The political fact-checker seems like a wonderful idea. It serves as an objective source to guide you through the blizzard of lies and half-truths that fill the airwaves every campaign season.

Problem is, there’s facts, and there’s truth. And sometimes the two don’t match up.

Example #1: Politifact’s notorious 2011 judgment that Democrats told a big fat whopper when they accused Paul Ryan of planning to “end Medicare.” Technically, the Dems’ claim was false; Ryan didn’t actually want to kill Medicare. He just wanted to fundamentally change it from a defined-benefit program to something of a defined-contribution program — taking away the real value of Medicare as a guarantee that senior citizens will always have health care coverage.  

But still, the Dems’ accusation was false. If you’re weighing the facts. But it’s not false if you’re weighing the truth.

So now our own Vermont version of Politifact — VTDigger and Seven Days’ Fact Checker — has similarly stumbled over the difference between fact and truth. They have judged as “True” the Republicans’ claim that Governor Shumlin’s health care plan will result in the “largest single tax increase in state history.”

Huh?

They judged it as “true” because, if Shumlin completes the transition to single-payer health care, nobody in Vermont will be paying premiums to insurance companies; we’ll be paying taxes instead. We won’t necessarily be paying any more in absolute dollars — in fact, if the plan works as envisioned, we’ll wind up paying less — but more of what they pay will go through the state.

So the Republicans’ claim is technically correct.

But the real message in their claim — that Vermonters will be paying through the nose, rendering our state unlivable expensive for the vast majority of Vermonters — well, that is total and absolute bushwah. Even so, it passes the “Fact Checker” test, which only examines the facts.

But they completely fail to discern the truth.  And in the process, by giving the Republicans’ charge their “objective” stamp of approval, they do a profound disservice to our political discourse.

I bet the Brock campaign and Vermonters First are already working on new TV ads featuring the Fact Checker’s conclusion.