Lies of the Right: The $30 Million Mouse That's Really a Myth

Congressional Republicans and the right-wing blogosphere have been foaming at the mouth recently about Nancy Pelosi's $30 million project to preserve an endangered mouse.

That's right, Sooner fans, a mouse. It's an outrage! A travesty! Too bad it's just not true.

Here's the real story from a non-partisan fact-checking outfit, Politicfact.com. Unlike the hysterical blowhards on the Right, these folks explain that there is money in the stimulus plan for wetlands restoration, a project that has a number of environmental and flood-control benefits. But it's not about a mouse.

To hear Republican House members tell it, you'd think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stuffed $30 million into the stimulus bill to benefit an endangered mouse in her district.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa called it an earmark and "a pet project" while pointing to a sign he made that said "Pelosi's Mouse slated for $30 Million."

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio opposed the bill and asked how money "for some salt marsh mouse in San Francisco is going to help a struggling autoworker in Ohio?"

And Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana said on Fox News that there was "$30 million in there to protect mice in San Francisco."

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[I]t's a serious distortion to say there's money in the bill to protect San Francisco mice. The bill doesn't even list the San Francisco projects by name. And the funding agencies — the Corps of Engineers or NOAA — could still decide to fund the projects or not. The bill passed a final vote in the House on Feb. 13, with no Republicans supporting it

So Pelosi did not put an earmark in the bill to save the mice. In fact, there's no money in the bill for mice. For this reason, we rate Pence's remark False.

Lies, lies, and more lies.