Gov. Greg Abbott wags his finger during a pro-school choice rally in San Antonio last year. Credit: Michael Karlis

The following story is a piece of opinion and analysis.

Politicians lie. Always have.

However, it looks like Trump’s second term has emboldened certain GOP politicos, especially in Texas, to fire off increasingly bold falsehoods with an increasing lack of hesitancy.

Take Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s employed some stunning whoppers in recent weeks as forges ahead with his campaign to force school vouchers on Texans, whether they want them or not.

In a Feb. 13 tweet, for example, Abbott declared “school choice doesn’t take a penny from public schools.”

Of course, that’s utter bullshit. Academic researchers, public school advocates and common sense all tell us that if parents are incentivized to pull their kids out of public schools and stick them in private ones, public school districts lose money. After all, public school funding in Texas is based on enrollment and attendance.

Don’t believe it? That’s fine, because Abbott himself admitted during the same week that his school voucher plan — which will allocate $10,000 in taxpayer funds for families who opt to enroll their kids in private campuses — will lead to less funding for public schools.

“The people ‘defunding’ public schools are PARENTS choosing a better option than what their assigned school provides,” Abbott wrote in a separate Feb. 12 tweet. “When they leave, the funding for that child leaves too. Democrats want to FORCE families to stay in government mandated schools against their will.”

So, which is it, governor? Do vouchers drain money to public schools or don’t they?

Abbott was caught in another whopper earlier this month during a pro-school voucher rally in Athens, Texas. During that appearance, he spun an improbable — read “untrue” — tale about a public school principal in Dallas who quit her job and moved to Amarillo because her previous district banned the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

“She said the school where she came from, they were not doing that anymore,” Abbott recalled with such passion it almost sounded like he’s bought into his own falsehood. “She believed in patriotism and knew that was a fundamental tenet of educating our kids, so she moved out to Amarillo to do that.”

Here’s the problem: students in Texas public schools have been required by state law since 2017 to say the Pledge of Allegiance — both to the U.S. flag and the Texas flag.

Seems like Abbott would be aware of that, since, yanno, he signed that bill into law.

Beyond the Big Lie

But Abbott isn’t the only Texas Republican apparently allergic to the truth.

Last month, during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz declared that “thousands and thousands” of Americans died building the Panama Canal.

In reality, only 300 or so U.S.-born workers died during the canal’s construction, according to most academic researchers. What’s more, the vast majority of those who perished during the canal’s construction were workers from the Caribbean.

If it seems like GOP politicians’ aversion to the truth is getting worse, that’s because it is.

Bill Adair, the founder of Pulitzer-Prize-winning fact-checking website Politifact, found that Republicans lie more than their counterparts across the aisle. What’s more, their lies are getting more absurd and dangerous, he asserts in his 2024 book Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.

Democrats do lie, but the consequences of their lies are far less dangerous, Adair argues.

For example, President Joe Biden lied when he said inflation was 9% when he took office. In reality, it was 1.4%.

While that’s certainly not a good look for Ol’ Joe, it’s the kind of puffery politicians have engaged in for ages to make their records look better than they actually are. The lie’s ramifications are far less severe than Trump’s conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen. Our nation is still suffering the consequences of that dangerous fabrication.

Indeed, the type of lying Trump regularly engages in is inherently dangerous to our democracy.

Money and motivations

When Democrats lie, it’s because they believe they’ll get away with it, according to Adair’s research.

“They make a calculation — am I going to gain more from making this statement that is false than I’m going to lose?” Adair told the Harvard Gazette. “It’s that simple.”

However, when Republicans lie, they view it as part of an epic struggle, and in that struggle, anything is OK as long as the outcome benefits the politician and the party, according to Adair.

Which begs the question: What epic struggle is Abbott hoping to win by repeatedly lying about school vouchers? Why would he be so willing to shred his own credibility to score a win on an issue?

Of course, it could be he thinks a win would be giving constituents what they want. After all, 65% of Texans in a 2024 Hobby School of Public Affairs poll said they support vouchers. But Abbott’s efforts to stamp out local control and engage in open warfare with the city’s largest metro areas don’t suggest pleasing large groups is a key motivator for the governor.

It’s also hard to believe Abbott actually cares much about education, given the dismal track record the state’s had on his watch when it comes to funding schools. Texas ranked eighth from the bottom in per-pupil funding last year, according to statistics site World Population Review. Watch out, Tennessee!

We do know this, however. Over the past six months, Abbott’s campaign received a $19 million influx in donations, according to his latest Texas Ethics Commission filing. That windfall included $6 million from Jeff Yass, a pro-voucher Pennsylvania billionaire — a donation the governor’s own campaign touted as the “largest in Texas history.”

Money’s always been a strong motivator. Strong enough, in fact, to make people spin enormous fabrications, consequences be damned.

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This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...