Lyin' Paul Ryan

Lyin' Paul Ryan

"Immune from the effects of the recession," the budget reads, "federal employees have received regular salary bumps regardless of productivity or economic realities."

The dishonesty of Paul Ryan's more-of-the-same House Republican budget extends to federal workers , it may not surprise you to hear:If you call two years of frozen pay "immunity," then sure. Because, while some federal workers have gotten raises because of promotions or performance, the federal workforce has not had a cost of living adjustment since 2010, and it looks like a virtual certainty that Congress is going to keep that freeze frozen.

Meanwhile, many federal workers are being furloughed because of sequestration, costing them as much as 20 percent of their pay in coming months. According to one union, those cuts coming on top of the pay freeze are leading more than 80 percent of its members to fear that they'll have trouble paying basic expenses like rent and utilities.

Ryan's budget is a plan to voucherize Medicare that he'd prefer we not realize is a plan to voucherize Medicare. He throws all kinds of imaginary thinking at the claim his budget will balance, like, ever. Claiming that people who have gone two years and counting without a cost of living adjustment have been "immune from the effects of the recession" may be a relatively small-bore lie by the standards Ryan sets. But that's noteworthy in itself.