Md-Gov: O'Malley Caught Lying About Economic Data

If anyone wants to know why we don't trust the wolves (government statists) to guard the hen house (our economic prosperity) look no farther than the O'Malley administration.  Martin O'Malley has been campaigning all over the state and lying to everyone about a non-existent economic recovery in Maryland.  As it turns out, O'Malley's Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR) was hiding an internal report all along that showed that economic growth has "stalled."  One young staffer mistakenly posted the report on the DLLR website, but was told to immediately remove it before people would discover the truth about O'Malley's economic policies.  Fortunately, they were caught in the act.  The Washington Post Reports:

A senior member of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration ordered a gloomy economic report removed from a state Web site last month that ran counter to a more positive spin O'Malley's office had approved about slowing job growth in the state, e-mails show.

The internal report characterized Maryland's economy as having "stalled." It was mistakenly posted by a staffer on Aug. 20 and removed hours later as alarm bells rang in two state agencies and in the governor's office, the documents show.

The negative report "was diametrically opposed to the discussed and eventually-approved messaging" that goes through a process of being signed off by the department and the governor's office, one staffer wrote in an e-mail explaining the "situation" to a director in his department. "The theme of the discussion was quite clear that we would emphasize private sector job growth as progressing . . . at no time did we remotely discuss messaging that the economic recovery had stalled."

Republicans need to pound away at this throughout the rest of the campaign.  Luckily, the Ehrlich campaign caught wind of this early on.  Former Governor Ehrlich summed up the situation like this: "It appears a staff member told the truth, was caught telling the truth, and then they just made up the rest of the story."  Republican House Minority Leader Anthony O'Donnell called for an immediate investigation of this state level fraud.  Meanwhile, Democrat House Speaker Michael Busch responded, "Let me get this right, They used a political forum to criticize O'Malley for politicizing an agency?"  Maybe these people are too smart for me, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean?

The DLLR is ground zero for the ornery, overzealous regulatory policies of the Maryland governing statists.  We need to keep a close eye on them for the rest of the election season.  Bob Ehrlich for Governor!