacted, which will most likely be the case, the president’s landmark legislation will add up to $3 trillion to the debt.
Joe Biden Again
Biden told two incredible whoppers in a two-day span. The first was the claim that vaccinated people “do not spread the disease to anyone else,” which came a couple of months after purporting that the fully vaxxed cannot contract COVID. The second was that “I’ve been against that war in Afghanistan from the very beginning.” Please, allow the record to show that fully vaxxed individuals can get and spread COVID and that the president voted for the war a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also supported a May 2002 U.N. resolution to extend a mandate for an international military force in Kabul. It was not a great year for the truth in Biden’s White House.
Anthony Fauci: Everything He Says Is Wrong
Anthony Fauci (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that face masks would not work to stop the highly infectious disease. Soon after, he and his team declared the necessity of face masks. Fauci purported that the fully vaccinated did not need to wear masks and then revised this directive. This past summer, Fauci asserted that fully vaccinated Americans do not require a booster, before changing his mind and urging folks to receive a third shot. He has now flip-flopped on the definition of fully vaccinated, revealing in an interview with Reuters that a discussion is “on the table.” Fauci backtracked and stated that the definition is not yet changing. You can always go down the gain-of-function research rabbit hole, too! High-level officials are only afforded so many flip-flops before the public judges their character.
The Media’s Big Lie
Remember the Steele Dossier? It was a series of documents, as Liberty Nation’s Graham Noble noted, “a collection of salacious rumors and unverified allegations concerning former President Donald Trump.” It was nothing more than a political weapon and a hoax perpetrated by MSNBC, CNN, the Swamp, and the Deep State, itching to oust Trump from the Oval Office. The confirmation that it was nothing more than fake news has led to a series of retractions and corrections, with some still insisting that the media did its job well reporting on the story.
Honorable Mention
Paul Krugman (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for the New York Times)
No list of lies, fake news, and political theater of the absurd is complete without an honorable mention of Keynesian it-girl Paul Krugman. He has made plenty of dubious claims throughout his career, and 2021 was no different. But perhaps his most insulting suggestion was that inflation does not impact the poor and middle-class, tweeting: “’Inflation especially hurts the poor’ has truthiness — it sounds like it should be true. But I don’t see either evidence or a mechanism.” He later added that people should not panic about higher prices and a devalued currency. This nonsense gives the economics field of study a lousy reputation as these ivory tower individuals gaslight people into thinking that pain is euphoria, war is peace, and the government is our savior. Or a space-alien invasion will generate global prosperity.
2022 Will Be a Repeat
The public has become immune to the mendacious rumblings of the Swamp creatures. It is expected – and perhaps a prerequisite – that politicians and media juggernauts should lie to advance the progressive cause or shield their incompetence. Fortunately, in this digital age, everyone can keep receipts to keep track of deceptive practices of the so-called adults in charge, whether it is a tweet or a video clip. As Napoleon Bonaparte wrote, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
~ Read more from Andrew Moran.
