FactChecking the GOP Debate, Early Edition
Posted on August 6, 2015
The Republican presidential candidates who failed to make the cut for the Aug. 6 prime-time debate repeated a number of past false and misleading claims, while adding some new ones that we hadn’t heard before:
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the U.S. sends “$300 billion overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts.” But that’s spending on all oil imports, including from Canada and Mexico.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal claimed a study proved “expanding Medicaid does not improve health care outcomes.” The study he cited measured only three health indicators over a two-year period, and even then found some positive benefits.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki said when he left office, “there were over 1 million fewer people on welfare in New York state than when I took office.” True, but that decrease was part of a national trend after President Clinton signed the 1996 welfare overhaul legislation.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum claimed that “almost all” immigrants in the past 20 years “are unskilled workers.” Not so. In 2010, 30 percent of working-age immigrants had a college degree while 28 percent lacked a high school diploma.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry claimed that under his tenure, and since the recession, Texas gained jobs while the rest of the country lost them. According to the job-growth measure used by most economists, the rest of the country gained 1.2 million jobs, while Texas gained the same.
Santorum also exaggerated in saying 74 percent of Americans lack a college degree. The number for those age 18 and older is 65 percent.
Jindal claimed President Obama said that “we don’t have leverage with China to get a better deal on Iran,” because the U.S. borrows money from China. Not exactly. Obama said economically cutting off the world’s largest banks, China and other countries would have consequences for the U.S.
The debate was held in Cleveland a few hours before the top 10 candidates took the stage.
Oil and Facts Don’t Mix
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the U.S. sends “$300 billion overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts.” But that amount represents all spending on oil imports, including huge amounts from countries such as Canada and Mexico, which, according to polls, do not “hate our guts.”
Graham: When it comes to fossil fuels, we’re going to find more here and use less. Over time, we’re going to become energy independent. I am tired of sending $300 billion overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imported a total of 3.37 billion barrels of oil in 2014. The average cost of all that oil was $89.56 per barrel, again according to the EIA. That means that the total import cost in 2014 was just under $302 billion, close to the figure Graham cited.
But that oil comes from a variety of countries, and some of them do not appear to hate the United States. In fact, the U.S. imported the most oil — about 1.24 billion barrels — from Canada. Our neighbor to the north is generally not considered an American enemy, and polling bears that out: The Pew Research Center found in its most recent survey that the U.S. has a 68 percent favorability rating in Canada. (It is also, of course, not “overseas.”)
Saudi Arabia is the second biggest provider of oil to the United States, sending 425 million barrels in 2014; Pew does not have data on favorability in this country. Mexico is third with 307 million barrels, and 66 percent of that country sees the U.S. in a positive light. Venezuela is next, at 287 million barrels; according to Pew, 51 percent of Venezuela has a favorable opinion of the U.S. In fifth place is Iraq at 132 million barrels, again with no data from Pew on favorability.
In sixth place is Russia, at 119 million barrels of oil. At last count, only 15 percent of Russians surveyed see the U.S. favorably. Even if we allow that Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia may “hate our guts,” that represents less than $61 billion in oil imports. The other three countries in the top six represent about $164 billion of the total expenditures, meaning the U.S. spends more money importing fossil fuels from countries that do not actually hate our guts.
Jindal Overplays Medicaid Study
Explaining his opposition to Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care Act, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said a study in Oregon showed that “simply expanding Medicaid does not improve health care outcomes.” But the Oregon study wasn’t as sweeping as Jindal claimed — for one, the study found that Medicaid expansion lowered rates of depression. And other studies have shown more positive health outcomes from Medicaid expansion.
We looked at this issue in depth in a story we wrote in July titled, “Is Medicaid Bad for Your Health?” At the heart of the issue is a study called the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 2, 2013. The study took advantage of a Medicaid expansion in Oregon that was based on lottery drawings and compared data from 6,387 adults who were able to apply for Medicaid coverage with 5,842 adults who were not selected.
