The current Congress is being falsely blamed for the fact that Social Security recipients are not due to get a cost-of-living increase in January. As we noted in an Ask FactCheck item posted Sept. 23, the real reason for the freeze is volatile oil prices and the formula that Congress adopted, and President Richard Nixon signed and claimed credit for, in 1972. That hasn’t stopped some from claiming that the current Congress is not only to blame, but also will pocket a substantial pay increase... Click to Read the Full Post
Q: Do immigrants and refugees get more in benefits than a retired U.S. citizen gets in Social Security? A: This is nonsense. The claims propagated by a viral e-mail are not even close to the truth. Click to Read the Full Post Read More →
Q: Did FDR promise that Social Security would be voluntary? Did Democrats end tax deductions for Social Security withholding? A: Social Security has never been voluntary and taxes paid to support it have never been deductible from federal income taxes. A widely e-mailed "history lesson" gets nearly all its facts wrong. Click to Read the Full Post Read More →
Q: Is Congress about to give Social Security to illegal immigrants? A: Congress hasn’t voted on any measure to pay benefits to illegal immigrants, and has no plans for any such vote. Click to Read the Full Post Read More →
We saw more aggressive fact-checking by journalists in this election than ever before. Unfortunately, as a post-election Annenberg Public Policy Center poll confirms, millions of voters were bamboozled anyway. More than half of U.S. adults (52 percent) said the claim that Sen. Barack Obama’s tax plan would raise taxes on most small businesses is truthful, when in fact only a small percentage would see any increase. More than two in five (42.3 percent) found truth in the claim that Sen. John... Click to Read the Full Post
We posted two new pieces on the main site today. The first looks at a common theme among Democratic congressional ads: the accusation that Republicans want to gamble away Social Security in risky private investments. We count 58 ads with such charges that have aired since Oct. 1. Read all about how they’re trying to mislead voters in our full story: More Social Security Bunk October 30, 2008 Our second article examines four Spanish-language ads from the presidential campaigns, the National... Click to Read the Full Post
In what is becoming a bit of a pattern, a group that backs Sen. Barack Obama is trying to convince senior citizens that Sen. John McCain would be their worst nightmare. The AFL-CIO is distributing a mailer that claims McCain is “turning his back on retirees,” by “privatizing Social Security, taxing health care benefits” and “cutting $1 trillion from Medicare.” Talking Points Memo reports that the AFL-CIO is sending this flyer to retirees in Indiana, North Carolina... Click to Read the Full Post
Since my first article on lying e-mails, I’ve gotten dozens of inquiries about a snarky little message blaming Democrats alone for all sorts of bad changes to Social Security. I’m calling it "Lying E-mail #2" because it is so full of laughably inaccurate claims. Who Taxed Benefits? The most glaring falsehood in this one is a claim that it was "the Democratic party" that "put a tax on Social Security." Lying E-mail #2: Social Security ⬐ Click to expand/collapse... Click to Read the Full Post
Let me put the matter bluntly: an awful lot of the e-mailed messages zipping around the Internet are lies — and too many are being sent on by gullible, lazy friends who ought to know better. These falsehoods are multiplying like viruses as recipients forward them to their entire list of friends without making the slightest effort to verify what’s being claimed, often with cover messages saying something like, "You HAVE to read this!" This cyber-sickness should stop. All it takes... Click to Read the Full Post
