Republicans are spinning their health care bills’ impact on Medicaid. Sen. Pat Toomey made the questionable claim that under the Senate bill “no one loses coverage” gained under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway claimed there “are not cuts to Medicaid” in the bills that reduce future Medicaid spending by hundreds of billions.
Sen. Rand Paul, who opposes the Senate health care bill, says subsidies “are actually greater under the Republican bill than they are under the current Obamacare law.” But the CBO says the average subsidy under the bill would be “significantly lower than the average subsidy under current law.”
Q: Is President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, “costing taxpayers $10,000 per hour” for his services during the Russia investigation?
A: No. That claim comes from a baseless story on an “entertainment” website that posts satirical stories.
In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper discusses President Donald Trump’s remarks at his June 21 Iowa rally about coal mining jobs.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cites research from two partisan groups to claim that the Republican health care bill would result in the loss of 1.8 million jobs by 2022. But a recent independent study put the expected job loss at 413,000 by that year.
Q: Has Rep. Maxine Waters attended only “10 percent of congressional meetings for 35 years”?
A: No. That claim was made in a blog post that cited an inaccurate comment on Reddit.
Jay Sekulow, an attorney on President Donald Trump’s legal team, made the rounds of the Sunday shows to talk about the Russia investigation. But he glossed over relevant facts in defense of his client.
Q: Did President Donald Trump send Barack Obama a bill for his “vacation scam”?
A: No. That bogus claim comes from a “satirical publication.”
President Donald Trump went on a tweetstorm about the Russia investigation. He accused his vanquished rival Hillary Clinton of obstruction of justice (without any evidence) and blamed others for his firing of FBI Director James Comey (even though Trump said he was planning to fire Comey regardless of any recommendation).
Q: Can President Donald Trump fire special counsel Robert Mueller?
A: Not directly. Only the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller can fire him and only for cause. But Trump could fire the DAG, or order the special-counsel regulations repealed and fire Mueller himself.