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2012 Players Guide
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Jan. 24-30.
See letters from previous weeks“ It is this very nitpicking of the facts that has contributed to the divisiveness this country is experiencing now. ” Take Our Quiz
Viral Spiral
Tag Archives: deficit
Did Gingrich ‘Slash’ Federal Spending?
Winning Our Future’s new TV ad falsely claims Newt Gingrich “slashed” spending in his four years as House speaker. Federal spending went up 18 percent from 1995 to 2000, the time frame mentioned in the ad. In addition, the ad credits Gingrich for “record-breaking surpluses.” There were surpluses for four …
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Junkie Math
All sides agree that the federal government borrows too much, so why exaggerate? In the latest example, a national TV ad shows an actor portraying a drug addict and claiming that the U.S. is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar spent, which isn’t true. As shown in this chart, which …
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Fiscal FactCheck
Washington’s spending has recently been higher as a percentage of the nation’s economic output than at any time since World War II. But by the same measure, Washington’s revenues are the lowest in more than 60 years. …
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Twists and Turns on the Debt
Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Xavier Becerra made misstatements about the debt ceiling debate and Social Security. McConnell, R-Ky., was incorrect when he claimed that "nobody is talking about not raising the debt ceiling." In fact, Rep. Michele Bachmann said she would not vote to raise the debt limit in …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged debt ceiling, deficit, Mitch McConnell, Social Security, Xavier Becerra
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Fun with Deficit Statistics
Q: Is it true that this year’s deficit is greater than the total taxable income of Americans earning more than $100,000? A: No, it’s not true. The statistic comes from a Wall Street Journal editorial, which has been corrected.
Posted in Ask FactCheck
Tagged deficit, sunday talk shows, taxes, Tom Coburn, wall street journal
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Stockman’s Fiery Rhetoric
David Stockman claims that discretionary spending is "out of control." But it’s up just 1.6 percent this year. The former Reagan administration budget director caught our attention with an incendiary quote to The Fiscal Times news site, where he urged fellow Republicans to shut down the government if necessary to …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged budget, David Stockman, deficit, discretionary spending, tax cut, tax increase
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Our Angry Readers
We’d like to respond to readers who disliked our article on Social Security’s red ink. We’ve received dozens of complaints and criticisms, expressing disappointment and sometimes outright anger at our finding that Social Security is in fact contributing to the federal deficit, and that some Democrats are making a false …
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