Secretary of State John Kerry says both he and Chuck Hagel, now the secretary of defense, “opposed the president’s decision to go into Iraq” as senators. But both voted to give President Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq.
This week, readers sent us letters about “special” subsidies for Congress and “forced” home inspections.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
A year ago, President Obama declared that the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar Assad would cross a “red line for us” and might trigger a U.S. military response.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi mistakenly claimed that President Clinton launched an airstrike in 1999 after the House rejected the use of military force in a tie vote. Actually, U.S. and NATO forces had attacked Serbia five weeks before the House vote.
On Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Managing Editor Lori Robertson fact-checks President Obama’s claim that all of the currently uninsured would be able to get insurance on the exchanges “at a significantly cheaper rate” than what they can get now on the individual market, without federal subsidies. Even Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has acknowledged younger Americans would likely pay more.
For more on Obama’s statement, see our Aug. 13 post, “Obama Overpromises on Premiums.”
Rep. Robert Pittenger is misleading his constituents by saying that he will decline the health insurance offered to members of Congress next year because it includes a “special subsidy” from the president that “exempted” Congress from the Affordable Care Act.
A conservative TV ad misconstrues Sen. Max Baucus’ infamous “train wreck” statement to claim “there’s bipartisan agreement that Obamacare isn’t working.”
In the Virginia race for governor, Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli is running a TV spot that practices the dark art of political alchemy — turning facts into falsehoods. And it does so while claiming to be telling “the truth.”