ALL R&D
October 17; third presidential debate, St. Louis
CLAIM: "The big drug companiesÂ…are now spending more money on advertising and promotion ?- you see all these ads ?- than they are on research and development."
TRUTH: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reported in July that drug companies spent between $5.8 billion and $8.3 billion on marketing and $21 billion on research in 1998, according to CBS News.
?- by John J. Miller
FIRE LIE
October 3, 2000; First presidential debate, Boston, Mass.
CLAIM: "I accompanied James Lee Witt down to Texas when those fires broke out [in Parker County]."
TRUTH: FEMA spokeswoman Mary Margaret Walker told NR: "During the fires in Parker County, Texas, the vice president participated in a roundtable about the fires with FEMA's regional director. . . . He was not with Mr. Witt at that time." Gore admitted as much on ABC's Good Morning America: "I've made so many trips with James Lee to these disaster sites. I was there in Texas, in Houston, with the head of the Texas emergency management folks and with the federal emergency management folks. If James Lee was there before or after, then, you know, I got that wrong then."
?- by John J. Miller & Kathryn Jean Lopez
THE GIRL WITHOUT A SEAT
October 3, 2000; First presidential debate, Boston, Mass.
CLAIM: "I'd like to tell you a quick story. I got a letter today, as I left Sarasota, Florida. I'm here with a group of 13 people from around the country who helped me prepare and we had a great time. But two days ago we ate lunch at a restaurant and the guy who served us lunch sent ?- got me a letter today. His name is Randy Ellis, he has a 15-year-old daughter named Kailey, who's in Sarasota High School. Her science class was supposed to be for 24 students. She is the 36th student in that classroom, sent me a picture of her in the classroom. They can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to stand during class."
October 4, A.M. Tampa Bay, 970AM WFLA
TRUTH: Dan Kennedy, principal of Sarasota High School: "I think the facts that he was provided with were inaccurate because we don't really have any students standing in class, and we have more than enough desks for all of our students. . . .[What Gore was referring to] was probably one of the first days of school when we were in a process of leveling classes. [Kailey] did have an opportunity to use a lab stool, which was also available in the classroom. But we were refurbishing that classroom, and in the back of that picture, if you look carefully, you can see probably about $100,000 worth of new lab equipment that was waiting to be unpacked, which is one of the reasons the room looked as crowded as it did. The teacher did not notify us that he needed another desk. Had we known, we would have put one in there immediately."
?- by Kathryn Jean Lopez
BUSH'S EXPERIENCE
October 3, 2000; First presidential debate, Boston, Mass.
CLAIM: "I have actually not questioned Governor Bush's experience."
TRUTH: In an interview printed by the New York Times on March 12, Gore said: "You have to wonder whether [Bush] has the experience to be president. I mean, you really have to wonder. ... You have to wonder: Does Governor Bush have the experience to be president? ... Again you have to wonder: Does George Bush have the experience to be president?"
?- by John J. Miller
SLICK GORE
Washington Post, Sept. 24
CLAIM: At Sept. 22 press conference, Gore says, "I've been a part of the discussions on the strategic reserve since the days when it was first established."
TRUTH: President Ford established the Strategic Petroleum Reserves when he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) on December 22, 1975 ?- two years before Al Gore became a congressman.
?- by Kathryn Jean Lopez
OFF KEY
USA Today, Sept. 19
CLAIM: Addressing a Teamsters meeting, Gore spoke of lullabies from his youth and sang, "Look for the union label."
TRUTH: The song was written in 1975, when Gore was 27.
?- by Kathryn Jean Lopez
ARTHRITIS PAIN
Sept. 20, 2000; Associated Press
CLAIM: The vice president told Florida senior citizens in an Aug. 28 speech that his mother-in-law pays $108 a month for the same arthritis medicine he gives his dog for $37.80 a month.
TRUTH: The figures he used were taken from a House Democratic study and did not reflect his family's own costs. Moreover, the study's figures referred to wholesale prices, not prices paid by the consumer.
?- by Kathryn Jean Lopez
DEBATING BUSH
July 16, 2000; NBC'S Meet the Press
CLAIM: "I've accepted for two or three months now your invitation to debate on this program," said Gore on NBC's Meet the Press. "How are you going to persuade [Bush] to say yes, Tim?"
Tim Russert: "Well, maybe you're helping today."
Gore: "Well, do you think so? But what kind of approach ?- can you get Jack Welch involved?"
