John Stossel: The incredible smear machine aimed at Team Trump

Oh, no! I did it again.

It was a foolish mistake. But I slipped.

I read The New York Times.

This is bad for my health, because I get so mad at the smug socialist spin, but how can I not read it? It’s my hometown paper. My wife wakes me up with indignant questions like, “How can you say government is too big? The Times says … ”

Aargh! Nearly every day brings a new Times outrage.

Saturday, a front-page story smeared Labor Secretary nominee Andy Puzder.

The story begins, “Decades before President Trump nominated him … Puzder went to battle with federal labor regulators … ”

Wait a second. “Decades before”? They went back decades to criticize him? Actually, three decades — to 1983, when as a young lawyer, Puzder represented a client whom the Labor Department accused of squandering union money.

Problem is, the lies are easy. The lies flow off the tongue and the pen (OK keyboard!) easily and quickly, to refute them is time consuming and interrupts what constructive work or thought you  were engaging in.    Which is the point really.  The Trump team is steadily dismantling the edifice of regulations, taxes and fees.  Inspections and demands for paperwork and forms; endless forms to be filled out.

(I always wondered why a certain type of person demands that other people waste their time filling out paperwork and forms, more pages of useless minutia than anyone could ever read. And why would you?)

So the reason for the incoming barrage of lies and sly innuendo is to slow Trump down, occupy the members of his administration, waste their time.

Fortunately, no one reads The New York Times anymore.