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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Rick Perry’s Imaginary Regulation

Rick Perry falsely claimed the Obama administration wants farmers to obtain a commercial driver's license to ride tractors across public roads.
As first reported by the Des Moines Register, the Texas governor told his tall Texas tale at the Iowa State Farm on Monday — two days after announcing he would run for the Republican presidential nomination. He offered it as an example of "regulations that are stifling jobs."

Perry, Aug. 15: This is just such an obscene,

FactChecking Perry

Rick Perry has made false or exaggerated claims on U.S. oil imports, the federal debt, Social Security and the federal health care law.
The Texas governor gave a speech Aug. 13 in South Carolina to announce he will run for the Republican presidential nomination. As we have for other declared candidates, we offer here a summary of his past statements that we have found to be false or misleading. We also reviewed his weekend speech and found other questionable claims.

FactChecking Iowa Debate

FactChecking Iowa Debate

Republican presidential candidates squared off in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, offering claims, criticism and arguments. We found some false and misleading statements among them …

Romney’s Run-in on Social Security

Mitt Romney gave a misleading answer to a question about Social Security during a feisty exchange with a heckler in Iowa. He said payroll taxes take 15.3 percent "out of your earnings," but only the self-employed pay that rate. All other workers pay half of that, with the other half being paid for by the employer.
The Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor also said that the payroll tax rate would have to go up to 44 percent to pay for Social Security,

Top 20 White House Raises

Q: Is a chart claiming to show the “top 20 raises” to White House staffers accurate?
A: It’s misleading. The salary increases for 19 of the 21 employees listed resulted from promotions. Average pay for White House staff actually declined.

FactChecking Dueling Debt Speeches

The president and House speaker restated familiar positions in their dueling debt ceiling speeches, but they took their points too far at times or made them without enough context. …