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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of March 19-25.
See letters from previous weeks“ Criticizing the Democrats for citing the only available study on gun purchases for its age seems wide of the target. ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Underselling the Sequester Cuts
An ad from a fiscally conservative group makes a true but misleading claim that the sequester only amounts to “a 3 percent cut in federal spending.” A majority of federal spending is exempt from the sequester cuts, so the parts that are not will be cut much more deeply than …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged federal budget, Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch, Public Notice, sequester
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Biden Exaggerates Aid to Israel
Vice President Joe Biden incorrectly told a pro-Israel group that President Obama’s $3.1 billion request for military aid to Israel last year was “the most in history.” The record was set in fiscal 2000, when the Clinton administration secured $3.12 billion for Israel — which is not only slightly more …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Foreign aid, Israel, Joe Biden, President Bush, President Obama
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The Sequester Blame Game
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner emerged from their White House meeting on sequestration blaming each other for the automatic spending cuts and misrepresenting the other side’s position: Obama’s remarks left the false impression that Boehner has reneged on a GOP plan to raise $800 billion by limiting …
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Boehner’s Revenue Reach
House Speaker John Boehner claimed the federal government will take in more revenue this year than any other year in history. That’s true in nominal dollars, but not as a percentage of gross domestic product — a measure preferred by most economists that accounts for growth in population, inflation and …
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Sequester Spin
The Sunday talk shows included exaggerated claims from both sides about the debate over automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect March 1: Education Secretary Arne Duncan said “as many as 40,000 teachers could lose their jobs.” But that assumes the entire $2.8 billion in looming DOE cuts would come …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Arne Duncan, education, sequestration, teachers, Tom Coburn
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Paying People to Play Video Games
House Speaker John Boehner tweets that the Obama administration is spending $1.2 million “paying people to play video games.” That’s misleading. The government did pay $1.2 million for university research that includes the study of how video games can stimulate the cognitive abilities of seniors. A fraction of that cost …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged debt, Eric Cantor, federal deficit, John Boehner, video games
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SEIU Distorts Halvorson’s Record in Illinois Race
A radio ad from the Service Employees International Union grossly distorts the voting record of former Rep. Debbie Halvorson in the final days of the Democratic primary to fill the House seat left vacant by Jesse Jackson Jr.’s resignation. The union claims: Halvorson “voted against extending unemployment benefits for millions …
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FactChecking the GOP Response
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul made misleading or exaggerated claims in their responses to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Rubio claimed that the federal health care law was causing people to lose “the health insurance they were happy with,” but that glosses over …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged health care law, Marco Rubio, Obama phone, Rand Paul, SOTU
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Reid Twice Wrong on $2.6 Trillion ‘Cuts’
Sen. Harry Reid was doubly wrong when he claimed that Congress already has cut $2.6 trillion from projected future deficits by reducing “non-defense programs” alone. In fact, legislation he refers to applied to both security and non-security spending. Furthermore, a good chunk of the deficit reduction came from tax increases, …
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