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The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Palin claims that the cap-and-trade bill includes a $4.2 billion worker program

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been making waves in the blogosphere with a recent op-ed on cap-and-trade.   Her critics say Palin’s July 14, 2009, piece in the Washington Post gets it all wrong. It "displays an ignorance for the subject so profound it’s almost gutsy," Conor Clarke wrote in the Atlantic .  Keith Olberman said on Countdown that she uses "the sky-is-falling tactics."   We’ve explored other aspects of the cap-and-trade bill before, including how much it would cost lower-income consumers (Palin says it would hit them hardest, but … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Obama overstates tax relief to individuals and businesses

To counter Republican criticism that the stimulus package has made little impact on the economy, President Barack Obama has been boasting that the package has provided $43 billion in tax relief. But his claim includes a questionable tax number that inflates the impact. In his July 11, 2009, weekly radio address, Obama said the stimulus "has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and businesses. Without the help the Recovery Act has provided to struggling states, it’s estimated that state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | One health insurance company turned a profit, but not a record

President Barack Obama has often argued that health insurance companies need more competition, and he’s proposed a public option for health insurance to provide it. "There have been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits, right now," Obama said during a prime-time news conference. "At a time when everybody’s getting hammered, they’re making record profits, and premiums are going up. What’s the constraint on that? … Well, part of the way is to make sure that there’s some competition out there." We wanted to know if he was correct that insurance companies are … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire! | McCaughey claims end-of-life counseling will be required for Medicare patients

Republicans have found many reasons to oppose the Democrats’ health care proposal, but this is one of the oddest.  Betsy McCaughey, chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and former lieutenant governor of New York state, says the bill goes too far to encourage senior citizens to end their lives. On the radio show of former Sen. Fred Thompson on July 16, 2009, McCaughey said "Congress would make it mandatory — absolutely require — that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Obama claims 14,000 lose health insurance every day

In his nationally televised news conference on July 22, 2009, President Barack Obama cited a dramatic statistic to emphasize the need for health care reform. He said, “If we don’t act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day.”   The White House told us the number came from a report published by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and authored by researchers James Kvaal and Ben Furnas. A chart in the report was headlined, “14,000 People Became Uninsured Every Day in December and January.”   We wondered about … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Obama says there is widespread support for health care reform

In his recent speech, President Barack Obama said the time is ripe for health care reform because most health care professionals support a new plan.  ”The default position is inertia,” he said during his July 22, 2009, speech on health care when asked why he was so eager to pass health care reform before the end of the summer. “Because doing something always creates some people who are unhappy… And the fact that we have made so much progress where we’ve got doctors, nurses, hospitals, even the pharmaceutical industry, AARP, saying that this makes sense to do, … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: False | ‘Birthers’ claim Gibbs lied when he said Obama’s birth certificate is posted on the Internet

Update: We first posted this item on July 1, 2009. Since then, the Birther movement has only gained more national exposure, including discussion on numerous political television and radio programs. That prompted Dr. Chiyome Fukino, dorector of the Hawaii Department of Helath, to issue this statement on July 27, 2009: “I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawai’i State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai’i State Department of Health verifying Barrack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai’i and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Bill Bennett understates his point on black murder victims

Ever since the arrest of black Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and the comments about the controversy by President Barack Obama, pundits have analyzed and reanalyzed what the incident says about crime and race in America.On the July 26, 2009, edition of CNN’s State of the Union with John King, conservative commentator Bill Bennett began his end of the conversation by urging that the Gates case not obscure larger social realities about crime.”Well, I guess they are going to have a beer at the White House, the president has backed off from his ridiculous … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Arianna Huffington calls drug imprisonment rates for blacks disproportionate

In another example of how the arrest of African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has driven pundits to talk about issues of race and crime, Arianna Huffington, the founder of the liberal Huffington Post news Web site, offered some statistics about race, drug use and incarceration during a July 26, 2009, roundtable on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Huffington said, “It is really stunning that only 15 percent of the total drug population — drug offending population is African-American. And yet you have 74 percent of them who wind up in jail.” A staffer for Huffington clarified her point: … >> More

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The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire! | Claims the Senate voted to give undocumented workers Social Security benefits

You asked, so we’re delivering. For nearly six months, loyal PolitiFact readers have encouraged us to look into a chain email about undocumented immigrants getting Social Security benefits. The email has come in several forms, but most often goes as follows: “It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Obama. It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives benefits to illegal aliens who have never contributed, where does that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working lives? Please sign this … >> More