Lew's Lies

Yesterday on CNN's State of the Union Jack Lew, President Obama's Chief of Staff, said the following in response to Candy Crowley on why the Senate has yet to pass a budget in over three years:

LEW: Let's be clear, what Senator Reid is talking about is a fairly narrow point. In order for the Senate to do its annual work on appropriation bills they need to pass a certain piece of legislation which sets a limit. They did that last year. That's what he's talking about. He's not saying that they shouldn't pass a budget, but we also need to be honest you can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes and you can't get 60 votes without the bipartisan support. So unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate Harry Reid is not able to get a budget passed. And I think he was reflecting the reality that that could be a challenge.

But, as John Hinderaker notes, that's simply not true.  The budget cannot be filibustered, and it can be passed by a simple majority of 51 votes; it does not require a super majority.  Thankfully, some of the MSM have noticed (e.g., Jake Tapper, Glenn Kessler, etc.,).  White House officials now say that Lew simply "misspoke."  But it's obvious that he didn't considering he gave the same answer to multiple news sources.

This is what happens when you really don't care about what the Constitution says.