Author Archive: Bryan W. White

Marco Rubio says defense sequester cuts were Obama’s idea

“Tonight, (President Obama) even criticized us for refusing to raise taxes to delay military cuts – cuts that were his idea in the first place.” –Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), from the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech.   Overview Sen. Rubio correctly states that the sequester plan came from President Obama and the White House, but…
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Correction: House Republicans and the Sequestration Blame Game

We used the wrong roll call vote to provide background information on our fact check of the House Republican Conference claim that President Obama was responsible for the sequestration idea. As a temporary measure, on Feb. 13 we added strikethroughs to the inaccurate passages in the posted version of the fact check.  We retain the strikethroughs here in preserving the…
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SOTU: President Obama on shouldering the burden and redistributing the wealth

“We can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and the most powerful.” –President Obama   Overview The Facts In discussing Medicare reform during his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama said the following (bold emphasis added):   Yes, the biggest driver of our…
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Harry Reid and the death toll from delay

“I would remind Leader Cantor and his Republican colleagues of the seriousness of delay. Every minute House Republicans wait to act, another 24 Americans will become victims of domestic violence. Every day House Republicans stall, another three women will die at the hands of their abusers. Every year House Republicans put off action in order to please extremists within their…
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John McManus’ ‘SMELL test’

Veteran journalism critic John McManus came forth with a good article on evaluating online information sources, published online by PBS. “Don’t Be Fooled: Use the SMELL Test To Separate Fact from Fiction Online” encourages readers to test claims with a process that follows the SMELL acronym:   Introducing the SMELL test S stands for Source. Who is providing the information?…
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The House Republicans and the sequestration blame game

“FACT: It’s President Obama’s Sequester” –The United States House of Representatives Republican Conference   Overview President Obama proposed the sequester.  But Republicans who agreed to or voted for the sequestration deal get to share ownership of the policy once implemented. The Facts Reporter Bob Woodward reported in his book “The Price of Politics” that the budget sequestration idea, particularly for…
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Updated look

Zebra Fact Check logo

We’re close to making the site look like the way we planned it.   We have revised the pages of posts to show only the beginning of stories and posts with a “Continue reading” option, making it much easier to see all the recent stories with just a bit of scrolling.  The images accompanying the stories and posts give the site…
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Harry Reid says GOP bill decouples U.S. credit from spending cuts

“This bill surrenders the hostage Republicans have taken in the past by decoupling the full faith and credit of the United States from cuts to Social Security and Medicare, or anything else.  …  By passing this bill, Republicans are joining Democrats to say we will not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, and we will…
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PolitiFact Texas vs. Louie Gohmert

PolitiFact Texas:  “Contrary to Gohmert’s characterization … Washington was not speaking about citizens arming themselves in case of government tyranny. Quite the opposite: The president and former general was calling for disciplined troops to fight on behalf of the government.” Overview PolitiFact Texas builds a dandy straw man in honor of Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). The Facts The line from…
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