The authors of the study concluded that, “Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes in the first 2 years, but it did increase use of health care services, raise rates of diabetes detection and management, lower rates of depression, and reduce financial strain.”
The first part of that conclusion provides the basis for Jindal’s statement, “There is a better way to provide health care. The Oregon study showed this. Simply expanding Medicaid does not improve health care outcomes.” But he leaves out the second part that talks about lowering rates of depression, for example.
And as we noted in an article about the study in 2013, it had some limitations. For example, the study measured only three physical health indicators — blood pressure, cholesterol and glycated hemoglobin levels (which measure diabetic blood sugar control) — and only over a two-year period. There could be other improvements that the study didn’t attempt to measure, or that could show up once patients are covered for longer than two years.
In addition, other studies have shown more positive results for Medicaid expansion. For example, a study published on May 6, 2014, in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that after a health care overhaul in Massachusetts, mortality rates were improved compared with those in other states. Another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012 compared several states that substantially expanded Medicaid (before the ACA) to neighboring states that did not expand Medicaid and concluded, “State Medicaid expansions to cover low-income adults were significantly associated with reduced mortality as well as improved coverage, access to care, and self-reported health.”
A 2013 report from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation looking at the breadth of academic study concluded that “[h]aving Medicaid is much better than being uninsured.”
Pataki’s Welfare Boast, in Context
Former New York Gov. George Pataki credited his policies as governor for a “cultural change” in New York, boasting that when he left office “there were over 1 million fewer people on welfare in New York state than when I took office.”
That’s true, but he failed to mention that the drop was part of a national trend after Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
Pataki twice mentioned that he cut the welfare rolls by more than 1 million. The first time was when one of the debate moderators, Bill Hemmer, asked Pataki whether it was a mistake for states to expand Medicaid as permitted under the Affordable Care Act.
Pataki, Aug. 6: But getting back to Martha’s question about how we end dependency, do we have to have a cultural change? The answer is no. And I know this, because when I ran for governor of New York, 1 in 11 of every man, woman, and child in the state of New York was on welfare. On welfare. Think about that.
And people said “you can’t win, you can’t change the culture.” But I knew that good people who wanted to be a part of the American dream have become trapped in dependency because the federal government and the state government had made it in their economic interest not to take a job because the benefits that they didn’t work were better.
I changed that. We put in place mandatory workfare. But we allowed people to keep health care. We put in place child care support.
Hemmer: Yes or no, would you have expanded Obamacare in the state of New York, had you been governor at that time?
Pataki: No, it should be repealed. And by the way, when I left, there were over 1 million fewer people on welfare in New York state than when I took office.
Pataki was a three-term governor who served from Jan. 1, 1995, to Jan. 1, 2007. And, as we wrote when he entered the race, the average monthly number of welfare recipients in New York dropped 76 percent, from 1,264,063 in 1994 to 297,574 in 2006. That’s nearly 1 million fewer New Yorkers on welfare.
During that same time, however, the total number of welfare recipients in the U.S. dropped from 14,160,920 in calendar year 1994 to 4,148,498 in calendar year 2006, a decline of more than 10 million or 71 percent.
It’s true that the governor was an early supporter of overhauling the welfare laws, and he did make some changes as governor — including to Home Relief, a state welfare program for childless adults. But the far more sweeping changes that he proposed were rejected by the state Legislature and didn’t occur until the federal law passed.
Santorum’s Immigrant Claim
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum also claimed that “almost all” immigrants in the past 20 years “are unskilled workers.” Not so.
Santorum: [A]fter 35 million people have come here over the last 20 years, almost all of whom are unskilled workers, flattening wages, creating horrible opportunity — a lack of opportunities for unskilled workers, we’re going to do something about reducing the level of immigration by 25 percent.
Santorum’s claim is contradicted by a 2011 study by the Brookings Institution, which found more immigrants of working age held college degrees than immigrants who never finished high school.
