On two different Sunday talk shows Jack Lew said that the Democrats in the Senate couldn't be blamed for failing to pass a budget for over 1000 days since everybody knows that it takes 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate.
That 60 votes are needed to end debate and call the question in the Senate is common knowledge -- something a Steve Martin Saturday Night Live skit once characterized as "not what you know, but what you think you know" -- but it's wrong.
Budgets can be and have been passed with any simple majority, such as 45-42. Under Senate rules they can't be filibustered -- a fancy word meaning "talked to death" that mainstream media types don't even use anymore.
As a former Budget Director, Lew knew that. Dems have been getting away with this lie for so long that Lew either has come to believe it, or thought he could slip it past everyone. He did sail it right past both David Gregory and Bob Schieffer.
Well, you really shouldn't believe me, because I let it slide, too; but the Washington Post
Fact Checker caught it!
How shall we label Lew's fast one?
How about "Lew lied and budgets died!"
Or maybe, "Lew's lips sink ships!"
Or perhaps just "Skip-to-the-loo, my Jackie!"
