An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
“The Violence Against Women Act. “Between 1993-2010, the rate of intimate partner violence declined 64 percent. Between 1993-2007, the rate of intimate partner homicides of women decreased 35 percent. And the rate of intimate partner homicides of men decreased 46 percent.” –The White House’s enhanced version of President Obama’s State of the Union speech for 2013 Overview The White…
Read more
“Even President Bush’s director of the National Institutes of Health says these cuts will set back medical science for a generation.” –President Obama, Weekly Address Feb. 23, 2013 Summary The president accurately paraphrases a misleading “Wonkblog” headline that exaggerates the effect on science of the sequester. The Facts: Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post‘s Wonkblog published an interview with…
Read more
“The Violence Against Women Act — in the news this week following a U.S. Senate vote to reauthorize it — has been linked to reductions in domestic violence, according to several PolitiFact fact checks.” –Tom Kertscher, editor of PolitiFact Wisconsin Overview Kertscher’s right that PolitiFact has linked the Violence Against Women Act to reductions in domestic violence. Scant evidence…
Read more
“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…
Read more
With fiscal cliff negotiations underway, President Obama lobbies for his tax proposal using the White House website. The White House infographic says his tax proposal will “save almost $1.16 trillion.” Overview The portion of the infographic above appears to deal only with Mr. Obama’s proposal on changes to the tax system. His “savings” are apparently nothing more than revenues acquired…
Read more
President Obama: “By the way, more voters agreed with me on this issue than voted for me. So we’ve got a clear majority of the American people who recognize if we’re going to be serious about deficit reduction, we’ve got to do it in a balanced way.” Overview President Obama made his remark about voters agreeing with him during…
Read more
President Obama: “But as I’ve said before, we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. If we’re serious about reducing the deficit, we have to combine spending cuts with revenue — and that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes. (Applause.) That’s how we did it in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was President.” …
Read more
Obama campaign ad: “It’s said that ‘Character is what we do when we think no one is looking.’ Mitt Romney thought no one was looking when he attacked 47 percent of Americans. His companies shipped jobs overseas. His plan cuts millionaires’ taxes but raises yours. He’ll voucherize Medicare and make “catastrophic cuts” to education. So remember what Romney said and…
Read more
President Obama: “Governor Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaida; you said Russia, in the 1980s, they’re now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been…
Read more
Mitt Romney: “And then the president began what I have called an apology tour, of going to various nations in the Middle East and criticizing America.” President Obama: “Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the biggest whopper that’s been told during the course of this campaign. And every…
Read more