Whopper Al's latest debate...This could be a record even for Whopper Al! And I haven't even seen an analysis done on his army division statement yet.
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Whopper 1. "But if you will forgive me, I would like to say something right now at the beginning of this debate, following on the moment of silence for Mel Carnahan and Randy Carnahan and Chris Sifford.
Tipper and I were good friends with Mel and Randy. And I know that all of us here want to extend our sympathy and condolences to Jean and the family and to the Sifford family. And I'd just like to say that this debate in a way is a living tribute to Mel Carnahan because he loved the vigorous discussion of ideas in our democracy. He was a fantastic governor of Missouri. This state became one of the top five in the nation for health care coverage for children under his leadership, one of the best in advancing all kinds of benefits for children to grow up healthy and strong.
And, of course, this debate also takes place at a time when the tragedy of the USS Cole is on our minds and hearts.
And insofar as the memorial service is tomorrow, I would like to also extend sympathy to the families of those who have died and those who are still missing and the injured."
Reality:
The problem here is that Mel Carnahan's son was named Roger, not Randy.!
Whopper #2... “But they [the pharmaceutical industry] are now spending more money on advertising and promotion -- you see all these ads -- than they are on research and development. And they're trying to artificially extend the monopoly patent protection so they can keep charging these very high prices.” Presidential debate, October 17, 2000
Reality
According to the highly respected Kaiser Family Foundation, an oft-cited source by the Gore campaign, a July 2000 report found that in 1998 pharmaceutical companies spend $5.7 billion per year on "detailing" where a company representative makes personal selling visits to physicians and hospitals and $1.3 billion in 1998 on direct-to-consumer advertising.
Similarly, during that same year, the report found that the pharmaceutical industry spent $21 billion on research and development activities. --Prescription Drug Trends, The Kaiser Family Foundation, July 2000
Whopper 3
“Now, I said there was a contrast. Governor Bush is for vouchers. And in his plan, he proposes to drain more money, more taxpayer money, out of the public schools for private school vouchers than all of the money that he proposes in his entire budget for public schools themselves. And only one in 20 students would be eligible for these vouchers, and they wouldn't even pay the full tuition to private school.”
Reality:
Governor Bush proposes to spend $280 billion on elementary and secondary public schools alone between 2001 and 2010. Al Gore’s claim is therefore impossible to substantiate.
According to Gore's assertion, more than 207 million students - 77 percent of the entire U.S. population -- would be stuck in failing schools and would choose to receive federal funding directly, rather than transfer to another public school.
To expect that there will be more students stuck in failing schools than there are people in existence is an extreme example of what Governor Bush calls “the soft bigotry of low expectations” -- a lack of trust in America's public schools.
Whopper 4 --Gore is not a big spender!
Lehrer: “Vice President Gore, is the governor right when he says that you're proposing the largest federal spending in years?”
Gore: “Absolutely not, absolutely not. I'm so glad that I have a chance to knock that down.” Presidential debate, October 17, 2000
Reality
There is no shortage of analyses showing that Vice President Gore’s budget would lead to an explosion in new spending:
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget ($1.533 trillion increase in spending over 10 years). On September 22, 2000, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that the Gore plan would increase spending by $1.533 trillion over 10 years, representing the largest federal spending increase since Lyndon Baines Johnson and the "Great Society." (“Budget Issue Update, Campaign Budget and Economic Policies,” 9/22/00). The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a bipartisan organization that supports a balanced federal budget. It is co-chaired by Bill Frenzel, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, and Timothy Penny, a former Democratic member of the House of Representatives. Its Board of Directors includes Leon Panetta, Robert Reischauer, Rudolph Penner, and Paul Volcker.
Whopper 5--Gore's accountability plan is similar to Jim Hunt's in North Carolina.
Gore: "Under my plan, if a school is failing, we work with the states to give them the authority and the resources to close down that school and reopen it right away with a new principal, a new faculty, a turn-around team of specialists who know what they're doing. It's based on the plan of Governor Jim Hunt in North Carolina and it works great," Gore said.
Reality:
In fact, Hunt's ABC accountability program has never shut a school down. And it has never cleaned out a school's entire administrative structure and faculty and replaced it with new individuals. In the first year, the law gave the state the authority to remove a principal, though it never did so. And after the first year of the program, the law changed to have the local school superintendents determine whether to remove a principal. And Gore's plan would not turn failing schools around right away, but in two years. [Charlotte Observer (10/18/00)]
Whopper #6 --Gore Supports Death Tax Reform.
Gore: “Yes. I'm for a massive reform of the estate tax or the death tax. And under the plan that I've proposed, 80 percent of all family farms will be completely exempt from the estate tax, and the vast majority of all family businesses would be completely exempt, and all of the others would have sharply reduced.”