The study focused on the foreign-born ages 25 to 64 in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Neither the study nor Santorum made any distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and in fact Santorum spoke of reducing “immigration” in general by 25 percent.
The fact is, recent arrivals have been better educated than those who arrived here in earlier decades. The study, which was based on Census data in areas containing 85 percent of the immigrant population, stated:
Brookings, “The Geography of Immigrant Skills”: In 1980, just 19 percent of immigrants aged 25 to 64 held a bachelor’s degree, and nearly 40 percent had not completed high school. By 2010, 30 percent of working-age immigrants had at least a college degree and 28 percent lacked a high school diploma.
Perry’s Jobs Boast
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once again puffed up his state’s record on job creation, claiming that Texas had created 1.5 million jobs “during the worst economic time this country’s had since the great depression, while the rest of the country lost 400,000 jobs.” Actually, according to the job-growth measure used by most economists, and the appropriate time frame for Perry’s tenure, the rest of the country gained 1.2 million jobs, while Texas also gained 1.2 million.
Perry has used this statistic before, citing December 2007, the beginning of the Great Recession, as his starting point. But instead of using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payroll data — the data BLS itself uses to calculate the monthly job growth figures it releases — Perry relies on BLS’ household survey data, a monthly survey of 60,000 households that’s used to calculate the unemployment rate. The nonfarm payroll data, meanwhile, is a monthly survey of about 550,000 business establishments that include millions of employees.
That’s the survey most economists prefer for job growth. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco called it “the more accurate employment indicator.”
Besides being smaller, the household survey counts as “employed” people who aren’t on a payroll, including unpaid family workers, the self-employed including day laborers, and those who are absent from work and not receiving pay.
Perry can only get a loss of jobs for the rest of the country by using the household survey data for December 2007 and December 2014. But Perry left office on Jan. 20, 2015, and both of BLS’ surveys are taken during the week or payroll period that includes the 12th of the month. So January 2015 is the correct end point for Perry’s time in office. Using that month, the rest of the country gained 325,000 jobs, not lost them, even using the household survey.
Texas certainly created a lot of jobs, using either measure. But using the preferred job growth measure, the state created 1.2 million jobs from December 2007 through January 2015. The rest of the country gained 1.2 million jobs in the same time period.
Perry could accurately say that his state created about the same number of jobs as the rest of the country under his governorship since the start of the recession.
Santorum’s College Degree Figure
Santorum exaggerated the number of Americans who lack a college degree.
Santorum: Americans are … looking for someone who’s going to grow the manufacturing sector of our economy, so those 74 percent of Americans who don’t have a college degree have a chance to rise again.
Actually, the country is better educated than Santorum lets on. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 the number of Americans 18 and older who lacked “a college degree” of any sort was 65 percent.
That counts those with two-year academic associate degrees, but not those with occupational associate degrees.
Those who lack at least a four-year bachelor’s degree or better totaled 71 percent, still less than Santorum’s figure. But of course that 18-and-over group includes a lot of students who are still in college and soon will have degrees.
Limiting the count to those 25 and older, Census puts the number who lack a bachelor’s degree or better at 68 percent, and those who don’t have any sort of college degree at just 62.5 percent.
Jindal on Obama on China
Jindal claimed President Obama said that “we don’t have leverage with China to get a better deal on Iran,” because the U.S. borrows money from China. But that is not exactly what Obama said.
Jindal: Yesterday, the president stunningly admitted this. He said, “We don’t have leverage with China to get a better deal on Iran because we need them to lend us money to continue operating our government.”
Here is Obama’s full comment from an Aug. 5 speech on the Iran nuclear deal at American University.
Obama, Aug. 5: As a result, those who say we can just walk away from this deal and maintain sanctions are selling a fantasy. Instead of strengthening our position as some have suggested, Congress’s rejection would almost certainly result in multilateral sanctions unraveling. If, as has also been suggested, we tried to maintain unilateral sanctions, beefen them up, we would be standing alone. We cannot dictate the foreign, economic and energy policies of every major power in the world.
