Fact-Checking the Obama/GOP Discussion

Various sources have fact-checked the recent debate between President Obama and House Republicans at the GOP retreat in Baltimore. One came from The New York Times health care blog Prescriptions.

At one point, Mr. Obama locked horns with Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, who is an orthopedist. Mr. Price insisted that the Republicans had put forward superior proposals on health that would expand insurance coverage and lower health care costs without raising taxes or increasing spending by the federal government. Mr. Obama countered that Democrats had considered all of the various Republican ideas but suggested that Mr. Price was engaged in legislative fantasy if he believed that tens of millions of people could gain insurance coverage at no cost.

So who was telling the truth? Many of the policy points that came up can be fairly debated, but independent experts have carefully analyzed the major health care proposals in Congress, and their findings suggest that Mr. Obama’s account was more accurate, at least when it comes to the legislation that was brought to the House floor for votes.

Non-partisan fact-check website Politifact.com weighed in on a discussion of budget deficits between Obama and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).

Rep. Jeb Hensarling did some extreme cherry-picking to suggest that deficits have ballooned under Obama. But using the Hensarling technique, you could also say they were bigger under President Bush. Hensarling earns a False. Obama again cited numbers to complain that he inherited a budget mess when he took office. We rated that Mostly True.

--Ballard Burgher