So I know that we could fill a thread longer than the "Beer Thread" with lies the government has told throughout history but what are some of the doozies, to prime the pump (roughly in chronological order):
- "Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears."
- "40 acres and a mule."
- "The United States recognizes the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people."
- "The Naval Court of Inquiry, which, it is needless to say, commands the unqualified confidence of the government, was unanimous in its conclusion that the destruction of the Maine was caused by an exterior explosion, that of a submarine mine."
- "She did not carry a cargo prohibited by the statutes of the United States, and that, if in fact she was a naval vessel of Great Britain, she should not receive clearance as a merchantman."
- "Social Security cards are for Social Security and tax purposes -- not for identification."
- "I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars."
- "The USS Kearny was harmlessly delivering mail."
- "There was no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet air space and there never has been."
- "I have previously stated, and I repeat now, that the United States plans no military intervention in Cuba."
- "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."
- "I am not a crook"
- "I have never been a quitter."
- "Read my Lips"
- "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"
- "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it."
- "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly."