UPDATED: Ryan’s Free School Lunch ‘Horror’ Story Never Happened
Last edited Sat Mar 8, 2014, 08:36 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: TPM
Paul Ryan's Free School Lunch Story Never Actually Happened
CATHERINE THOMPSON – MARCH 7, 2014, 9:36 AM EST
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) fired up the audience Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference with an anecdote about what he called the heartlessness of giving out free school lunches -- but it turns out that "moving" story never really happened.
Ryan used a story about a young boy choosing a lovingly made brown bag lunch over a free school meal, relayed to him by Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Secretary Eloise Anderson, to illustrate that Democrats offer Americans a "full stomach and an empty soul."
But when Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler looked into that tale, he gave it "four pinocchios" because Anderson presented it out of context.
Kessler found Anderson told the story at a 2013 congressional hearing that Ryan chaired, and claimed she had spoken to the boy herself. Kessler notes her story closely paralleled an exchange from a book called "An Invisible Thread," in which an executive offers to either give a young, homeless panhandler money to eat for the week or else make lunch for him each day. The boy insists on having his lunch made for him in a brown-paper bag, because that means "somebody cares" about him.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul_ryan_school_lunch_never_happened
A story too good to check: Paul Ryan and the story of the brown paper bag
BY GLENN KESSLER
March 6 at 10:07 pm
“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.”
–Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, March 6, 2014
This was an interesting statement made by the 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate, equating school lunches to an “empty soul.” So one would think the anecdote, described by the National Review as “moving,” would be rock-solid. But the story seemed a bit pat.
-snip-
The Pinocchio Test
Here at The Fact Checker, we often deal with situations in which people misspeak. We certainly don’t try to play gotcha. But this is a different order of magnitude. Anderson, in congressional testimony, represented that she spoke to this child—and then ripped the tale out of its original context. That’s certainly worthy of Four Pinocchios.
But what about Ryan? Should he get a pass because he heard this from a witness before Congress? It really depends on the circumstances. In this case, he referenced the story in a major speech. The burden always falls on the speaker and we believe politicians need to check the facts in any prepared remarks.
In this case, apparently, the story was too good to check. We appreciate he is regretful now. But a simple inquiry would have determined that the person telling the story actually is an advocate for the federal programs that Ryan now claims leaves people with “a full stomach and an empty soul.” So he also earns Four Pinocchios.
Four Pinocchios
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/06/a-story-too-good-to-check-paul-ryan-and-the-story-of-the-brown-paper-bag/
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UPDATE:
Paul Ryan discovers there's no free lunch
-snip-
So we start with a story about a harried sales executive learning about life from an abandoned child. That gets transformed, via the Republican wringer, into a lesson about the supposedly soul-sapping effect of a government nutritional program, and thence into a reproach to "the left," which doesn't care about the souls of our children, only about making sure they're, you know, fed. This is how the old game of "Telephone" is played in Washington today.
Once outed, Ryan issued an apology of sorts via his Facebook page: "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." Well, no. The story Anderson told was fabricated, her "insights" specious.
-snip-
The speciousness of the school lunch story underscores the real issue with Ryan's approach to anti-poverty programs: He gets them wrong. One of his big points is that these programs create a "poverty trap" that discourages their recipients from working their way out of poverty--by their bootstraps, as it were.
He cites a 2012 Congressional Budget Office report to the effect that the poverty programs impose a marginal tax rate of 100% on some households, which he says works to "penalize families for getting ahead."
But this is another item from Ryan's fast-and-loose connection. The hike in marginal tax rates is a well-known artifact of all means-tested programs, whose benefits phase out with rising income. For example, if by earning $1,000 more a recipient loses $1,000 in benefits, that's effectively a 100% tax on that thousand dollars.
-snip-
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-no-free-lunch-20140307,0,6101775.story#ixzz2vNDFKKlJ
Thank you Botany for this Update!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014748000#post26
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Ryan's FaceBook page, where he's being called a "POS" and other assorted names:
https://www.facebook.com/paulryanwi
= new reply since forum marked as read
And then there's this.
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In other words, I couldn't agree with you more, and I can't believe your statement isn't the headline in every newspaper that has written on this. I don't understand what Ryan was trying to say unless he really was claiming that kids would rather go hungry than eat a lunch that didn't come from home... where they don't have food...? 
"What the hell is that idiot doing?" 
He like, IssaPOS, are despicable.
em all!
which definitely applies here. 
Cheers! 
When I was 12 and my father abandoned us (financially), I was terrified we would starve because my mother's full time job couldn't pay all the bills and still allow us to buy food. When she explained that we could get food stamps from the government, my thought was "Wow, our country actually cares about us and won't let us starve!....this must be why America is the best country in the world!!" I was soooo relieved and felt so good about my generous fellow Americans.
That is until I witnessed the reactions of other people in the checkout line when they saw our food stamps. 
"In this case, apparently, the story was too good to check. We appreciate he is regretful now. But a simple inquiry would have determined that the person telling the story actually is an advocate for the federal programs that Ryan now claims leaves people with “a full stomach and an empty soul.” So he also earns Four Pinocchios."
Somebody brilliant needs to photoshop the LIAR with 4X the Pinocchio Nose. Oh Wait..
So transparent and like *, so dangerously moronic
Just proves the point: If their lips are moving, they're lying. 