In order to even try to do that, we would have to sanction, for example, some of the world’s largest banks. We’d have to cut off countries like China from the American financial system. And since they happen to be major purchasers of our debt, such actions could trigger severe disruptions in our own economy and, by the way, raise questions internationally about the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.
Obama was making the point that the U.S. cannot force China’s hand on the Iran nuclear deal simply by cutting China off economically. That would have consequences for the U.S. economy as well, he noted.
— Eugene Kiely, Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, Dave Levitan and D’Angelo Gore
See our story on the prime-time debate, “FactChecking the GOP Debate, Late Edition.”
Summary
The first prime-time Republican presidential debate featured the top 10 candidates, according to polling, and they twisted some facts.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that “over 40 percent of small and mid-size banks … have been wiped out” since the Dodd-Frank law was passed. Actually, the total number of commercial banks has gone down only 16 percent, continuing a longtime trend.
Businessman Donald Trump said his net worth is $10 billion, but outside estimates put the figure much lower.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush twice claimed that he cut taxes in the state by $19 billion. But that includes cuts in Florida estate taxes mandated by federal law that Bush had nothing to do with.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich claimed his state’s Medicaid program “is growing at one of the lowest rates in the country.” Ohio ranks 16th in terms of enrollment growth post-Affordable Care Act among the 30 expansion states and Washington, D.C.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker claimed his state “more than made up” for the job losses from the recession. That’s a stretch. The state has gained 4,000 jobs since the start of the recession.
Rubio said he had never advocated exceptions for rape or incest to abortion bans, but he cosponsored a bill in 2013 that contained just such exceptions.
Boasting about his education initiatives while governor, Bush claimed that the graduation rate “improved by 50 percent.” But most of the increase happened after Bush left office; the rate increased about 13 percent when he was governor.
Bush claimed that the U.S. spends more per student than any other country, but Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway all spend more for primary and secondary education.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee repeated the old claim that Obamacare “robbed” Medicare of $700 billion. That’s a reduction in the future growth of spending over 10 years.
We fact-checked the earlier debate, too, for candidates not in the top 10. See our story, “FactChecking the GOP Debate, Early Edition.”
Analysis
Rubio on Dodd-Frank
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio implied that the new banking law imposed in 2010 was responsible for killing off small banks and loans to small business.
Rubio: [W]e need to repeal Dodd-Frank. It is eviscerating small businesses and small banks. Twenty — over 40 percent of small and mid-size banks that loan money to small businesses have been wiped out over the — since Dodd-Frank has passed.
Actually, the total number of commercial banks has gone down only 16 percent since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law July 21, 2010. And that decline continues a trend that goes back at least to the 1980s.
Note that Rubio caught himself. He started to say the decline was “over the” law — meaning the law caused the decline — but then said the decline happened “since” the law was passed. That just describes a coincidence, which may or may not have been caused by the law.
The fact is, small and medium-sized banks had been getting swallowed up by larger banks for decades before the Dodd-Frank bill was enacted. And the rate does not appear to have accelerated since the law took effect, as seen in this graph from the Federal Reserve Economic Data database, maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Commercial Banks
The numbers on which the graphic is based show that there were 14,400 commercial banks (all but a handful “small and medium” in size) in the first quarter of 1984, but that number had declined to 6,570 by the third quarter of 2010, when Dodd-Frank was signed into law.
That’s a fairly steady decrease of 54 percent over 26-and-a-half years. And since then, the number has declined further to 5,501 as of the first quarter of this year. That’s a drop of 16 percent (not “over 40 percent”) in four-and-a-half years.
Trump’s Wealth Claim
Donald Trump repeated his claim that his net worth is $10 billion.
Trump: The fact is, I built a net worth of more than $10 billion. I have a great, great company. I employ thousands of people. And I’m very proud of the job I did.
