2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumPolitifact: Chelsea Clinton Statements in Sanders Health Care Plan 'Mostly False'
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/14/chelsea-clinton/chelsea-clinton-mischaracterizes-bernie-sanders-he/Says Bernie Sanders health care plan would "empower Republican governors to take away Medicaid, to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."
Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday, January 12th, 2016 in a campaign event for Hillary Clinton
Chelsea Clinton mischaracterizes Bernie Sanders' health care plan
By Lauren Carroll on Thursday, January 14th, 2016 at 2:59 p.m.
Hitting the campaign trail on her mothers behalf, Chelsea Clinton attacked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders universal health care plan.
"Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance," Clinton said in New Hampshire Jan. 12. "I don't want to empower Republican governors to take away Medicaid, to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans. And I think very much that's what Sen. Sanders' plan would do."
The Sanders campaign and his supporters swiftly called Clintons statements inaccurate, so we decided to look into them ourselves in particular, her claim that Sanders plan would "empower" governors "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."
Given that Sanders proposed plan specifically calls health insurance an entitlement for all, we found that this is a mischaracterization at best.
Sanders hasnt released a health care proposal as a presidential candidate, but his campaign has said a bill he introduced in the Senate in 2013 would serve as the model. Sanders has called the plan "Medicare for all," referring to the the health safety net that covers those over 65.
Clinton has a point that enacting the law would disrupt health insurance as we know it, said Gerald Friedman, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who has analyzed similar proposals.
MORE
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)grader giving a presentation in speech class...
I actually felt bad for her.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)and it does not feel good. When you get to be mommy's age then the lies just roll off, mostly because you no longer have any clue what the actual truth really is.
monmouth4
(9,694 posts)remarks and as a good daughter, she did. I truly doubt she wanted or liked reading these words. They were lies, she knew it, and it went against her grain. I'm going to cut her some slack on this and I would bet the temperature between Mother and Daughter right now is in the very cool area. It didn't work and Chelsea was made to look foolish. Even the daughters of privilege don't like that one bit.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said that his campaign did not go out and take information from the Clinton campaign. From all accounts, it is true that the Sanders campaign did not attempt to break into the voter data of a rival campaign. The Sanders people stumbled upon a glitch.
But rather than reporting the glitch immediately, they probed the database for a bit under two hours. At some point, the staff produced a page of information that at the very least would show the count of certain voters.
Experts familiar with the Democratic voter data base say that the Sanders campaign would have gleaned valuable information. At the end of the day, they knew some things about the Clinton campaign that they hadnt known before, even if they didnt seek to crack into the Clinton data.
We rate Sanders claim that the campaign didnt "go out and take" information as Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/dec/22/bernie-s/Sanders-take-Clinton-voter-data/
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said, "Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism."
We couldnt find any evidence of a "direct" relationship between climate change and terrorism, though many reports have noted an indirect link. There are, of course, many other factors that contribute to terrorism, including religious and ethnic tensions and political repression.
We rate Sanders' claim Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/16/bernie-s/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-comments-climate-chan/
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said that the country devotes "significantly less than 10 percent" of its military budget to fight international terrorism. A campaign spokesman told us that Sanders was only counting money spent against ISIS. However, according to the Defense Department budget, it spent a combined total of $60 billion on anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and in the battle with ISIS. This amounts to nearly 11 percent of total defense dollars, not significantly less as Sanders said.
While you could argue that not all of the money going toward operations in Afghanistan is precisely aimed at counterterrorism, it is a great stretch to say that none of it should be counted.
Sanders used an overly restricted definition that also ignores that a hefty amount of counterterrorism spending takes place outside of the Defense Department. We rate his statement Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/15/bernie-s/sanders-significantly-less-10-defense-dollars-go-f/
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said, "We are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana."
Being sentenced to prison for marijuana possession by itself can happen -- but its exceedingly rare. Sanders would have been on safer ground had he kept to pointing out continuing high levels of arrests for marijuana possession. These can result in a night in jail and a cascade of problems for those who are arrested, but getting a prison sentence for just smoking a joint is extremely unusual.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rate it Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/14/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-says-people-are-getting-prison-sent/
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Why would she say that?
It's nice that Hillary's supporters are finally being honest and admitting that they support the drug war and at least the laws that allow the government to put people in prison for using marijuana, though.
http://norml.org/laws/item/federal-penalties-2
Federal Marijuana Law- Marijuana Possession:
Any amount (second offense) misdemeanor 15 days* $ 2,500
* - MANDATORY MINIMUM.
So I guess some people must be going to prison for marijuana possession, since that's what "MANDATORY MINIMUM" means.
And I guess the law is fucking great if it is only carried out occasionally, huh?
Also "extremely unusual" is not "never", so their mostly false is mostly false.
You like Boondocks, you should ask Aaron Mcgruder how great he thinks these laws that turn pot smokers into criminals are.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said that "the largest low-wage employer is not McDonalds or Walmart but the US government."
Measured by the raw numbers, more federal contract workers make less than $12 an hour than workers at Walmart and McDonalds combined. But he is incorrect to suggest these workers are directly employed by the U.S. government, as they actually work for private companies.
In addition, a much smaller percentage of federal contract workers make less than $12 an hour when compared to McDonalds and Walmart. In terms of actual government employees, the U.S. government has historically paid low-skill federal civilian workers more than similar occupations in the private sector.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/29/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-says-federal-government-not-mcdonal/
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Our ruling
Sanders said, "We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth." His office later clarified that "major country" referred to those nations that were members of the OECD.
The 2012 UNICEF report he pointed to agrees with him, but two studies released since then, including another one from UNICEF, show that while the United States does consistently have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the world, there are several OECD members with higher rates, notably Israel and Mexico. We rate the claim Mostly False.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jul/08/bernie-s/sanders-child-poverty-higher-america-any-other-maj/
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)AND to continually insult the intelligence of the voting public.
To wit; "I have ties to Wall St. because we were attacked on nineeleven". And "Sanders' wants to take away your health coverage".
It's like they assume the people are complete, drooling morons who can't do the most basic piece of critical analysis.