President Obama tried to sell his health care overhaul in prime time, mangling some facts in the process. He also strained to make the job sound easier to pay for than experts predict. Obama promised once again that a health care overhaul “will be paid for.” But congressional budget experts say …
Stories by Lori Robertson
Director, FactCheck.org
Canadian Straw Man
Two ads from related independent groups make claims about an overhaul of the health care system, saying Congress wants a government-run health care system. One ad claims that “Washington wants to bring Canadian-style health care to the U.S.” But the health care bills moving through Congress don’t call for a single-payer system like Canada’s …
Tax-and-Spend Twittering
On July 14, House Democrats released their health care bill and Republicans were quick to criticize it. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took to Twitter, typing out: “The liberal health bill introduced by pelosi is a disaster. $1.5 trillion in new spending. Tax increases on virtually everyone.”
Gingrich wasn’t the only one to say the bill would cost $1.5 trillion (over 10 years, that is), but the other person who said it remains anonymous. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,
England’s and Canada’s Health Care
Q: Is it true that persons older than 59 can’t get heart surgery in England?
A: There’s no such prohibition on heart operations in England, as a chain e-mail claims.
More Unemployment Blues
If you’re the glass-half-full type, you might think it’s good news that the nation’s unemployment rate was largely unchanged from May to June. It crept up just 0.1 percentage points to 9.5 percent. But that also means that the original projections from President Obama’s economic advisers on what would happen with and without the stimulus plan are still off — and significantly so.
In mid-June, we wrote about the large discrepancy between the jobs that actually have been lost and what administration economists had predicted in January.
The Long-Term View
As part of his ongoing health-care-overhaul tour, President Barack Obama held a town hall event July 1 in Annandale, Va. Among the president’s messages: Medicare and Medicaid spending are getting out of control. And he’s right.
Obama said: “And for those who rightly worry about deficits, the amount our government spends on Medicare and Medicaid will eventually grow larger than what our government spends today on everything else combined,” adding that a recent Congressional Budget Office study showed that “when you look at the rising costs of entitlement,
Campaigning on Single Payer?
On “Meet the Press” on June 28, former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney falsely claimed that President Obama had called for a “single-payer” health care system on the campaign trail:
Romney: President Obama, when he was campaigning, said he wanted a single-payer system.
We debunked this falsehood when Sen. John McCain said it during the third presidential debate. McCain claimed that “as he said, his object is a single payer system.” But as a presidential candidate,
Pushing for a Public Plan
Liberal groups have hit TV and radio with ads praising the idea of a public health insurance plan, an option that President Obama and other Democrats support as part of changes to the health care system. But the ads lack context and could well mislead the public: A TV ad …
More Health Care Scare
A new ad from Conservatives for Patients’ Rights says that a public health insurance plan now being proposed in Congress “could crush all your other choices, driving them out of existence, resulting in 119 million off their current insurance coverage.” That’s misleading. The 119 million figure comes from an analysis …
Virginia Myths and More
One thing for certain in the race for Virginia’s governorship is that Bob McDonnell is the GOP nominee. As for the Democrats, three candidates are still vying for the nomination. That means plenty of battles on the airwaves. And a few of the Democrats’ ads don’t pass the fact-checking test …