Democrats Like Republicans Can Be Fact-Challenged When Making a Case

The Problem is Not Political Parties, It is Politics

Lest anyone be confused that when The Dismal Political Economist attacks Republicans and Conservatives for making things up to support their policies he believes this happens only with them, we have the following situation with respect to the Vice President, crime and spending on police protection.

Mr. Biden spoke about problems in Michigan from cuts in spending on public safety.

In the battle over the administration’s jobs bill, Vice President Biden this week has been making the startling case that more people will be murdered or raped if the legislation is not passed. His argument is that in cities such as Flint, Mich., the murder and rape rates have soared as the police force has been cut back for budgetary reasons.

When challenged by a reporter from a conservative publication about his charge (see video below), Biden stood his ground and said without more money, “murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise.” As he put it, “Go look at the numbers.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Biden, the Fact Checker for the Washington Post did just that. Here is what he found out.

More important than the raw figures is the rate per 100,000 individuals. Murder did go up—though the rate did not double from 2009 to 2010, as Biden claimed. But rape has gone down. Biden actually asserted it had tripled.

Now there may have been some problem with data supplied to the Vice President.  But it is every public officials obligation to check and re-check information before going public.  Failure to do so just invites, well it invites this

the vice president should know better than to spout off half-baked facts in service of a dubious argument. Even if one believes there is a link between crime and the number of police—which is debatable and subject to many caveats—there is no excuse to make the dramatic claim that more people will die or be raped without additional funds for police. When making such a breathtaking charge, you had better have your facts straight.

And the four Pinocchio’s that go with it.

Four Pinocchios