Quarterly review of the truth of politicians

I thought it might be useful to every once in a while just help debunk the half-truths, lies and misleading statements various public figures propagate from time to time.

As Mark Twain once said: A lie can make it halfway around the world while the truth is just getting on its shoes.

That's mostly because the truth sometimes takes a lot of work, and most of it is done by journalists not beholden to political causes (bloggers) or corporate interests (we'll let you decide who that might be).

There's an oft repeated figure that Gov. Mark Dayton's budget is increasing spending 22 percent to 29 percent.

Minnesota Public Radio's Catherine Richert has done a great job debunking this claim on MPR's "Poligraph" feature. Here it is.

Essentially, her research, done in conjunction with the Humphrey Institute shows the real increase in Dayton's two-year budget from current two-year budget is about 8 percent.

That's because the Republicans and others who cite the 29 percent figure don't consider $4 billion or so in one-time federal stimulus money that was used and the school funding shift that we didn't put on the books, but we are nonetheless committed to pay.

Richert describes the 22 percent claims as "misleading." I agree, and think that is a rather generous assessment.

What people also don't understand about this raw number is that a lot of the increases are increases for more people accessing programs for which they are eligible. And the eligibility standards were often agreed to years ago by both parties.

So for politicians of either party to assess blame on one party or the other is also a bit misleading. Their colleagues, at one point or another, agreed to this level of eligibility.

If we're going to blame someone for out of control spending, blame those who set the eligibility standards years ago. You'll likely find blame with lots of folks from both parties.