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The PolitiFact report card on the presidential candidates

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Dec. 31 (Fact Check) - In the Republican debates and the avalanche of TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, the presidential candidates have made lots of claims about the credibility of their opponents -- and themselves. PolitiFact has checked hundreds of statements ranging from Mitt Romney's claim that Solyndra had robots that whistled Disney tunes (Half True) to Rep. Michele Bachmann's statement that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation (False). Collectively, those fact-checks have formed report cards for each candidate that reveal patterns and trends about their truth-telling. With the Iowa caucuses three days away, PolitiFact is publishing the records to show how ... >>More

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Rep. Ron Paul and the Truth-O-Meter

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Dec. 28 (Fact Check) - We've been rating Ron Paul since the 2008 campaign, the last time he ran for president. All told, we’ve rated 28 statements from him, as well as a couple of interesting attacks against him. His overall record leans toward truth. We’ve rated seven statements True and seven statements Mostly True, on issues such as his claim about torture, the size of the U.S. military stationed abroad, and foreign aid to Israel and the Arab world. We’ve rated four statements Half True, which included two attacks on Gov. Rick Perry.

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Lie of the Year 2011: 'Republicans voted to end Medicare'

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan - Dec. 21 (Fact Check) - Republicans muscled a budget through the House of Representatives in April that they said would take an important step toward reducing the federal deficit. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the plan kept Medicare intact for people 55 or older, but dramatically changed the program for everyone else by privatizing it and providing government subsidies.

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Fact-checking the Chamber of Commerce

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Dec. 07 (Fact Check) - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has begun its "voter education" drive, running ads that attack Democrats and boost Republicans. The blitz is beginning in Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, including this ad against U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. PolitiFact Ohio checked the ad's claim that Brown "voted to block American energy production and increase energy taxes" and rated it Mostly False.

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Mitt Romney's views on climate change have changed, says DNC

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Nov. 30 (Fact Check) - Global warming has become a hot potato, at least for Republican presidential candidates. We’ve seen candidates for the Republican nomination question whether there’s scientific consensus on climate change, but those statements are at odds with the facts.

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Barack Obama says 60 percent of his promises are 'done'

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Nov. 02 (Fact Check) - During a fundraising event at a home in Los Angeles on Oct. 25, 2011, President Barack Obama took credit for enacting a majority of his agenda during his nearly three years in office. "We’ve seen change," he told donors. "We know what it looks like. We know what it takes. But we’ve got so much more work to do. And I keep a checklist in my desk, and I kind of see, all right, I made a bunch of these promises during the campaign -- (laughter) -- and let me see, yes, I got that done -- (laughter) -- and that one, yes. No, that one’s not done yet. (Laughter.) So we’ve got about 60 percent done in three years but -- (applause) -- so I’m pretty confident we can get the other 40 percent done in the next five years. (Applause.) But to do that, I’m going to need your help." A few readers wondered what we thought about this figure, since we’ve been using our Obameter to check how well Obama has been keeping 500-plus campaign promises since his inauguration. It is the most comprehensive look at what Obama promised during the campaign. When we asked, the White House confirmed that it has indeed been using our Obameter as its yardstick.

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Barack Obama says construction workers pay higher tax rate than someone earning $50 million a year

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Sep. 27 (Fact Check) - The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Barack Obama says construction workers pay higher tax rate than someone earning $50 million a year In several appearances recently, President Barack Obama has emphasized tax fairness across the income spectrum. In remarks in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 22, 2011, Obama sought to promote his American Jobs Act by visiting a "functionally obsolete" bridge spanning the Ohio River. The bill, he said, "would put people back to work rebuilding America -- repairing our roads, repairing our bridges, repairing our schools." During the speech, Obama said that "a construction worker who’s making $50 or $60 grand a year shouldn’t be paying higher tax rates than the guy who’s making ... >> More

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Warren Buffett says the super-rich pay lower tax rates than others

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Aug. 14 (Fact Check) - It's not often you see someone stand up and say, "Tax me more!" Yet that's just what famed investor Warren Buffett has done in an op-ed in the New York Times headlined, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." Buffett says that very wealthy people like himself pay lower tax rates than the middle class, thanks to special tax categories for investment income. "While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks," he writes. As an example, Buffett said he paid an effective tax rate of 17.4 percent, while people who worked in his office made much less but paid higher effective tax rates of between 33 percent and 41 percent, averaging 36 percent.

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PolitiFact's guide to Obama's birth certificate

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Apr. 12 (Investigative Report) - Nothing we've published in the four-year history of PolitiFact has generated as much interest as our coverage of President Barack Obama's birth certificate. New allegations from Donald Trump (new from Trump, at least; most of them have been explored by PolitiFact and other fact-checkers) have prompted fresh interest in the subject, so we thought we'd provide a handy guide to our coverage.

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Rachel Maddow says Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Dave Umhoefer, Greg Borowski - Feb. 19 (News Analysis) - The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall. It would be closer to the $340 million figure if the figure included the $200 million owed to the state’s patient compensation fund, a debt courts have declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Gov. Jim Doyle.

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says his budget-repair bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact”

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Tom Kertscher, Greg Borowski - Feb. 18 (News Analysis) - If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker isn’t trying to strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees, then why do workers keep pouring into Madison by the thousands to demonstrate against him?

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Fact-checking Obama's State of the Union speech

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan, Aaron Sharockman - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - President Barack Obama struck a centrist tone in his second State of the Union speech, arguing for corporate tax cuts and fewer government regulations. PolitiFact watched the entire speech and checked several of Obama's claims. Later, we began taking on the GOP response from Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan. (We will supplement our coverage tonight with more fact-checks of the speeches by Obama, Ryan and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tomorrow.) We started our fact-checking by analyzing Obama's contention that the U.S. economy is beginning to recover.

