Tea Party Congressman Makes Astoundingly Ignorant Claim About Government Shutdown

Tea Party Congressman Makes Astoundingly Ignorant Claim About Government Shutdown

Posted by Progressive Populist  |  on October 27, 2013 

The government shutdown has resulted in a firestorm of misinformation, lies, slander, and both sides blaming each other for it. All the spins and political posturing is enough to make ones head spin.
In a classic case of disingenuous political-speak, a Tea Party House Representative from Georgia said something on a radio show that led to those who know better practicing their face-palming technique.
Paul Broun, in an interview on the Michael Opitz Show, claimed that the World War Two Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial were never closed before during a government shutdown.
Okay, looks like a pretty innocuous statement, right? Sounds entirely believable at face value. And I’m sure his supporters ate it up and said, “yeah, what about that? Obama is disrespecting our veterans and hates the military!’
Of course, they already think that, otherwise they would not have had the Million Vets March a couple of weeks ago.
Well, lets delve further into Broun’s statement, which is quoted below.

 There was absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for this administration to block access to the World War Two Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial. It’s never ever been done in a government shutdown prior to this administration doing so

Wow, that’s some heated rhetoric, one that surely pushed his supporter’s “time to get pis*ed off” buttons.
Except that Broun missed something really important.

 
The last time the government was shut down occurred in the mid-1990′s when Bill Clinton was in office. The Lincoln Memorial was indeed closed during that shutdown.
But the World War II Memorial was not in existence at that time. It opened in 2004.
Oops!
So you see how Broun was able to say something, either intentionally or because of his own ignorance, that technically was not a lie, but in reality, it is one. It’s true that the World War II Memorial has never been shut down before, but that’s because it wasn’t open so it could be shut down in the first place.
So the unsaid lie by Broun is that he didn’t mention that the World War II Memorial was not there during any previous government shutdowns. Kind of like saying that a tornado didn’t destroy a building that was not there when the tornado hit. Clever, huh? And it makes for a nice talking point, one that is sure to be repeated around the water cooler when like-minded co-workers with Obama Derangement Syndrome discuss his latest perceived transgressions.
But let’s not dismiss the possibility that Broun is an idiot who wasn’t aware that the World War II Memorial was not there during the last government shutdown. After all, he is an Obama birther who has compared him to Hitler and believes that Obamacare will dictate what kind of car people can drive.
Oh yeah… and this man is running for U.S. Senate in 2014. He has already been compared to Todd Akin, the disgraced Senate candidate from Missouri who lost to Democrat Claire McCaskill in 2012.