There’s ample reason to think he’s exaggerating. For one thing, in June Trump himself released a statement putting his net worth at less — $8.7 billion. In July, he increased that figure to $10 billion, touting his ability to assemble “massive” wealth as a reason voters should support him.
But outside estimates are far lower. Forbes estimated his net worth at $4 billion, ranking him in 405th place among its listing of the world’s wealthiest people (the fluctuating “real-time” ranking by Forbes has him at 430th, as of this writing).
Later, the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, after examining the 92-page disclosure of assets and liabilities that Trump filed with the Federal Election Commission, came up with an even lower estimate: $2.9 billion.
Trump once testified in a lawsuit that his estimate of his own net worth “fluctuates” partly due to “attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”
Judging by Trump’s $10 billion claim, he’s feeling very good. But even if he is worth less than a third of what he claims (as Bloomberg estimates), he’s still a very rich person.
Bush’s Tax Cut Boast
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush claimed — twice — that as governor of Florida he cut taxes by $19 billion. But a big chunk of that came from cuts in Florida estate taxes mandated by federal law that Bush had nothing to do with.
Bush: I cut taxes ever year totaling $19 billion.
He repeated the tax cut figure later in the debate when asked about disparaging comments he allegedly made about Trump.
Bush’s Right to Rise PAC told Politifact Florida that the figure was based on cumulative changes in revenue between the fiscal years 1999-2000 and 2007-2008. But not all of the revenue changes were due to tax cuts. They also included various fees and license changes, as well as sales tax holidays and lottery proceeds, according to the Politifact Florida analysis.
In addition, Martin A. Sullivan, chief economist of Tax Analysts, a tax news nonprofit organization, did his own analysis and found that state legislation enacted during Bush’s eight years as governor resulted in $13 billion in tax cuts.
“My estimate — following the method used by the Florida Legislature — includes nontax revenue increases such as new lottery and slot machine revenue, and it does not include automatic cuts in Florida estate taxes brought about by changes in federal legislation in 2003,” Sullivan wrote.
He added: “These factors probably explain most of the difference between my estimate and the Bush website’s estimate.”
Sullivan said that the $13 billion in cuts amounted to $140 per resident.
Kasich on Medicaid Expansion
Ohio Gov. John Kasich defended his decision to expand Medicaid in his state under the ACA, saying that “our Medicaid is growing at one of the lowest rates in the country.” But Ohio’s Medicaid rolls are 24 percent higher, compared with pre-ACA monthly enrollment. That puts the state at 16th in terms of growth among the 30 states and the District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid.
According to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, Ohio’s average monthly pre-ACA Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollment was 2,341,481, using July-September 2013 numbers. The post-ACA monthly figure, as of May 2015, was 2,902,768, an increase of 24 percent.
It’s true that some states saw much higher growth: Kentucky’s enrollment shot up 86 percent; Oregon’s is up 75 percent. Several other states are at 50 percent growth and above, including Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and West Virginia.
But Ohio is in the middle of the pack, not “one of the lowest rates in the country.”
The state’s growth is slightly above the 22 percent average for all states, including nonexpansion states.
Walker Spins Job Growth
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, when asked about failing to keep a campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs in his first term, responded with some spin on the state’s unemployment rate and job growth.
Walker: Before I came in, the unemployment rate was over 8 percent. It’s now down to 4.6 percent. We’ve more than made up for the jobs that were lost during the recession.
The claim that the state “more than made up” for the job losses from the recession is a stretch. In December 2007, when the recession started, the state had 2,878,000 jobs, and as of June it had 2,882,000 jobs — a net gain of just 4,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Walker is right about the state’s unemployment rate, but it begs for some context.
The state’s rate was 8 percent when Walker took office in January 2011 — a full 1.2 percentage points lower than the U.S. unemployment rate. As of June, Wisconsin’s rate was 4.6 percent — 0.7 percentage points lower than the U.S. at large.
