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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | Bridge to Nowhere could not happen again, Schumer says

What discussion of earmarks would be complete without a reference to the Bridge to Nowhere? We’re talking, of course, about the famed plan to build a nearly $400 million bridge to connect the tiny Alaska city of Ketchikan to Gravina, an island with just a few dozen residents and an airport. The project was derisively nicknamed the Bridge to Nowhere and became a national symbol of wasteful earmark spending before the project was killed. Well, have no fear, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says such a project could never again rear its porky head. … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | Eighth graders are in ninth, but showing improvement, not falling

In his first major education speech, President Obama endorsed charter schools, merit pay for teachers and increases in school spending. He justified his agenda partly by saying American students are slipping compared to counterparts around the world. "We’ve let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us," Obama said in the March 10 speech to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "In eighth grade math, we’ve fallen to ninth place." Since Obama brought up math, we decided to check his. Turns out we had to pull out the red pen. We asked … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: True | Yes, Rep. John Boehner has never asked for earmarks

When House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged President Obama to veto the $410 billion omnibus spending bill because of all the earmarks in it, he spoke from particularly high ground on the issue. “I don’t do earmarks,” Boehner said in a news conference on March 12, 2009. “I’ve never done one. I’m not going to do one.” Indeed, that’s what he promised back in 1990 when he was first running for Congress. He often says he told voters, “If you are electing me to raid the federal treasury on your behalf, you’re electing … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: True | Yes, but take this prediction with a grain of salt

Wasn’t this supposed to be the next Great Depression? So we were surprised to hear the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, claim that experts are saying the economy will start to recover later this year. We suspected her claim, at the very least, begged a bit of context. Which it does. She made it on the March 15 Meet the Press, after host David Gregory played a recent tape of her saying “most people are predicting” positive growth in the economy “some time in the second half of the year.” Romer, whom Obama recruited from … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Executives in Japan do not regularly commit suicide

Lots of elected officials expressed outrage at the news that failing insurance company AIG was giving large bonuses to employees while accepting taxpayer money to stay afloat. But few expressed their outrage with AIG officials as starkly as Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. “I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed,” Grassley said. “But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they’d follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I’m sorry, and then either do one … >> More

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Now Obama fundamentally echoes McCain…Plus do Independents care about Rush Feud?

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The Truth-o-Meter says: True | Al Gore is optimistic about solar energy, and pretty accurate, too

Al Gore startled a Senate committee with an optimistic scheme for harnessing the sun’s energy. The former vice president sketched out the idea at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on climate change where he was the star witness. "A technology called ‘concentrating solar thermal’ is now becoming very competitive," Gore said at the Jan. 28, 2009, hearing. "Scientific American pointed out that if we took an area of the Southwestern desert 100 miles on a side, that would be enough, in and of itself, to provide 100 percent of all the electricity needs for the … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: True | White House highlights one way the tax code goes easy on the rich

In defending President Obama’s plan to reduce tax deductions for high earners, the White House has said the tax code is tilted toward rich guys. They’ve understated the case considerably. We’ll explain how in a bit. First, some background: The issue arose when Obama proposed reducing the percentage of charitable contributions that taxpayers who earn more than $250,000 can take as a tax deduction, from 35 to 28 percent. That would raise about $318 billion toward Obama’s proposed $634 billion "reserve fund" to be used to reform health care, according to Obama’s budget proposal. Critics, including … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | Earmarks down, but not 75 percent

With Democrats now running the show, it’s their turn to take the heat for earmarks in a $410 billion omnibus spending bill to keep the government running for the rest of the fiscal year. Congressional Democrats and the White House have been quick to note this spending bill is actually a holdover from the previous administration, that things will be different next year, and that earmarks hit a peak during Republican control in the middle part of this decade. On CNN’s "State of the Union" on March 8, Peter Orszag, director of the Office … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | Bridge to Nowhere could not happen again, Schumer says

What discussion of earmarks would be complete without a reference to the Bridge to Nowhere?We’re talking, of course, about the famed plan to build a nearly $400 million bridge to connect the tiny Alaska city of Ketchikan to Gravina, an island with just a few dozen residents and an airport. The project was derisively nicknamed the Bridge to Nowhere and became a national symbol of wasteful earmark spending before the project was killed.Well, have no fear, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says such a project could never again rear its porky head.Schumer made the claim … >> More