TRUTH: On the Today show on September 4, Gore refused to make good on this pledge.
Matt Lauer: "I do want to remind you that back in July, you had already agreed to the Meet the Press debate with Tim Russert."
Gore: "Sure."
Lauer: "Why now reject it?"
Gore: "I still agree to it. But first, let's do the commissioned debates."
?- by John J. Miller
SOFT MONEY
March 15, 2000; CNN
CLAIM: "What I did yesterday was to call on the Democratic National Committee?-and they'll comply with this?-to not spend any of the so-called soft money on these issue ads unless and until the Republican Party does."
TRUTH: "The Democratic National Committee announced a $25 million summer ad campaign, paid for with soft money. The Republicans, so far, have not bought ads with soft money for Bush."
TEXAS GOVERNOR
May 2, 2000; Washington Post
CLAIM: "You know [Bush] has never put together a budget. The governor of Texas is by far the weakest chief executive position in America and does not have the responsibility of forming or presenting a budget. He's never done that."
TRUTH: Texas law defines the governor as "the chief budget officer of the state" and orders him to distribute his budget to every member of the legislature. And Bush, in fact, has formed and presented budgets as governor.
BUSH CRIME RECORD
May 2, 2000; Atlanta YWCA speech
CLAIM: "Under Bush, Texas' recidivism rate has increased by 25 percent."
TRUTH: Nobody knows what has happened to the recidivism rate under Bush because those figures haven't been published, due to extensive lag times in reporting. The most recent numbers are from 1994, according to the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council.
BUSH DEBT PLAN
April 25, 2000; Association for a Better New York speech
CLAIM: "He provides for no reduction in the debt ?- and no reduction in interest on the debt."
TRUTH: By promising to reserve excess revenues generated by Social Security payroll taxes for Social Security, Bush essentially promises to retire federal debt with this money.
BUDGET SURPLUS
May 2, 2000; Washington Post
CLAIM: Describing the Clinton administration plan outlined in the 1999 State of the Union address to have the federal government invest some of the budget surplus in the stock market: "We didn't really propose it. We talked about the idea."
TRUTH: Page 37 of the Clinton administration budget submitted to Congress in February: "The President also proposes to invest half of the transferred amounts in corporate equities." From last year's budget: "The administration proposes tapping the power of private financial markets to increase the resources to pay for future Social Security benefits."
TOBACCO #1
March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News
CLAIM: "It's not fair to say, ?'Okay, after his sister died, he continued in the same relationship with the tobacco industry.' I did not. I did not. I began to confront them forcefully. I don't see the inconsistency there."
TRUTH: The same month Gore's sister died in 1984, he received a $1,000 speaking fee from U.S. Tobacco. The next year, he voted against cigarette and tobacco tax increases three times and favored a bill allowing major cigarette makers to purchase discounted tobacco. In the 1988 campaign, Gore bragged of his tobacco background: "I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put [tobacco] in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it, I've dug in it, I've sprayed it, I've chopped it, I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn, and stripped it and sold it" (Newsday, 2-26-88).
TOBACCO #2
March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News
CLAIM: "My family had grown tobacco. It was never actually grown on my farm, but it was on my father's farm."
TRUTH: Gore had already admitted growing tobacco on his own farm: "On my farm, we stopped growing tobacco some time after Nancy died" (Cox News Service, 4-26-99). Also, Gore received federal subsidies for growing tobacco on his farm (Wall Street Journal, 8-10-95).
ABORTION #1
February 20, 2000; New York Times
CLAIM: Gore said he has "always, always, always" supported Roe v. Wade.
TRUTH: In 1977, Rep. Gore voted for the Hyde Amendment, which says that abortion "takes the life of an unborn child who is a living human being," and that there is no constitutional right to abortion. He cast many other votes favorable to the pro-life cause and earned an 84 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee.
CROWD ESTIMATE
February 4, 2000; New York Times
CLAIM: "We had a huge event with 3,000 people at Ohio State University."
TRUTH: "Officials at that rally said the room where it had taken place did not hold more than 1,200 people, and, given the area needed for the staging erected for the occasion, they estimated the crowd at 500," reported the Times.
NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY
February 2, 2000; Good Morning America
CLAIM: "We won in every single demographic category" in the New Hampshire primary.
TRUTH: Bill Bradley carried male voters and voters aged 18-29, according to exit polls.
Many more to be found
here.
