Should there be a law forbidding elected officials from lying to the public?

Question

And if there was one, would you support the penalty being death?

Except about getting bl ow jobs from interns. All men would lie about that. I'm talking about lying regarding things of public concern.

And I do not, nor have I ever, supported Bill Clinton.

Ok, make it a law and take an oath upon entering office that if you lie, you will be immediately removed at the very least and put to death in cases where people were phyicaly harmed by your lie(s.)

What I am refering to are cases such as when Bush told Cheney to leak the infomation about that CIA Operative who was investigating the Iraqi governments attempts to acquire Uranium and then lying about it and a year later coming back and admitting it. He clearly lied. Then, just recently, (among countless other things) regarding the border security issues. And what about torture and secret prisons. There is no national security risk to tell us the truth about secret prisons who's locations are the only thing secret about them. Who cares where they're located? The point is, Bush lied to us about so many things, we should have built-in protection to force liars out of positions of public trust.

Answer 1

I think death penalty might be a bit severe. How about immediate removal from office?

We'd have to do a lot of electing for a while until they got the hint.

Answer 2

There should be a federal law prohibiting ALL government employees from lying to the public, including law enforcement officers. The only exception to this would be for special "sting" operations, after law enforcement officials had gotten a warrant (based on reasonable suspicion) from a judge, authorizing them to conduct the sting.
Penalty should be immediate removal from office (if applicable), imprisonment from five to ten years (based on severity), and forfeiture of all pensions, etc.
There is an old legal adage that "the state comes into court with clean hands"...and far too often the state's hands are just as filthy as that of the scum that they've been investigating.
We deserve better than that...

Answer 3

Sure why not, of course nothing will ever get done and no one will ever get elected. If anyone can actually get elected there will be the bureaucricy that would have to be implemented to monitor their every word and investigate every word to ensure it is the truth.
Lying is a politicians lifeblood. The mistake that is made is that they sometimes can't distingish between the ordinary daily lies and the extradinatory lies that someone may actually notice and take offense to. Bush and LBJ fall in this catagory.

Answer 4

You want death for lies... well, how many lies have you told, and would you be willing to die for them?? but a politician lies constantly... kill them all.. or at least rip out their tongues.. we don't need politicians anyways, we have the technology to do away with representative government and have a true democracy.

Answer 5

That law would not work, Because they would make the laws and and lie about it. And I think as tacky as Bill Clinton was he was better than what we have now. I voted for BC too.

Answer 6

I can see your point but they couldn't tell the truth all the time - what about matters of public security? E.g. if they had to reveal details about undercover operations to fight terrorism. That just wouldn't be safe.

Answer 7

Not enforceable. Most people lie every day. Some minor lies, some serious. But if they are not giving sworn testimony, it's not illegal.

Answer 8

Isn't it a prerequisite for politicians to lie, especially after they've been elected?

Answer 9

Are you kidding? There wouldn't be any government left!

Answer 10

there already are laws aganist it.