There is an old saw that holds there are three kinds of lies — lies, damned lies and statistics. There is a fourth category that should be added — the numbers used by Washington politicians to make themselves look good. Ask a congressman or a president a question, and odds are good that the answer will include a slew of numbers that make the speaker sound like a fountain of wisdom and logic. But used-car buyers learned long ago to ignore the salesman’s claim that the previous owner only drove a sporty three-year-old roadster on weekends. And so taxpayers should scoff whenever White House occupants or members of Congress start throwing around numbers.

Take federal regulation. In his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed he’s “approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” Obama was literally telling the truth. Since being sworn into office, Obama and his Cabinet appointees have approved 10,215 new regulations. President George W. Bush had approved 10,674 at the same point in his tenure. But there is much more to the story than the numbers. What Obama neglected to mention is that his regulations cost much more to implement.