Mitt Romney’s welfare lie was repeated quite a bit at the Republican convention last night, though the number of people willing to acknowledge its detachment from reality is growing.
Every independent fact-checker has rejected the lie, as have Bill Clinton and the Republican architect of the 1996 welfare reform law. When Newt Gingrich was asked to defend the claim, he conceded there’s “no proof” to support Romney’s claim.
As of this morning, we can add Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) to the list.
msnbc’s Chris Jansing asked the far-right governor, “[F]act checkers have called these ads and these statements erroneous. So why are so many Republicans still making this argument?” Brownback largely dodged the question, so the host followed up. “But you agree these claims that the work requirement has been abolished are false?” she asked.
“As far as I have seen,” Brownback conceded. Romney political director Rich Beeson was on NPR yesterday, and Steve Inskeep highlighted the dishonesty of the claim. Beeson would only laugh — audibly — and say “reasonable people can have a disagreement over this.” First, racially-charge lies aren’t funny. Second, “reasonable people” should be able to agree to at least try to tell the truth, and to stop repeating a lie once it’s been exposed as a lie.
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