So, under Walker, the state’s job growth has not kept pace with the rest of the country — which is reflected in the fact that Wisconsin ranks 34th in job growth rate during his time as governor. Since January 2011, Wisconsin has a job growth rate of 5.1 percent, while the U.S. as a whole has a rate of 8.4 percent.
Rubio’s Stance on Abortion
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he had never advocated an exception to abortion bans for victims of rape or incest, but he cosponsored a bill in 2013 that contained just such exceptions.
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly began a question to Rubio by saying he “favor[s] a rape and incest exception to abortion bans.” Rubio answered:
Rubio: Well, Megyn, first of all, I’m not sure that that’s a correct assessment of my record. I would go on to add that I believe all–
Kelly: You don’t favor a rape and incest exception?
Rubio: I have never said that. And I have never advocated that. What I have advocated is that we pass law in this country that says all human life at every stage of its development is worthy of protection.
Though we can find no specific comments the senator made on this issue, he was an original cosponsor of a bill in 2013 called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. (The House passed a similar bill earlier this year, and we wrote about the uncertain science regarding fetal pain.) That bill prohibits abortion beyond 20 weeks gestation except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger, and where:
Senate bill 1670, November 2013: [T]he pregnancy is the result of rape, or the result of incest against a minor, if the rape has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency, or if the incest against a minor has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency or to a government agency legally authorized to act on reports of child abuse or neglect.
Rubio made no further comment during his answer on whether he currently supports such exceptions. Although he is entitled to change his opinion over time, his claim that he never supported exceptions to abortion laws regarding rape or incest is false.
Bush Overhypes Graduation Rate Increases
Boasting about education changes he initiated as Florida governor, Bush claimed, “Our graduation rate improved by 50 percent.” According to the federal uniform graduation rate calculations, however, Florida’s graduation rate increased by about 13 percent when Bush was governor.
The Bush campaign pointed us to statistics that showed graduation rates have increased more than 46 percent from the time Bush took office until 2013-2014. But most of that increase took place after Bush left office in 2007, and the context of Bush’s comments left the impression he was talking about gains made during his time in office.
Bush: I’m for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way, with abundant school choice, ending social promotion. And I know how to do this because as governor of the state of Florida I created the first statewide voucher program in the country, the second statewide voucher program, in the country and the third statewide voucher program in the country.
And we had rising student achievement across the board, because high standards, robust accountability, ending social promotion in third grade, real school choice across the board, challenging the teachers union and beating them is the way to go.
And Florida’s low-income kids had the greatest gains inside the country. Our graduation rate improved by 50 percent. That’s what I’m for.
There are several different ways to calculate graduation rates, and when we reached out to the Bush campaign for backup, it pointed to a Florida Department of Education report on “Historical Summary of Florida’s Graduation Rate.” According to the FDE methodology, the Florida graduation rate in 1998-1999 — which takes in Bush’s first year in office — was 60.2 percent. It went up to 71 percent in 2005-2006, the last full school year under Bush. That’s an 18 percent increase.
The report also lists the “federal uniform graduation rate,” which climbed from 52 percent in 1998-1999 to 58.8 percent in 2005-2006. That’s a 13 percent increase. Using that methodology, the rate increased to 76.1 percent in 2013-2014. That comes to a 46 percent increase between the time Bush took office until the latest available year of data in 2013-2014. That’s the increase to which the Bush campaign says Bush was referring.
The U.S. Department of Education’s statistics on average freshman graduation rates for public secondary schools show a more modest gain in graduation rates under Bush, from 61.4 percent in 1998-1999 to 63.6 percent in 2005-2006. That’s just under a 4 percent gain. The 2005-2006 rate ranked Florida 45th out of 50 states.
Bush on Education Spending
Bush said that the U.S. spends “more per student than any country in the world other than a couple rounding errors.” Not so.
Bush: Because today in America, a third of our kids, after we spend more per student than any other country in the world other than a couple rounding errors, to be honest with you, 30 percent are college- and/or career-ready.
