Monthly Archives: August 2009

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Aug. 4-Aug. 10

This week, readers sent us comments on Canadian Shona Holmes, employer health care and Nazi symbols. In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.

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How to Not Prove a Point

The United Kingdom’s Department of Health may not have expected to face such harsh criticism during debate of overhauling the health care system here in the United States. As we’ve repeatedly said, neither President Obama nor the major health care bills in Congress call for replicating the U.K.’s government-run and …
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Broken Record on Record-Breaking Profits

Last week we posted an item on President Obama’s recent claim that health insurance companies were logging record profits. Not true, we discovered, at least not for the largest publicly traded companies. Some of them weren’t even close. Expect to keep hearing the assertion, however, in a series of seven …
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August 11, 2009

Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and the disabled, covers 46 million Americans. Medicare spending totaled $455 billion in 2008. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

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Nazi Symbols at Town Halls: The Real Story

Recent comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that swastikas and other Nazi imagery had been appearing at lawmakers’  town hall meetings on health care set off furious rounds of tweeting and blogging by outraged conservatives. The episode began when the California Democrat was asked by a reporter whether she thought …
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Cash for Clunkers

Q: Fox News’ Glenn Beck said that the government will get complete access to your computer and all of your files when you log on to Cars.gov for the Cash for Clunkers program. Is there any truth to this? A: This claim is false. Beck quoted from a security message …
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August 10, 2009

In 2008, U.S. health care spending is estimated to have been $2.4 trillion. It is projected to nearly double to $4.4 trillion in 2018. Source: Health Affairs/Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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August 9, 2009

There were 2.6 million children who lived with both a grandmother and a grandfather in the U.S. in 2008. Source: Census Bureau

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August 8, 2009

There were 6.6 million children living with a grandparent in the U.S. in 2008. That’s 9 percent of all children in the country. Source: Census Bureau

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August 7, 2009

In 2007, 2.5 million grandparents were responsible for most of the basic needs of one or more of the grandchildren living with them. Source: Census Bureau

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