FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. According to its website, FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. The stated goal of FactCheck.org is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
The news media tend to focus on President Trump’s exaggerations, misstatements and false claims - not a hard task, given the president’s tendency for loose talk. No such due diligence with the current crop of Democrat candidates. No ongoing catalogue of lies, ala CNN, of anyone other than Donald J. Trump. As if Trump were so bad, it’s okay to downplay the shortcoming of “anyone but Trump”. I don’t share that sentiment. So thank you FactCheck.org for combing through the Democrat debates and calling out candidates who spoke less than the truth.
Per FactCheck.org, here are questionable statements made by Bernie Sanders during the Democrat debates:
Senator Bernie Sanders overstated statistics on health care spending and medical bankruptcies. For instance, he said “workers” were “paying on average 20% of their incomes for health care,” but the figure would be 12.7% based on the spending number his campaign cited. January 2020 Democratic Debate
Sanders said that unless the U.S. leads “the world right now” on climate change, “the planet we are leaving our kids will be uninhabitable.” While climate change is an urgent and serious issue, many scientists do not think it will render the entire planet uninhabitable. January 2020 Democratic Debate
Sanders claimed half a million people are “sleeping out on the streets,” but a government count of unsheltered homeless people puts the number at closer to 200,000. January 2020 Democratic Debate
Sanders blamed two trade agreements for the loss of 4 million American jobs, but estimates on that vary. [For example, the Congressional Research Service, however, found that NAFTA didn’t have a big impact on jobs.] January 2020 Democratic Debate
Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed 87 million Americans “have no health insurance or are underinsured,” a statement he has made in two past debates. The figure includes 19.3 million who were insured at the time of the survey but had a gap in coverage in the previous year. November 2019 Democratic Debate
Sen. Bernie Sanders repeated two claims on health care. He said that “500,000 people” are “going bankrupt” due to cancer, but the study he cites only says that medical issues contributed to those bankruptcies — they were not the sole reason. He also said that “87 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured.” The figure includes 19.3 million who were insured but had a gap in coverage in the previous year. October 2019 Democratic Debate
Sanders referred to climate change as an “existential threat.” Scientists agree climate change does pose a threat to humans and ecosystems, but they do not envision that climate change will obliterate all people from the planet. October 2019 Democratic Debate
Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed “the average American” isn’t making any more money than 45 years ago. In fact, median family income has gone up 29% during that time. September 2019 Democratic Debate
Sanders said that 500,000 Americans “are going bankrupt” because “they suffered a terrible disease.” But the research he cites indicates that medical bills or health problems contributed to — rather than caused — a half million bankruptcy filings.
Sanders repeated a claim that exaggerates the cost of health care in the U.S. compared with other countries. “We are spending twice as much per capita on health care as the Canadians or any other major country on earth,” he said. That’s true of Canada, but not of all other countries. September 2019 Democratic Debate
Sanders claimed the United States has “the highest child poverty rate of almost any country on earth.” The U.S. has a high “relative poverty” rate among certain countries. September 2019 Democratic Debate
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said “tonight in America” there are “87 million uninsured or underinsured.” The figure includes 19.3 million who were insured when surveyed but had a gap in coverage in the prior year. July 2019 Democratic Debate
Sanders repeated an old, misleading claim that 83% of the benefits from the Republican tax law go to the top 1% of income earners. That won’t be true until 2027, when most of the individual income tax changes expire unless Congress extends them. June 2019 Democratic Debates
Sanders claimed that Trump tried to “throw 32 million people off their health care that they have,” a figure that includes people who would choose to no longer purchase insurance if Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act without replacing it. June 2019 Democratic Debates
Sanders repeated an erroneous claim from his 2016 presidential campaign that the U.S. has the “highest rate of childhood poverty.” While the country does have a high relative child poverty rate, several other countries have worse rates. June 2019 Democratic Debates
Links:
January 2020 Democratic Debate
December 2019 Democratic Debate
November 2019 Democratic Debate
October 2019 Democratic Debate
September 2019 Democratic Debate