If a lie is repeated over and over it must be true. Right?
That is what Scott Walker would have the people of Wisconsin believe when it comes to the ‘savings’ the taxpayers have experienced from his budget repair bill. The facts be damned of course since Walker has his tit (or something) in a wringer (oh the good ole days of John Mitchell) while facing an energetic recall election. Facing an angry electorate means Walker has to resort to any tall tale he can tell, and hopefully tell it often enough so that it seems true.
That is exactly what Walker has been doing when it repeats that $1 billion are saved in the state due to his partisan over-reach in the first half of 2011.
But then the facts are presented that undercut Walker’s mantra…..and Mitchell’s comment comes to mind. (The Nixon era never gets old.)
The governor’s office on Tuesday conceded that its estimates on how much money the City of Sheboygan saved under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill were too high, though officials stood by claims that the measure has saved Wisconsin taxpayers more than $1 billion.
The move came after Walker and other Republican lawmakers on Monday released estimates on the financial impact of their controversial budget bill — Act 10 — curtailing collective bargaining rights for most public workers.
The GOP’s figures included an estimated $1.3 million in savings in the City of Sheboygan, though city officials contend the amount was less than half that.
Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said Tuesday that the numbers the state reported included $987,600 in pension savings to the city combined with savings from employees who are now paying toward their health insurance.
The problem, Werwie acknowledged, was that the $987,600 in pension savings was based on a report from the non-partisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which used 2009 payroll data and didn’t account for the 30 or so positions the city has eliminated or frozen since then.
Also, the governor’s estimate assumed Sheboygan employees weren’t previously paying any money toward their health insurance, when in fact most were already paying 8 to 10 percent.
Taken together, those two issues would have inflated the Walker administration’s number by about $470,000, though city officials said Tuesday that the state’s numbers were still off by another $200,000 or so, and they weren’t sure why.
“I really don’t know,” said City Administrator Jim Amodeo.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Al Franken could write a whole new book about the the Walker Administration, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”.