Did Chaffetz use "Lyin' for the Lord" as an excuse?

[_Elphaba]

In this video of the House's hearing on Planned Parenthood, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz presented a chart to PP's president Cecile Richards claiming the number of cancer-related visits to PP had dropped dramatically while the number of abortions had risen equally dramatically. Richards, of course, questioned the validity of the chart, to which Chaffetz claimed "I pulled those numbers directly out of your corporate reports." It turns out that was a lie, as Chaffetz had nothing to do with the creation of the chart. Instead, he had acquired it from an anti-abortion organization "Americans United for Life."

I realize Chaffetz was not representing the LDS Church in this, but it occurs to me that perhaps having grown up in an organization that encourages "Lyin' for the Lord" when defending the Church against outsiders and critics makes him think it's acceptable to also lie when defending other subjects he deems just as important, such as, in this case, his stridently anti-abortion position. Your thoughts?

By the way, it turns out the chart was missing a fundamental mathematical component, which made it completely inaccurate (surprise, surprise). Mother Jones explains this in "Lying with Charts, Anti-Abortion Edition." I certainly hope Chaffetz did not realize the chart was inaccurate, though his carelessness in not verifying the chart is concerning and not easily dismissed. If he did know, however, and chose to use the chart anyway, this is a blatant and outrageous lie that is far more egregious than his lie I wrote about above, and, in my opinion, adds weight to my "Lyin' for the Lord" hypothesis.

[_sock puppet]

Perhaps this was nothing but the garden-variety LDS "Lying for the Lord". The LDS Church, i.e., Mormon Jesus, is against abortion. Was Chaffetz so using the chart, knowing or not that it represented an error, for political purpose or to advance Mormon Jesus' agenda? Sure, the immediacy of Chaffetz setting was political, but was he doing it for Mormon Jesus? was he merely "Lying for the Lord"?

[_Elphaba]

Perhaps this was nothing but the garden-variety LDS "Lying for the Lord". The LDS Church, i.e., Mormon Jesus, is against abortion. Was Chaffetz so using the chart, knowing or not that it represented an error, for political purpose or to advance Mormon Jesus' agenda? Sure, the immediacy of Chaffetz setting was political, but was he doing it for Mormon Jesus? was he merely "Lying for the Lord"?

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes more sense than my hypothesis that separated his political leanings from his religious.

Either way, he is a liar.

[_sock puppet]

Perhaps this was nothing but the garden-variety LDS "Lying for the Lord". The LDS Church, i.e., Mormon Jesus, is against abortion. Was Chaffetz so using the chart, knowing or not that it represented an error, for political purpose or to advance Mormon Jesus' agenda? Sure, the immediacy of Chaffetz setting was political, but was he doing it for Mormon Jesus? was he merely "Lying for the Lord"?

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes more sense than my hypothesis that separated his political leanings from his religious.

Either way, he is a liar.

Yea. Claiming he'd prepared the chart, even more specifically that he, Chaffetz, had taken the numbers from the PP website, looks pretty despicable. And of course, IF he did know about the mistake that Mother Jones wrote about, then Chaffetz is all the more despicable.

[Guest]

my first reaction was that this wasn't so much a case of lying as it is confirmation bias (i.e. Chaffetz uncritically accepting information from a biased source since it fits his pre-existing beliefs).

but then if you look at the chart for more than like 2 seconds you realize that someone would have to be either deliberately dishonest or just incredibly stupid to hold it up at a congressional hearing.

[_suniluni2]

No, I think he was just lyin' for himself.

[_Kishkumen]

my first reaction was that this wasn't so much a case of lying as it is confirmation bias (i.e. Chaffetz uncritically accepting information from a biased source since it fits his pre-existing beliefs).

but then if you look at the chart for more than like 2 seconds you realize that someone would have to be either deliberately dishonest or just incredibly stupid to hold it up at a congressional hearing.

Dear me that is a patently dishonest image.

[_palerobber]

the Mother Jones article highlights another layer of deception in Chaffetz's graph -- it isolates cancer screenings, for no apparent reason, from all the other non-abortion services Planned Parenthood provides (which, as a whole, have not seen a large decline).

so why did cancer screenings decline between 2006 and 2013? the article mentions one factor: "changing medical standards about who should be screened and how often." but here's another possible reason: the Affordable Care Act mandate for private insurers to provide women’s preventive health care at no cost (including cancer screenings like pap smears) went into effect August 1, 2012.

by the way, since Chaffetz is so concerned about women getting free cancer screening, he supports this provision of the ACA (Obamacare), right?

[Guest]

wow, the more i look at this, the more Jason Chaffetz (R-LDS) comes off looking like a scumbag...

CNN 9/30/2015 (my emphases):

Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, opened the hearing with an emotional story of his mother and father dying from cancer. He choked up at times as he talked about losing them. He talked about his wife's work with a plastic surgeon who does reconstructive surgery for women with breast cancer. He then pivoted to his argument that the government should spend more on cancer screening and research while ending funding for Planned Parenthood.

vs.

jasonforcongress.com "Legislative Highlights"

Jason Chaffetz has worked tirelessly for government reform. Here are some of his legislative highlights during the 112th Congress. Bills listed in bold were sponsored by Jason Chaffetz, all others were co-sponsored. [...]

Health Care [...]
- HR 1217 - To repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund [pdf]

so what is the Prevention and Public Health Fund?

it's a fund to "provide expanded and sustained national investments in prevention and public health." for example, in FY2015 it allocated 11% of its budget to "support the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program which provides breast cancer screening, outreach, and case management services."

[_harmony]

As if any politician ever prepares his/her own charts, speeches, articles, etc.

Such nonsense.