Q: Is Congress going to require a federal license to own a handgun?
A: A Chicago congressman’s bill, H.R. 45, would require that, but it has little support. The same bill died quietly in a House subcommittee last year.
Person: Barack Obama
Hamas Refugee Assistance
Q: Did Obama pay for Hamas-affiliated terrorists to emigrate to the United States?
A: This claim is false. The president’s memorandum to the State Department would pay for refugee assistance in Gaza, not for transporting anyone to the U.S.
Stimulus Bill Bravado
In recent weeks, in his pitches to Congress and the public on the need to pass the economic stimulus bill, Obama has made several claims about what it would do. (Republicans, too, have made stimulus boasts of their own.) But these pronouncements are not a sure thing. Obama repeatedly said …
The Stimulus Bill and ACORN
Q: Does the stimulus bill include a $5.2 billion payoff for ACORN?
A: The bill does include funds for which ACORN would be eligible to compete – against hundreds of other groups. But most is for a housing rehabilitation program ACORN says it never applied for in the past and won’t in the future.
Military Oath
Q: Is President Obama planning to have the military swear an oath to him rather than to the Constitution?
A: No, the "news report" that makes this claim is intended as satire.
Obama’s Speech and Those Frivolous Earmarks
President Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, and we caught several factual errors and misstatements in his remarks. See our full story on FactCheck.org for all the details. Here’s just one item we found:
Obama exaggerated a bit in describing the Children’s Health Insurance Program that was recently reauthorized by Congress:
Obama: When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full time.
The $79 Billion Iraqi Surplus, Re-reconsidered
During the 2008 campaign, we repeatedly called out then-candidate Barack Obama for complaining that the U.S. was spending billions in Iraq while the Iraqi government sat on a projected $79 billion surplus. We said that Obama’s projection didn’t account for updates to the Iraqi budget. But things were slightly more complicated than we originally thought: On paper, Iraq’s budget showed a surplus of up to $57 billion, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office pointed out that the Iraqi government had shown little ability to spend all that it had budgeted.
American Legion’s Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball
Q: Did Obama snub Medal of Honor recipients at the Inaugural Balls?
A: Obama is the first president since Eisenhower to miss the American Legion’s Salute to Heroes ball. A Legion spokesman says it "does not feel offended or ‘snubbed,’" and Medal of Honor recipients were invited to the Commander in Chief’s ball, which Obama did attend.
‘Clean Coal’ Confrontation
On the campaign trail, President Obama embraced the coal industry’s vision of “clean coal” technology. But even before he took office, a coalition of environmental groups (including Al Gore’s) launched ads ridiculing the idea as a myth: “In reality, there’s no such thing as clean coal.” We’re sure to hear …
Comparing Inauguration Costs
Q: Did Barack Obama’s inauguration really cost 4 times as much as George Bush’s 2005 inauguration?
A: Claims of a huge disparity are untrue. Actually, an apples-to-apples comparison shows that the two inaugurations likely cost about the same.