Four More Pinocchios for POTUS

Last week, President Obama turned up the heat on the U.S. immigration debate by announcing a series of administrative actions to delay the deportation of some categories of illegal immigrant, particularly those whose citizen children would be harmed by such a deportation. In my view, it's about time. Moreover, I applaud Obama for taking the fight to Republicans on this, challenging them to pass a real immigration reform bill.

But,....

Among the talking points issued and repeated by White House officials was that other presidents had essentially done the same thing. If President Obama's executive actions were different, they were differences of degree, not kind. Of particular note, the White House pointed to administrative action taken by George H.W. Bush in 1990 which, the Obama Administration claims, covered a much larger percentage (1.5 Million, or 40%) of the illegal population in the U.S. than anything being proposed by the current president. 

Well, not so fast! Turns out that the White House argument rests on a single suspect source from 1990 that differed widely from other estimates of how many people would be covered by Bush's program.

The Obama White House seems to be trying to take some of the sting out of those critics who claim his immigration actions are a significant overstep of his authority. Best to do that when the facts really are on your side.....

For this Washington Post, this earned President Obama 4 Pinocchios out of 4. Ouch!