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By Alec Kohut
I have a magic device attached to my television that allows me to actually record shows and watch them anytime I want. This magical device is quite handy for going back and watching outlandish claims made by conservatives, when they think no one will have the chance to refute them.
So I used this magic device to record Carly Fiorina telling some whoppers on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
In response to Jay Leno’s claim that college was free in California when he arrived in the state, nutbag Fiorina went a tirade about “decades of liberal leadership” in the State of California.
So Fiorina, in rapid-fire succession, tossed out three damning facts about the State of California to show just what “liberal leadership” has done to that state. Here’s her three “facts:”
1. California has the worst rates of poverty in the nation;
2. California has the worst income inequality in the US; and
3. California has the 49th worst education system.
Now the first one on the list can be debated, in Fiorina’s defense, California does rank worst in poverty when using the unofficial “supplemental” poverty rate. The Census Bureau, which calculates the “supplemental poverty rate,” calls the method “a work in progress,” and therefore is not used for official poverty rates.
When we look at the official poverty rate, California ranks 35th, well ahead of conservative run states such as: Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.
Fiorina’s next two “facts” are just downright lies. In income inequality California ranks 44th, right between Texas, and Alabama. So in Fiorina’s crazy mind, it’s liberal policies that lead to California’s income inequality, despite it’s ranking right along side two conservative states.
The crazy woman makes no sense.
And as to the claim that California ranks 49th in education? Right-wing group ALEC doesn’t even rank California among the worst. ALEC has them in the middle of the pack at 27th, a far cry from 50th.
Every other ranking I could find had them anywhere from 2nd, to 39th in quality of school system.
So where did this wingnut get the idea that California somehow ranked 49th in education? Well, it does rank 49th in amount of money spent per pupil. And guess how California got to be a state that is so stingy when it comes to funding education? The conservative led tax revolt and Proposition 13.
Way to go Carly, not only did you prove that are a liar willing to make up facts, but also demonstrated how conservative tax policies punish children trying to get an education.
Yeah, go ahead and run for President, you idiot.