Patterico's Pontifications

10/20/2021

Washington Post “Fact-Checker” Fact-Checks Republican Senator on Issue of Whether “Squid-Brained” is a Compliment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:50 am



Another day, another silly partisan “fact-check” from the Washington Post. I almost don’t care about the substance of the fact-check (although I will say I few words about it below) because I became distracted by this absolutely awesome parenthetical in the piece, which amply illustrates the snickering, smug, absolutely bonkers desperation to label Republicans liars:

Kennedy, who once served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue, repeatedly said Americans’ “intimate financial details” would be collected, and he called it a “squid-brained idea.” (Scientists say squids and octopuses are the smartest invertebrates.)

(ACKSHALLY squids are super smart SENATOR)

As for the substance of the article, the “fact checkers” assign three Pinocchios to a Republican assertion that new legislation will provide the IRS with an intrusive level of detail into most Americans’ bank transactions. Democrat lawmakers’ take: the law doesn’t provide for that. Republican lawmakers’ take: OK, but the law gives substantial authority to the executive to write regulations that could well lead to intrusive scrutiny.

Then the fact-checkers conduct a detailed discussion of the specific language of the proposal, survey case law on bureaucrats’ ability to include new requirements for financial institutions via a broad grant of regulatory authority, consult several non-partisan experts on the subject, and come to a sober and reasoned conclusion on the matter. LOL, that previous sentence is a lie. More like, they ask one partisan expert from each side and then slap THREE PINOCCHIOS on that puppy, mainly based on the Dem spokeshole statements, and call it a day.

I’ll pay the “fact-checkers” this one compliment: their analysis is very squid-brained.


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