Admittedly, the president’s jobs proposal has not been fully released, so we’re relying on drips and drabs supplied to select reporters. Having said that, it’s been clear that the administration’s proposal will not add to the deficit. You could have learned that from Norah O’Donnell’s presentation for NBC News, or from reading Jackie Calmes’s piece in the New York Times, where she wrote, “Mr. Obama has said he will propose long-term deficit savings to offset the short-term costs of his stimulus proposals, though that is not likely to satisfy Republicans.” If that isn’t enough, in today’s White House press briefing Jay Carney said that “The [proposals] will be paid for.” If you want to see how the Republicans operate, watch the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions (R-AL), describe the president’s proposals. These are lies told from the Senate floor.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the debt that we’ve now incurred is already weakening our economy,” Sessions said on the Senate floor. “It comes to a point that you can’t keep borrowing in a futile attempt to stimulate the economy when the increased debt itself is weakening the economy.”

“And this plan calls for over $300 billion in spending anew,” he said. “Not paid for — we’re already in debt, we’re already borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend, so we’re going to add another $300 billion in spending, not paid for, borrowed, every penny of it.

“At some point, this country gets to a position where you cannot continue to borrow without damaging the economy. It’s just that simple.”

Again, all the reporting has suggested that these proposals will be paid for. The White House has been telling the press that the proposals will be paid for in the out-years of a ten-year budget window. The White House press secretary has confirmed that they are not proposing deficit spending, at all. And, yet, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, a man responsible for crafting the Republicans’ budget priorities, has no compunction about going on the floor of the U.S. Senate and telling the most audacious lies.

Are there ever any consequences for such behavior? Will his colleagues correct him? Is anyone embarrassed? Does the press even notice this kind of behavior anymore? This is on the Senate floor, mind you. It isn’t a campaign rally or stupid appearance on television. Shouldn’t there be an uproar when a U.S. Senator shamelessly and knowingly lies to the public from the Senate floor?

What about local Alabama reporters? Do they care that their senator is willing to tell brazen lies in the well of the U.S. Senate? Is that okay with them?

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