Lyin' Ryan Busted Lyin' At CPAC

"The left is making a big mistake here. What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. The American people want more than that. This reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy, Governor Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family, and every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn’t want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown-paper bag just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown-paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand." - GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, speaking yesterday at CPAC.

Calling Ryan's claim "a story too good to check," the Washington Post reveals that the whole thing is a big ole lie that was probably lifted from the 2011 book, The Invisible Thread, a suspicion first voiced by Wonkette. The Post then gives Ryan "Four Pinocchios" - its lyingest rating for liars. Ryan has apologized in a Facebook post.

Today at CPAC, I shared a story I heard from Eloise Anderson, the secretary for children and families for the state of Wisconsin. She mentioned it in her testimony for a House Budget Committee hearing last year. I have just learned that Secretary Anderson misspoke, and that the story she told was improperly sourced. I regret failing to verify the original source of the story, but I appreciate her taking the time to share her insights.

Of course the lie already has legs on wingnut sites like the National Review.

It should be noted that the author of the book is actually an advocate of school lunch programs who works with a group called No Kid Hungry.