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PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A government takeover of health care’

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan - Dec. 17 (Special Report) - In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system. Frank Luntz, a consultant famous for his phraseology, urged GOP leaders to call it a "government takeover."

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Russ Feingold says he’s been outspent by opponents in every U.S. Senate election

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Tom Kertscher - Sep. 20 (News Analysis) - In positioning himself as an underdog, and seeking campaign money from donors, Feingold says he has always been outspent by his opponents. Though that is true in two races, he uses some twisted logic -- and math -- to get there on the third, tallying up spending by Republican primary candidates he never faced to obscure that he vastly outspent the one he did.

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Sharron Angle calls Harry Reid "the best friend an illegal alien ever had"

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Sep. 17 (News Analysis) - We'll agree that it's fair for Angle to paint Reid as something less than Draconian in his stance toward former illegal immigrants. However, we find little to support the charge that Reid voted to "give special tax breaks to illegal aliens." Most of the Angle camp's cited votes were actually aimed at people in the U.S. legally (even though they may formerly have been illegal), and in at least two cases, we disagree that what was being voted on represented a "special tax break" at all. The combination of these concerns lead us to rate this claim False.

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Jeff Greene attacks Kendrick Meek for cigar ties

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Amy Sherman - Jul. 23 (Research) - We recognize he worked to lower the amount of the tax, but we think it's misleading to say that Meek "opposed" a tax when he voted for it three times. Politicians are ultimately judged on their votes, and that's why Meek’s votes for the legislation is crucial information here. We considered both parts of Greene's claim and rate it Barely True.

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Jane Norton supported Referendum C -- so did the voters

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Jul. 09 (Research) - Americans for Job Security said that "Jane Norton supported the largest tax hike in Colorado history." If the issue is just Referendum C, then yes, Norton supported it. But there are a number of qualifiers to that "yes": The evidence is not conclusive that it's the largest tax increase in Colorado history, though certainly it's the largest in recent years. Also, technically speaking, the measure didn't increase tax rates -- it ended rebates, though that does mean less money in people's pockets. Finally, Norton supported a ballot issue on which Colorado voters had the final say and ultimately approved. Given these facts, we rate this statement Half True.

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Arizona Gov. Brewer says 'majority' of illegals are 'drug mules'

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - Jul. 01 (News Analysis) - Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer created a frenzy in April 2010 when she signed a law that makes being an illegal immigrant a state crime and requires legal immigrants to carry papers that confirm their status. Then in late June, she linked illegal immigrants and drug smuggling.

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Top 10 FACTS to Know About Health Care Reform

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Mar. 20 (News Analysis) - PolitiFact has checked hundreds of claims about health care reform and read the plans under consideration by Congress. As the Democrats move toward a final vote, we've selected 10 facts about the actual health care legislation that every voter should know.

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Fact-checking Obama's bipartisan health care reform meeting

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Feb. 25 (News Analysis) - It's not clear whether Thursday's health care reform summit will be a roll-up-their-sleeves negotiating session, or just another forum to repeat party talking points.

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Fact-checking Obama's State of the Union speech

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Jan. 28 (News Analysis) - With his party reeling from the loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts and doubts increasing about whether he'll be able to pass his health care plan, President Barack Obama challenged Congress -- and the nation -- to put aside partisanship and tackle the difficult problems facing the country.

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A year later, still plenty of partisanship

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan - Jan. 20 (News Analysis) - As we reviewed President Barack Obama's campaign promises from his first year, we felt we were missing a big one: Obama's pledge to change the tone in Washington. It was missing because, a year ago when we created our list of campaign promises, we found many references to changing the tone but no specific, measurable promise. When we finalized our list, that one didn't make the cut.

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PolitiFact's Five Surprising "True" ratings

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Dec. 27 (News Analysis) - With our Lie of the Year, we focused on the biggest falsehoods of 2009. But we also want to highlight our findings at the other end of the Truth-O-Meter, the many items we determined were True. We're a skeptical bunch here at PolitiFact, so we chose five True ratings that surprised us.1.)?Preventive care does not save the government money. (David Brooks, Aug. 14, in an interview on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer)The logic behind preventive care seems simple enough: stopping illnesses before they happen will mean fewer pricey procedures at the hospital and lower health care costs for all. Not ... >>More

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Health care reform: A summary of recent distortions

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Oct. 24 (News Analysis) - The debate over health care reform has been defined by exaggerations and falsehoods. Republicans have falsely labeled the Democratic plan "government-run health care" and warned of death panels for the elderly and taxpayer subsidies for illegal immigrants. Democrats, meanwhile, have exaggerated the savings of their plan and made false claims about their favorite villains, the insurance companies.

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Records not as vulnerable as group claims

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Oct. 22 (Special Report) - Could Big Brother -- or garden-variety snoopers -- soon get their hands on your medical data? The Senior Citizens League -- a group that boasts 1.2 million members and is affiliated with the Retired Enlisted Association -- recently sent out a mailing saying it was possible. According to a copy obtained by the Huffington Post, the group sent a four-page letter, along with a questionnaire and a cover letter signed by former Rep. David Funderburk, R-N.C., to seniors, expressing two related concerns about Democratic health care reform plans now being debated on Capitol Hill. One is that they could lead to the rationing of care. The other is that the government is assembling a "national government computer network" that will contain Americans' medical files.

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