Rand Paul tried to get away with the "Obama has grown the size of government" lie on national television, with Paul Krugman seated across the table from him. Smart!
PAUL: The thing I don’t understand is that your arguing that the government sector is struggling. Are you arguing that there are fewer government employees under Obama than there were under Bush?
KRUGMAN: Of course. That’s a fact. That’s a tremendous fact.
PAUL: No, the size of growth of government is enormous under president Obama.
KRUGMAN: If government employment had grown as fast under Obama as it did under Bush, we’d have a million and a half more people employed right now — directly.
PAUL: Are there less people employed or more people employed now by government?
ThinkProgress noted that there are 600,000 fewer government employees under President Obama than under George W. Bush. Much to my chagrin, of course. Unemployment would be lower if this wasn't the case. But it's hilarious how married to their fiction some of these tea party Republicans are. If they would be rational for just one second, they'd notice the size of government, they'd notice how the individual mandate came from the Republicans, they'd notice that the economy is growing. They don't see any of it because they're blinded by their own bullshit.