Ron Paul wrongly suggests Ronald Reagan reluctantly agreed to a "debt ceiling compromise" in 1987. There was no disagreement over raising the debt ceiling. In fact, Reagan said he had "no objection whatsoever" to raising the debt ceiling. Reagan opposed the main provision of the legislation that threatened to impose deep spending cuts, including to the military, if the president and Congress did not reduce the deficit by a certain amount.
Paul, the populist Texas congressman who is running for the Republican presidential nomination,
Stories by Eugene Kiely
Director, FactCheck.org
Pawlenty, Taxes and Budget Crises
Tim Pawlenty misled readers in an op-ed by saying he solved Minnesota's budget crisis in 2005 without raising taxes. Pawlenty's 75-cents-per-pack cigarette tax — which he called a "health impact fee" — helped forge a budget deal and end a nine-day partial government shutdown.
In a July 12 op-ed piece for the Des Moines Register, the former Minnesota governor and current Republican candidate for president criticized Democrats for proposing to raise taxes to solve budget problems in Minnesota and Washington,
Cheney Ad ‘Hasty’ with Quotes
Liz Cheney's group quotes U.S. military leaders out of context to attack President Obama's Afghanistan policy.
Keep America Safe, which is headed by the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is airing a TV ad that uses brief video clips of congressional testimony given by Gen. David Petraeus and Adm. Mike Mullen to support its claim that Obama's plan to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan will put U.S. soldiers at greater risk. It's true that both military leaders recommended maintaining higher troop levels.
July 8: Debt, Tax Cuts, Vehicle Batteries
Obama Gets Caught Up in Red Tape
President Barack Obama incorrectly claimed his administration has undertaken an "unprecedented" review of burdensome regulations. In fact, every president since at least Jimmy Carter has done similar reviews, including one under Bill Clinton that resulted in the elimination of more than 16,000 pages of federal regulations.
Obama made his claim during his hour-long press conference on June 29:
Obama, June 29: But what I have done — and this is unprecedented, by the way, no administration has done this before —
Bachmann’s Waterloo
Rep. Michele Bachmann officially joined the presidential campaign trail, but made a flurry of false and misleading claims along the way. The Minnesota Republican appeared on two …
Sleazy, False and ‘Racist’ Hit in LA
A conservative group falsely claims in a web ad that Democrat Janice Hahn "hired hardcore gang members with taxpayer money to be gang intervention specialists" in South Los Angeles. It's true that Hahn, a city councilwoman running in a special election for Congress, supports the city's gang intervention programs, but she made no direct payments to gang members. It's also true that the city funds nonprofits that use ex-gang members to help settle gang disputes, but the city money is used to fund administrative costs,
June 17: Oil Drilling, GDP, Jobs
DCCC Dials Wrong Number
Democrats make false and misleading claims about the impact of the House GOP budget plan on Medicare and the federal debt in automated phone calls placed in 13 districts. The robocalls, paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee …