Published on 10/14/2007

There is an old saying about the manipulation of statistics: "Figures lie and liars figure." Remaining silent about such things is dangerous. Reasonable, informed Americans must speak up.

From Our Writers:

        In a column last month, I said that "It is right and good that we care for those who, through no fault of their own, cannot care for their basic needs, but exaggerating the problems, as liberals do, diminishes our ability to care for those who need help the most."

        I received many responses from readers. Some took issue with my citing the Heritage Foundation study and its less-than-catastrophic profile of the poor. Some, to my surprise, were angry that I called for more personal responsibility. No one actually argued the facts, however, which were based upon U.S. Census data.

        Many readers seemed to want to equate poverty in America with the desperate impoverishment we find in the Third World. I've seen shocking, abject poverty in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Mexico. There is no comparison. Twelve million illegal immigrants would appear to agree that it is better to be poor in America.

        When it comes to liberals who distort and exaggerate, it would be hard to top former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who would like to be the Democrats' candidate for president in 2008. At last month's MySpace/MTV Presidential Town Hall Forum, he said: "We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating--pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead, one of the two."

        In fact, more black men are in college than in prison, although that may be an inconvenient truth that John Edwards prefers to ignore.

        Edwards was at it in July, too: "I think we still have two public school systems in this country," he said. "They're not segregated just based on race. They're segregated to a large extent based on economics, which has racial implications."

        First of all, the Bush administration's 2008 education budget is $56 billion. Bill Clinton's 1999 education budget was $33.5 billion. Second, it's worth asking why an increase of $22.5 billion hasn't solved the problem.

        For an answer, you might recall this quote from Barack Obama's keynote speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: "Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach our kids to learn; they know that parents have to teach, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white."

        In other words, money alone can't cure the ills of our educational system. It requires the joint efforts of teachers, students, and parents.

        The political games continue with the hype that there are "47 million Americans without health insurance." According to a report from the Business and Media Institute, a free-market media watchdog website, the 47 million figure includes almost 10 million immigrants who are not U.S. citizens, another 8.3 million people with incomes between $50,000 and $74,999 per year, and 8.74 million more who make more than $75,000 a year. It also includes those who are healthy and don't feel they need health insurance and people who are between jobs and will have health insurance within 45 days.

        There is an old saying about the manipulation of statistics: "Figures lie and liars figure." Remaining silent about such things is dangerous. Reasonable, informed Americans must speak up.