Rick Perry, the latest in the radical, religious, Republican race to the presidency, lies twice as much as he tells the truth. No, this isn’t partisan slinging, this is from the folks at the non-partisan Politifact, who write in their investigation that on some major issues and statements, Perry has told the truth ten times, and lied 21, and add, Perry “has spoken accurately when airing figures calculated by others that don’t necessarily reflect on his own record.”

“No one in Texas politics has faced the Truth-O-Meter more than Rick Perry, who’s gotten more True ratings than anyone else in the state — 10 — while also leading in False (14) and Pants on Fire ratings (7).

“The just-declared presidential hopeful has fared well on our other meter, the Perry-O-Meter, which rates the fulfillment of campaign promises. To date, a dozen promises have been rated Kept, three as Broken. And now, given his speech in South Carolina, we’re also marking as Broken his repeated vow not to run for president.”

Note that this doesn’t include all the false statements that lie in his announcement on Saturday that he is running for president, and that having an eye on the White House seems to have been a plan all the while.

“His exaggerations and falsehoods have typically touched on federal issues, including border safety and actions by the Obama administration. For instance, he once inaccurately said he had not been called by the Obama White House and wrongly said that the state hadn’t heard a response from the federal government to its applications for Medicaid waivers.”

Politifact discusses issues like Perry’s recurring lies about issues like this one that just make hiom look like Chris Christie.

“In a December 2010 interview, Perry told a writer whose blog appears on the Houston Chronicle’s website that the state’s request for a federal waiver allowing it to restructure its Medicaid program “has languished in a file cabinet at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for more than two years.” We’d previously learned that the federal government had been waiting for Texas to revise its original proposal — meaning the ball was in the state’s court. Noting Perry had earlier aired the stalled-in-Washington claim, which we then rated False, we ruled his rerun worse than inaccurate. Pants on Fire!“

Politifact says Perry has “distorted” facts, and also cited Perry saying the difference between 40% and 63% is “not that much different.”

Perry lied on issues like when he said, “You’ve got bombs exploding in El Paso.” You didn’t.

And one has to wonder not why Perry lies so much, but why he lies — especially about issues like this one.

“Asked about his relations with Obama’s administration, he said: ‘I have, frankly, never had a call from them.’ Information from both the White House and Perry’s state schedule contradicted his claim. Presuming the state schedule reflects what actually happened, Perry had received such a call two weeks earlier. Pants on Fire.“

But Politifact isn’t the only one digging a little deeper into the Texas Governor’s statements.

In May, Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos wrote,

“Apparently our snake oil dealing Governor Rick Perry is lying his way through the state of California in an effort to trick CEOs into moving to Texas.

“Of course most folks in Cali, unlike those of us in Texas, have no clue that Rick Perry is incapable of fessing up to the sin of his reckless fiscal polices. For Texas is flat out broke and it has lost more jobs than California had in 2010. In fact, Texas ranked second in the nation in job losses.

 

Shaw cites a Houston Chronicle op-ed by Lisa Falkenberg that states,

Texas actually lost 352,500 non-farm jobs from 2008 to December 2009, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Texas Workforce Commission.Over the past three years, the period cited in the Journal, Texas lost 61,600 jobs, according to Workforce Commission data from March 2008 to March 2011.

Of course, our numbers are still better than those in many other states, including California. Texas’ jobless rate is 8.1 percent, compared with California’s 12 percent.

Falkenberg adds,

“Every time the governor or some other politician downplays the effect on Texas, it minimizes the struggles of the 984,411 Texans, who, by latest count, are still out of work.”

And just yesterday, The Des Moines Register reported Perry’s lie about the trucking industry and government regulations.

“Perry, who on Saturday announced he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, contended in Des Moines today that federal regulations are stifling creation of American jobs.

“He then proceeded to cite what he termed an “obscene, crazy” regulation. “If you are a tractor driver, if you drive your tractor across a public road, you’re going to have to have a commercial driver’s license. Now how idiotic is that?”

Of course, Perry’s lies are just convenient politics, and don’t represent actual facts, just targets he thinks he can gain political points with. The Register delivered the facts.

“U.S. Department of Transportation officials are disputing Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s statement at the Iowa State Fair today that federal administrators plan to require a farmer driving a tractor across a public road to obtain a commercial driver’s license.

“We are absolutely not requiring farmers” to obtain commercial licenses, such as those required of semi-trailer operators, said U.S. DOT spokeswoman Candice Tolliver in Washington, D.C.

“She said U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood had put out a statement last week making the DOT’s position clear.

“We have no intention of instituting onerous regulations on the hardworking farmers who feed our country and fuel our economy,” LaHood’s statement said.”

Like Perry’s number one rival, Michele Bachmann likes to say — albeit in another context — this is just “the tip of the spear.”

Go deeper, fellow journalists.

(image: Texas Governor Rick Perry’s signature.)