Granted, this could take all day since it’s almost impossible to keep up with the Walker Lying Machine. The lies and distortions are not only coming from the Walker campaign, but from outside-Wisconsin right-wing SuperPACs generated by the Koch Brothers, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Governors Association, Karl Rove and hidden groups backed by self-important, greedy billionaires whose favorite hobby is the scrap the Middle Class and bring in the New Era of 21st Century Robber Barons.

Let’s begin with the recent Walker ad that lies about Tom Barrett’s record on several issues.

“Tom Barrett wants to spend more than $100 million on a trolley for Milwaukee,” Walker says in the ad.



WISC-TV found this misleading. A year ago, Milwaukee’s City Council approved a $65 million streetcar proposal, which was championed by Barrett. It would be paid for almost by $55 million in federal transit funds that have been sitting idle for this use for years. The rest would be covered by tax incremental financing dollars. It could also cost $55 million to move underground power lines, and the state Public Service Commission hasn’t yet decided if the city or the utilities should have to pay for that. Will it cost more than $100 million? That’s unclear, as the city has capped the cost of the project at $65 million, and if the PSC decides the city has to pay for utilities, the whole project would likely be re-evaluated. More from source

Walker is in several ads and on the Recall trail (mostly on Fox News) attempting to convince Wisconsin taxpayers that he saved “a billion dollars” with his new policies:

…the Walker administration released new numbers earlier this month saying that higher-than-expected tax collections would leave the state $150 million in the black. While those aren’t official estimates from the Fiscal Bureau, the bureau’s director said the numbers seem reasonable and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau will do its own re-estimate later this summer. “We cut waste and fraud and our reforms have saved taxpayers more than a billion dollars,” Walker says in the ad. WISC-TV found this is misleading. The $1 billion savings figure comes from Wisconsin Act 10, and WISC-TV checked this claim before. WISC-TV could verify about half of that savings because it is found in the state budget, but the rest is a rough estimate of health care and pension savings across the state. Plus, Walker is taking credit for union concessions made through bargaining before Act 10 was passed, although he said without the legislation the unions wouldn’t have agreed to savings for their municipalities or school districts. More from source

WISC-TV had exposed Walker’s continuing claims about how Act 10 had saved money for Wisconsin taxpayers. Walker continues to stretch the truth when he says that when he took office last year, he saved the state more than $1 billion. His claim is full of holes:

The first thing to note is that for all the local pension savings, the website cites a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo from March 2011. It estimates pension contributions have saved around $464 million. But it’s an estimate — not actual savings. Secondly, it’s based on 2009 payroll numbers, and since the state lost thousands of public workers due to retirements since then, the savings are less. Third, federal dollars are used to pay some local workers, and making them pay more for pensions doesn’t save a municipality any money. Overall, it’s safe to say the savings here are less than projected, but it’s hard to put a number on how much that may be. Then there’s the local health care savings, which the state said in a memo “may be in the range of $300 million.” Even the governor admits it’s hard to project because health care changes were not the same across the board. But on the website, Walker shows off “media reports” that quantify pension and health care savings. It’s also important to note that the governor is taking credit for any savings reached in collective bargaining contracts negotiated before Act 10 was in effect. Act 10 is the law Walker championed that stripped most public employees of nearly all collective bargaining rights. More from source

Walker also continues to mention that he’s been miraculously cut waste and fraud all over the state. Of course, he’s lying:

The governor also mentions cutting $500 million in waste and fraud, which hasn’t all been cut yet. A commission issued a report in January identifying changes that could lead to $486 million in savings. Only $370 million of it was state savings, and the rest would have to be from changes at the local government level. The governor’s office said most of the changes are “in progress” but couldn’t say exactly how much has been saved. More from source

Then there’s the “Walker Miracle” where he is responsible for creating “30,000 jobs” when the facts prove he is not only lying, but the real numbers are that he has brought Wisconsin not only in the basement in last place in the country, but managed to divide the state with his “divide and conquer” tactics that also are a matter of a US Congress investigation where he apparently lied there too.

The web site “We Are Wisconsin” cease-and-desist request Politifact is pretty succinct in Walker’s claim of adding 30,000 jobs:

Walker’s ad says there are 33,200 more jobs in Wisconsin since he took office. To reach the number, he combined two data sets — one that involves unofficial (but generally more accurate) numbers that could change in the weeks after the election; the other is volatile, but still official monthly numbers. From an accounting standpoint this would be flagged as a mistake. From a political standpoint, he is mixing and matching to present the best possible view. Walker presents it all as final and official, offering no cautionary notes or caveats — even though there are many. And Walker credits his policies for the improvement, which overstates the impact a governor can make on broad economic trends in a short period of time. There is clearly some truth to the numbers. But in mixing everything together and not making it clear these numbers are preliminary, Walker ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That is our definition for Mostly False. Source

Then there’s the Walker campaign (along with the NRA) who are lying that Tom Barrett wants to take away deer hunters’ rifles. Politifact skewers again:

Toso — who said he recently ended his longtime NRA membership in opposition to many of the group’s political messages — called the percentage of gun deer hunters using weapons covered by the ban “tiny” at the time of the ban. (His association has not made an endorsement in the governor’s race.) And Smith said that from his experience, while firearms such as the AK-47 and the AR-15 “have gained favor among some hunters and sport shooters in recent decades, they constitute a small fraction of deer hunting rifles in use today and were an even smaller fraction in 1994.” Our rating The NRA said Barrett voted to ban “a lot of common deer rifles.” The statement holds an element of truth in that some deer hunters used some of the weapons. But the statement ignores facts that create a different impression. Experts agreed that the once-banned weapons were not commonly used for deer hunting. We rate the claim Mostly False. Source

There are a lot of lies and distortions regarding the FBI/John Doe investigation, especially Walker’s deceptive comment in the recent debate with Tom Barrett where he said he wanted to start the investigation into what happened when he was Milwaukee County Executive. Actually, one can contend that it was when his staffer Darlene Wink was arrested while working for Walker. There is an explanation of what happened.

Note: there will be more regarding Walker’s lies. Stay tuned.