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Stories by Eugene Kiely
Director, FactCheck.org
April 15: Budget Cuts, Tax Cuts, Medicare
Biggest Budget Cut in U.S. History?
Democrats and Republicans alike are making grandiose — and unsupportable — claims that the budget deal contains the biggest spending cut in U.S. history.
Under the bipartisan agreement, the proposed budget for this fiscal year would be $38.5 billion less than last year’s budget. The federal government spent nearly $3.5 trillion in 2010, so the cut is a little more than 1 percent of total spending.
President Barack Obama called it "the biggest annual spending cut in history."
Donald, You’re Fired!
If Donald Trump worked for us, we’d have to say: “Donald, you’re fired — for incompetence.” The successful developer and TV celebrity says he’d make a good president, and maybe he would — we take no stand either way about that. But when it comes to getting facts straight …
April 8: Medicare, Social Security, Abortion
Dems, GOP Fight Over Homeless Vets
In the fog of a historic budget battle, Democrats are exaggerating the impact of proposed GOP cuts on homeless military veterans. A GOP budget bill approved by the House in February would not fund 10,000 new housing vouchers for homeless veterans this fiscal …
April 1: The ‘RomneyCare’ Edition
Santorum Wrong on Abortion, Birth Facts
Rick Santorum incorrectly stated that “one in three pregnancies end in abortion” in the United States. It’s actually fewer than one in four.
Santorum appeared on a New Hampshire radio talk show, blaming abortions for “causing Social Security and Medicare to be underfunded.” But he not only misstated the abortion statistic, he also got it wrong when he said that “our birthrate is now below replacement rate for the first time in our history.” The total fertility rate,
GOP Exaggerations in Iowa
Several Republicans testing the presidential waters in Iowa made more than a few statements that we found all wet. Among the dubious claims …
Obama on War, Then and Now
President Barack Obama stuck to the facts in his speech on Libya, but as others have pointed out, he has flip-flopped on the fundamental question of whether he needed congressional approval for military intervention.
Also, Obama sought in his address to minimize the military costs to the United States by saying NATO will now take the lead. But the fact is that the United States pays the largest share of NATO’s budget — one of a couple of key omissions by the president.