Reality
The Gore plan would raise the amount for the "qualified family-owned business" exemption (Code Section 2057). Currently, a family can exempt from taxation $2.6 million of their estate if they qualify for this exemption. Gore would raise the family exemption amount to $5 million. But only 1 percent of estates filing a return qualify for this exemption because the provision is so narrow and complicated.
In 1998, 97,868 estates filed a tax return. Only 902 filed for the "qualified family-owned business" exemption. (Source: IRS)
Whopper 7 -Gore Gives a 34 Year-Old Single Woman a Spouse!
Question: “How will your tax proposals affect me as a middle class 34-year-old single person with no dependents?”
Gore: “If you make less than $60,000 a year and you decide to invest $1,000 in a savings account, you'll get a tax credit which means in essence that the federal government will match your $1,000 with another $1,000. If you make less than $30,000 a year and you put $500 in a savings account, the federal government will match it with $1,500.”
“If you make more than $60,000, up to a $100,000, you'll still get a match, but not as generous….” “If you are part of the bottom 20 percent or so of wage earners, then you will get an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.” Presidential debate, October 17, 2000
Reality
The questioner who described herself as single is actually single.
Vice President Gore’s tax credit eligibility thresholds for matched savings are for married couples - overstating the thresholds for the questioner by 100 percent. The questioner would receive a three-to-one match if her income is less than $15,000 (not $30,000), a one-to-one match for incomes less than $30,000 (not $60,000), and a one to three match up to $50,000 (not $100,000).
Vice President Gore does nothing to expand the EITC for singles. His provisions expand the EITC for married couples or families with children - not singles. In addition, the questioner described herself as middle-class, which would make her ineligible for the EITC.
In an October 17 press release, the Gore campaign admitted that "single, childless Americans are generally ignored" by the Gore tax plan.
Whopper #8 -Gore Says He Keeps His Promises.
“I am a person who keeps promises. And you know, we've heard a lot from the governor about not much being done in the last eight years, as if the promises that I made eight years ago have not been kept. I think the record shows otherwise.” Presidential debate, October 17, 2000
Reality
Where to begin?
Promise Made: Saving Medicare
“And with the coming retirement of the baby-boom generation and the longer life spans added to that, it is especially important that we act today to ensure that Medicare provides the same high-quality care for future generations.” (Al Gore; March 5, 1998)
Promise Broken: Gore rejected bipartisan Medicare reform in 1999
Promise Made: Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare “But he also took the occasion to suggest that the [Medicare] program needs to be expanded, citing a study released Wednesday by the American Association of Retired People.
“’America’s elderly spend up to 20 percent, one-fifth, of their income on medical care and prescription drugs,’ Mr. Gore said. ‘So the need remains very great, not only in terms of the number of people, but for those people who are covered.’” (Samuel Goldreich, “Clinton rebuffs Medicare panel,” Washington Times, March 6, 1998)
Promise Broken: Medicare still has no prescription drug coverage
Promise Made: Saving Social Security
“Our Administration will protect the integrity of the Social Security system and ensure that it remains solvent in years to come.”
(Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Putting People First, 1992, pg. 140)
“We must use these good economic times to tackle tough, long-term economic problems -- and that means saving Social Security and Medicare while we have both the means and the will to do it.”
(Al Gore; Remarks to the Economic Club of Detroit; May 8, 1998)
Promise Broken: Gore still has no plan to save Social Security. In fact, the long-range deficit of Social Security increased by 60% under Clinton-Gore
Promise Made: Middle Class Tax Cut
Gore Exaggerations & Embellishments Continue
“Middle-class Tax Fairness. We will lower the tax burden on middle-class Americans by asking the very wealthy to pay their fair share. Middle-class taxpayers will have a choice between a children’s tax credit or a significant reduction in their income tax rate. Virtually every industrialized nation recognizes the importance of strong families in its tax code; we should, too.
(Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Putting People First, 1992, pg. 15)
Promise Broken: Clinton-Gore Passed No Middle Class Income Tax Cuts Exaggeration #8-Gore Says His Plan Adds Years to the Life of Medicare
Whopper #9
Gore: “Medicare, we - I cast the tie-breaking vote to add 26 years to the life of Medicare. It was due to go bankrupt in 1999.”
Reality
Vice President Gore is referring to the 1993 tax hike on Social Security benefits, which directed the revenue to the Medicare Part A trust fund. This vote did not extend the life of the Part A trust fund to 2025, which is the most recent estimate of the Trust Fund insolvency date. In fact, the following year’s Trust Fund projections showed only a two year increase (to 2001) in the projected insolvency dates of the Part A Trust Fund.
The most significant changes in the Medicare Trust Fund occurred because of increased revenues into the Part A Trust Fund from the increase in employment and perhaps more significantly, provisions from the 1997 Balanced Budget Act which: a) made changes to Medicare payment rates; and b) an accounting gimmick which shifted a substantial portion of home health costs (the fastest growing program in Medicare at the time) from the Part A Trust Fund to the general government-financed Part B.
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