We are frequently asked several questions that we’ve answered already – particularly ones about chain e-mails. So before you send us your query, please scan this compilation of past Ask FactChecks and other reports. The answer you’re looking for may be right here.

Note: These are by no means our full responses. Click on the links to read the full articles. There is a lot more detail in each answer.

Is this chain e-mail true?
Probably not. In fact, that chain e-mail your friend sent to you is (likely) bogus. Seriously. (special report)
March 18, 2008

Isn't there a law against false advertising in political ads?
No. Candidates have a legal right to lie to voters just about as much as they want. Here's why. (special report)
June 3, 2004

Was Obama born in the U.S.A.?
Yes. We give you the truth about Obama's birth certificate.
Aug. 21, 2008  Updated Nov. 1, 2008

Can the presidential candidates keep their campaign money?
No. They can donate any contributions they haven't spent to charities or political parties, and they can pay leftover campaign bills. The big rule is: no personal use.
Nov. 5, 2008

Are congressional Democrats talking about confiscating IRA and 401(k) investment accounts?
No. There's no plan to seize these accounts. One House witness at a committee hearing proposed to allow some people to trade their old accounts for a new type that would be less risky.
Nov. 19, 2008  Updated Nov. 26, 2008

Is there a connection between FactCheck.org and Barack Obama or Bill Ayers?
None, aside from benefiting at different times from the charity of the late publisher Walter Annenberg. We are a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and get funding from the Annenberg Foundation, created by Walter Annenberg in 1989. Ayers was one of three Chicago educators who applied for a grant from the Annenberg Foundation in 1995, which was one of 5,200 grants the foundation made during its first 15 years. That $49 million grant, plus additional funds raised locally, funded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which sought to improve Chicago public schools. Obama was selected by Chicago officials (not Ayers) to chair the board set up to administer Annenberg Challenge funds, and he headed it until 1999. FactCheck.org came into being in late 2003. For other details see our Oct. 10, 2008, article about Obama and Ayers, which includes a sidebar: "FactCheck.org and the 'Annenberg Challenge.' "

Do Democrats in Congress want to give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants?
This falsehood has been making the rounds since 2006, and it's based on twisting a vote on an amendment to the immigration bill. The amendment wouldn't have given any illegal immigrants Social Security benefits. Instead, it upheld current law, which says an illegal immigrant who later becomes a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant can claim credit for any Social Security taxes he or she paid while still illegal.
Oct. 28, 2008, and Oct. 10, 2006

Who caused the economic crisis?
Despite partisan finger-pointing, no one political party bears all the blame. It's not even entirely the fault of government. There’s ample blame to go around. Experts have cited everyone from home buyers to Wall Street, mortgage brokers to Alan Greenspan. 
Oct. 1, 2008.

Would Obama tax my profits if I sell my home? Would he tax my IRA? Would he tax my water?
No. A new e-mail being circulated about Obama's tax proposals is almost entirely false.
July 10, 2008

Did Pelosi advocate taxing "windfall" stock profits at 100%?
No. A widely circulated e-mail quoting her is a fraud.
Dec. 7, 2007

Is Obama a Muslim?
Dueling chain e-mails claim he's a radical Muslim or a 'racist' Christian. Both can't be right. We find both are false.
Jan. 10, 2008


Did Michelle Obama spend $450 on room service?
No. The claim is a total fabrication, and the sources that publicized it have retracted the story.
Oct. 29, 2008

Did Obama write that he would "stand with the Muslims" and that he nurses a "pervasive sense of grievance and animosity" toward whites?
No. A widely circulated e-mail fabricates some quotes from Obama's books and twists others.
June 3, 2008

Did Obama say the National Anthem conveys a "war-like message" and should be swapped for something such as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing"?
No. That's false. The quote was one conservative writer's idea of a joke, which has been picked up and repeated as though it were true in a chain e-mail.
April 22, 2008

Did the U.K. suspend its Holocaust curriculum because it offended Muslim students?
No, neither the United Kingdom nor the University of Kentucky has suspended teaching the Holocaust.
Jan. 2, 2008

Do members of Congress pay Social Security taxes?
Yes, ever since 1984.
Dec. 17, 2007