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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of March 19-25.
See letters from previous weeks“ Criticizing the Democrats for citing the only available study on gun purchases for its age seems wide of the target. ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Tag Archives: budget
Spinning Obama’s Budget
Both parties are putting political spin on the deficit reduction contained in President Obama’s $3.78 trillion budget plan. Obama said his budget would cut deficits by “nearly another $2 trillion” over 10 years. Two prominent Republicans said it would only reduce deficits by about $600 billion. The question is: compared …
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Ted’s Twisted History
In Sen. Ted Cruz’s twisted vision of economic history, Ronald Reagan cured double-digit unemployment by cutting spending and reducing the federal debt, and Jimmy Carter was guilty of “out-of-control regulation.” In the real world: Total federal spending soared during Reagan’s deficit-plagued first term, and the national debt nearly doubled. His …
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Palin’s Constitutional Stretch
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that the Senate was “in violation of Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of our U.S. Constitution” by failing to “pass a budget.” She’s referring to a budget resolution. But that constitutional clause doesn’t mention a budget or …
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Charting Ryan’s Debt Exaggeration
Rep. Paul Ryan exaggerates future growth of the federal debt in a chart contained in his newly released budget plan. The chart relies on Congressional Budget Office projections from last year that do not account for actions taken since then to reduce federal deficits by nearly $2 trillion over 10 …
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Reid Twice Wrong on $2.6 Trillion ‘Cuts’
Sen. Harry Reid was doubly wrong when he claimed that Congress already has cut $2.6 trillion from projected future deficits by reducing “non-defense programs” alone. In fact, legislation he refers to applied to both security and non-security spending. Furthermore, a good chunk of the deficit reduction came from tax increases, …
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Fiscal Cliff Air Wars
The presidential election ended last month, but the partisan air wars continue with competing fiscal cliff ads from the conservative Crossroads GPS and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Most of what is in the ads falls into the realm of opinion, but we found a couple points to quibble with …
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Romney’s Economic Exaggerations
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney claims that his plan would balance the federal budget in eight to 10 years. But so far, he has not made public the details on how he would be able to do that, and one neutral budget expert calls it “an unrealistic goal.” Also, Romney …
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GOP Attack on Tim Kaine’s ‘Shortfall’ Falls Short
A conservative group claims former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine “left us with a $4.2 billion shortfall.” Not exactly. The state did face a $4.2 billion gap in the biennial 2010-2012 budget, but Kaine submitted a balanced budget proposal days before leaving office, as required by law. And the last budget …
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Spotlight On: John Totten
John Totten said he often looks out for his friends and family by emailing them FactCheck.org articles. When he came across a conservative group’s TV ad about North Carolina’s budget battle, Totten thought of a cousin who lives in that state and uploaded the video to Spin Detectors. We found …
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Posted in Spin Detectors Spotlight Articles
Tagged Americans for Prosperity, budget, North Carolina, taxes
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Obama’s Trillion-Dollar Exaggeration
President Obama has repeatedly and falsely claimed that “right now, we’re scheduled to spend nearly $1 trillion more” in tax cuts for the “wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.” That’s simply not true. The Bush tax cuts — which Obama and Congress extended for two years — expire at the end …
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