FactCheck.org Author: Lori Robertson

Palin’s Constitutional Stretch

March 19, 2013

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that the Senate was “in violation of Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of our U.S. Constitution” by failing to “pass a budget.” She’s referring to a budget resolution. But that constitutional clause doesn’t mention a budget or a budget resolution, which was not required of the Senate until the 1974 Congressional Budget Act. The responses to Palin’s interpretation from constitutional scholars ranged from “completely invalid” to “kind of a stretch.”

Seniors and Video Games

March 4, 2013

Managing Editor Lori Robertson tells Connecticut Public Broadcasting about House Republicans’ misleading Twitter claims that the Obama administration is spending $1.2 million “paying people to play video games.” The money in question went to university research on how video games can stimulate the cognitive abilities of seniors.
For more on this issue, see our Feb. 22 story, “Paying People to Play Video Games.“

Obama’s and Rubio’s Health Care Claims

February 21, 2013

Managing Editor Lori Robertson tells Connecticut Public Broadcasting about President Barack Obama’s and Sen. Marco Rubio’s health care claims in the State of the Union address and Republican response. Obama said the Affordable Care Act “is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.” Experts say it has helped, but the slower growth began before the law was passed and is due to the down economy, as well. Rubio said that “now, some people are losing the health insurance they were happy with,”

FactChecking the GOP Response

February 14, 2013

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 the fact that 27 million uninsured Americans are expected to gain coverage. Paul claimed the federal government borrows “$50,000 every second,” but the true figure is about $30,000.

Cherry-Picking Assault Weapons Ban Studies

February 7, 2013

On Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Managing Editor Lori Robertson talks about how both sides of the gun-control debate are selectively quoting from studies on the effectiveness of the 1994 assault weapons ban. The head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, claimed the studies found the ban “had no impact on lowering crime,” while Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the ban did reduce crime. Both are wrong. The studies could not conclude that the ban was responsible for a national drop in gun violence,

Biden Wrong on Police Deaths

January 30, 2013

In an online interview promoted by the White House, Vice President Joe Biden made the false claim that “there were fewer police being murdered … when the assault weapons ban, in fact, was in existence.” But the FBI statistics on killings of law enforcement officers show no such trend.
In fact, the number of officers killed when the ban was still in effect in 2002 — 56 — is the same number as in 2010. The numbers have fluctuated,

Voting Conspiracies

January 17, 2013

Q: Is it true that there were more votes than voters in Wood County, Ohio, and St. Lucie County, Fla., and that Obama lost every state with photo ID laws?
A: No. A viral email that makes those claims is bogus. It fabricates Ohio and Florida results. Also, Obama won four of the 11 states with photo ID laws.

Viral Spiral 2012

December 27, 2012

We’ve long warned our readers to make good use of the delete key when emails spreading sketchy claims pop up in their inboxes. But we’ve found that old viral emails, unfortunately, never die — and new ones spread like a highly contagious disease. These overwhelmingly anonymous messages are, by and large, bogus.

Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts

December 20, 2012

The mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., has reignited a national debate on gun control. As elected leaders begin the dialogue, some facts are clear — there has been a massive increase in gun sales. Some things are not so clear — such as whether there is causation between more guns and more violent crimes. And some …

Health Care Claims Still Viral

November 13, 2012

On Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Managing Editor Lori Robertson discusses the resurgence of old, viral email claims about the Affordable Care Act. Bogus emails claim the law would deny dialysis to Medicare patients, or have a government committee decide what treatment anyone can receive. That’s not true.
For more on viral claims about the federal health care law, see our April 20, 2012, Ask FactCheck, “ ‘Death Panels’ Redux” and our Aug. 28, 2009, article, “Twenty-six Lies About H.R.