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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Month: December 2011

Our Year-end Appeal

Our Year-end Appeal
December 23, 2011

Update: As of  Jan. 1, our total stood at $83,607. We will be processing additional late-arriving paper checks in the days to come, and will update again in a few days when we make our regular quarterly financial report.
Thanks to all who made year-end donations. Your gifts will make it possible for us to do more to hold politicians accountable in 2012.
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This promises to be an exciting election year and we here at FactCheck.org have been doing a lot to prepare for it.

Attacks Against Gingrich: How Accurate?

Attacks Against Gingrich: How Accurate?
December 23, 2011

A pro-Romney group is savaging Newt Gingrich with TV ads and mailers to Iowa Republicans. Gingrich dismisses the attacks as “lies.” We find that some of the claims from Restore Our Future are indeed distorted, false or misleading. But several are also right on target.

A Historian’s Perspective on Gingrich & Lincoln

A Historian’s Perspective on Gingrich & Lincoln
December 20, 2011

Newt Gingrich wrongly claimed the Dred Scott decision “ruled that slavery extended to the whole country.” It did not. The ruling stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in new territories, but it stopped short of applying the ruling to all states. Gingrich also claimed that President Lincoln “explicitly instructed his administration to not enforce Dred Scott.” But the research historian at the Lincoln presidential library knows of no such directive or any reason to issue one.

The Whoppers of 2011

The Whoppers of 2011
December 20, 2011

Despite what you may have heard in 2011: The new health care law won’t cost many jobs (and they’ll be poorly paying jobs at that). Republicans aren’t proposing to “end” Medicare (and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has signed onto a modified version …

Bachmann Wrong on Social Security, Jobs, Debt

Bachmann Wrong on Social Security, Jobs, Debt
December 19, 2011

Michele Bachmann argued that “my facts are accurate” at the Dec. 15 debate, but a few days later, she got several facts wrong. On “Meet the Press” the presidential candidate had a couple of exchanges with host David Gregory over the validity of her statements on Social Security and the debt. Among the inaccuracies:

Bachmann said she didn’t support the payroll tax cut because “it denied $111 billion to the Social Security trust fund”and “put senior citizens at risk.”

White House Displays ‘Washington Monument Syndrome’

White House Displays ‘Washington Monument Syndrome’
December 16, 2011

The White House misleadingly suggests that the Republicans’ plan to pay for a payroll tax cut would result in “forcing cuts to things like education and medical research.” The bill passed by House Republicans mentions no such cuts. And while the bill may or may not require cuts to discretionary spending, there’s no reason those cuts would have to come from popular programs like education or medical research.
The White House’s nearly six-minute “white board” video,

The Final Iowa Debate

The Final Iowa Debate
December 16, 2011

The final Republican presidential debate in advance of the Jan. 3 first-in-the-nation Iowa party caucuses produced a few claims we found worthy of quibbling over. Gingrich challenged Bachmann’s factual accuracy regarding the former speaker’s record on abortion — but we found Bachmann was mostly correct. On the other hand, Bachmann used an inflated jobs figure when she criticized Obama’s decision to delay approval of a Canadian oil pipeline through the U.S.
Seven Republican presidential candidates debated Dec.

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Dec. 6-12

December 13, 2011

This week, readers sent us comments about the headlines of our articles.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.