Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content
A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Vote for FactCheck.org in 2011 Webby Awards

It’s that time of year when we ask for your support. Yes, it’s time for the annual Webby Awards.
Thanks to you, FactCheck.org has won the Webby People’s Voice award for four years running. It’s a recognition of the fact that you share our mission of holding politicians accountable.
Now, we’d like to repeat — five-peat? — with your help. The voting has begun. First, you must register to vote. If you are registered, then go to the Websites category,

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."

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,

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 achieve spending reductions:

David Stockman: It’s time for the Republicans to man-up and let it burn! Discretionary spending is out of control, and if the GOP doesn’t force a big roll-back,

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.

DCCC’s Deceptive Drive

Democrats are accusing Republicans of  "pushing to cut seniors' benefits," when no cuts have been proposed for those currently on Social Security or Medicare.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began making automated and live phone calls to residents on March 22, claiming that 10 GOP House members are "part of a majority of the Republicans in Washington pushing to cut seniors’ benefits in Social Security and Medicare." It is the next phase of the committee's "Drive to 25"

Barbour Inflates Obama’s Job Losses

Haley Barbour grossly exaggerated the nation’s job losses under President Barack Obama in a March 14 speech in Chicago.
Speaking to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Republican governor of Mississippi urged his audience to look at the Obama administration’s record "in the last two years" on spending and job creation.

Barbour, March 14: Well, let’s look at their record: in the last two years the federal government spent $7 trillion and our economy lost 7 million jobs.

Obama, McConnell Take Oil Import Data for Spin

President Barack Obama and Sen. Mitch McConnell used the same data to score apparently conflicting points about U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Obama said oil imports account for less than half of consumption, while McConnell said 60 percent of our oil comes from abroad.
Both can claim to be correct, depending on how you interpret the data. But Obama was using the figure preferred by energy experts.
With gas prices rising, the United States’ dependence on imported oil is once again in the spotlight and has been the source of debate between the two parties in Washington.

Reid’s Cowboy Poetry Puffery

Sen. Harry Reid vastly overstated annual attendance figures for the federally subsidized National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada.
The Senate majority leader claimed that "tens of thousands of people" visited the annual event in Elko, Nev., "every year." He was speaking on the Senate floor March 8, defending federal funding for such events. But his claim was far from true.

The fact is that the event attracts between 6,000 and 8,000 people each year, according to Charlie Seemann,

Crossroads & Unions

Crossroads GPS greatly exaggerates the earnings of unionized government workers in a new TV ad attacking unions and Democrats, including President Obama.
The ad claims that government workers who belong to unions are paid “42 percent more than non-union workers.”  But the very study cited by the ad says the gap is only 10 percent, once geographic differences are accounted for.

The 60-second spot was launched March 9 and is set to run nationally on CNN,