For weeks, President Joe Biden has been saying the Build Back Better plan would be “fully paid for” and would not increase the deficit. But the official congressional scorekeeper in its long-awaited final analysis contradicted the president’s claims.
Both Democratic and Republican senators who negotiated a bipartisan infrastructure bill have claimed the legislation is “paid for.” But a budget watchdog group says the bill only pays for about half of the $548 billion in new spending.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology received $600,000 as part of a larger five-year U.S. government grant to a U.S.-based nonprofit studying emerging infectious diseases. But President Donald Trump put the figure at $7.5 million, saying he “ended it.”
Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump for his administration’s response to the new coronavirus, making claims about cuts to public health programs and the silencing of government experts. But they haven’t always gotten their facts right.
In a televised town hall, former Vice President Joe Biden made several false or misleading statements while commenting on climate change, veterans and health care.
Democrats say the Trump administration is asking for more money for a border wall even though it has spent only 6 percent of the funds that Congress has appropriated for border security over the past two years. That’s misleading. About 60 percent has been awarded to contracts.
President Donald Trump boasted that his administration recently provided “historic levels of funding to improve school safety” and “hire more officers” through the newly created STOP School Violence Act. But the new law does not fund school safety at “historic levels.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer said the White House proposes “taking money away from kids who need health care.” But congressional budget experts say a plan to rescind unspent funds wouldn’t affect federal spending or the number of individuals covered in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy got some of his facts wrong about mandatory spending and the labor participation rate during a recent appearance on Fox Business.
Sen. Ted Cruz wrongly claimed that a 2013 Hurricane Sandy relief bill was “filled with pork and unrelated spending,” estimating that “two-thirds of what was spent in that bill had little or nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy.”