According to the 2014 “Education at a Glance” report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, based on 2011 data, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway all spent more per student on primary and secondary education than the U.S. (see chart B1.2a on page 207). The U.S. was only the leader in per-student spending on tertiary education.
But there is support for Bush’s claim that 30 percent of high school students are college ready.
The 2014 ACT College Readiness report, according to a press release, showed that just 39 percent of ACT-tested high school graduates “met three or more of the four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in English, math, reading and science, suggesting they are well prepared for first-year college coursework.” What’s more, 31 percent, or almost 1 out of 3 students, didn’t meet any of the benchmarks.
Huckabee’s Obamacare Talking Point
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee repeated a years-old Republican talking point in saying that Obamacare “robbed” Medicare of $700 billion. That’s a $716 billion cut in the future growth of spending of Medicare over 10 years — not a slashing of the current budget, or taking money from the Medicare trust fund.
Huckabee: And, if Congress wants to mess with the retirement program, why don’t we let them start by changing their retirement program, and not have one, instead of talking about getting rid of Social Security and Medicare that was robbed $700 billion to pay for Obamacare.
We’ve covered this claim many times, including in May, when Huckabee used the line in announcing his presidential candidacy. It was one of the whoppers of the 2012 presidential campaign.
The ACA called for reducing the future growth of spending primarily by reducing the growth of payments to hospitals and Medicare Advantage payments. Spending less than had been expected is good for Medicare’s finances, as we explained before. We’ve also said that experts question whether some of the cuts actually will be implemented. But if they are, Medicare will be able to stretch its revenues for a longer time than they would last otherwise.
— by Eugene Kiely, Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, Dave Levitan and D’Angelo Gore
Sources
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Federal Reserve Economic Data, “Commercial Banks in the U.S.” Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
Trump, Donald J. “Donald J. Trump Summary of Net Worth As Of June 30, 2014.” 16 Jun 2015.
Trump, Donald J. “Donald J. Trump Files Personal Financial Disclosure Statement With Federal Election Commission.” 15 Jul 2015.
Trump, Donald J. “Personal Financial Disclosure Report” (Office of Government Ethics Form 278e). 15 Jul 2015.
Forbes. “The World’s Billionaires” “Real Time” ranking of the world’s wealthiest persons. Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
Bloomberg Politics. “Here’s Our Tally of Donald Trump’s Wealth.” 27 Jul 2015.
“Text of Scott Walker’s inauguration speech.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 3 Jan 2011.
National Bureau of Economic Research. “US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions.” 20 Sep 2010.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings – Wisconsin.” Undated. Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Local Area Unemployment Statistics – Wisconsin.” Undated. Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
113th Congress. “S.1670 — Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” Congress.gov. 7 Nov 2013.
Levitan, Dave. “Does a Fetus Feel Pain at 20 Weeks?” FactCheck.org. 18 May 2015.
Florida Department of Education. “Historical Summary of Florida’s Graduation Rate.” 2014.
National Center for Education Statistics. Averaged freshman graduation rates for public secondary schools, by state or jurisdiction: Selected years, 1990-91 through 2009-10. Digest of American Statistics.
Gillin, Joshua. “Jeb Bush says he cut Florida taxes by $19 billion, but did he really?” PolitiFact Florida. 11 Jun 2015.
Sullivan, Martin A. “How Much Did Jeb Bush Cut Taxes In Florida?” TaxAnalysts.com. 6 Apr 2015.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Education at a Glance 2014. Sep 2014.
ACT. “ACT College Readiness Report Points to Growing Interest in Higher Education Among U.S. High School Graduates.” Press release. 20 Aug 2014.
Kaiser Family Foundation. “Status of State Action on the Medicaid Expansion Decision.” Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
Kaiser Family Foundation. “Total Monthly Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment.” Accessed 7 Aug 2015.
Congressional Budget Office. Letter to the Honorable John Boehner. 24 Jul 2012.
