Here are the statements to fact-check from the September 5, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. While we will always fact-check as much as we can on our own, the success and depth of Meet the Facts is definitively improved by the crowd-sourcing of people like you – please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC) | No Democrats campaigning for office right now are talking about the health care reform bill.

SEN. GRAHAM:  Let’s look at the healthcare bill.  The centerpiece of the Democratic agenda for the first two years has been the healthcare bill.  Not one candidate on the campaign trail is talking about it.

DAVID PLOUFFE | The Republican Party, when it controlled the House of Representatives, tried to change the rules to allow the majority leader to still serve if they were indicted.

MR. PLOUFFE: These are the–this is the party that tried to change the rules to allow the majority leader to still serve if he was indicted.

DAVID PLOUFFE | Rep. Boehner has recently lobbied for donations to the Republican Party from the financial industry on the grounds that Republicans have been protecting the industry by opposing things like financial reform.

MR. PLOUFFE: John Boehner, who would be the speaker of the House, years ago was handing out checks from tobacco companies on the House floor and is now up on Wall Street saying, “Give us money because we’re protecting you by opposing things like financial reform.”

DAVID PLOUFFE | Of the people who’s tax cuts would be allowed to expire as currently proposed by Democrats, 80% are millionaires.

MR. PLOUFFE:  First thing I’d say, what the congressional Republicans are proposing is a permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest, which means 80 percent of the people that get those tax cuts are millionaires, OK? Permanent.

DAVID PLOUFFE | Some economists have said that unemployment might be over 20% had it not been for the Recovery Act.

MR. PLOUFFE: Recovery Act played a big role there.  We would have been unemployment rate probably in the high teens.  Some economists even say over 20 percent, by the way.

RICH LOWRY (National Review) | Independents are more likely to agree with Tea Party members than Democrats on the issues of spending, debt, the Arizona immigration law, and the “Ground Zero Mosque.”

MR. LOWRY: And another huge problem, independents are much closer to the tea partiers on the big issues and even on the smaller hot-button ones–spending, debt, Arizona immigration law, Ground Zero mosque, all that–much closer to the tea partiers than they are to the Democrats.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the August 22, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

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Statements are listed in chronological order

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY)

1) The top 2 [income] brackets of Americans include 50% of small business income and 25% of the work force.
2) In the last quarter of 2009, 84% of jobs lost were in small businesses.

SEN. McCONNELL:  What the administration is proposing, and the majorities in the House and Senate, is to raise taxes on the top 2 brackets, which will affect 50 percent of small business income and in–and impact 25 percent of the work force. For example, if you look at last–the last quarter of last year, 84 percent of the jobs that were lost were lost in small business.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY)

1) A few weeks ago President Obama heard from small businessmen, regarding why they weren’t expanding, that the reason was his agenda.
2) The healthcare reform bill includes a provision that requires small businesses to send a 1099 to the IRS for every vendor they do $600 worth of business with.

SEN. McCONNELL:  Look, the president called in a bunch of small businessmen to the White House a few weeks ago, and he asked them why they weren’t expanding. And their answer was, “Mr. President, with all due respect, your agenda”–healthcare mandates, tax increased headed their way, more and more burdensome regulation.  I mean, look at the new healthcare bill for example. There’s a provision in there that requires that small businesses send a 1099 form to the IRS for every vender they do $600 worth of business with.  That’s just a massive amount of paperwork and problems.  This administration…

GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-MI)

1) Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a member of the Sufi sect of Islam.
2) The Sufi sect is thought of as the most peaceful sect of Islam.
3) The Sufi sect is targeted by Al-Qaeda

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Well, I think that any time somebody stands up for the Constitution, which is exactly what he did, I don’t think there’s any disagreement that they have the right to be able to worship and to build on private property.  I don’t think anybody would disagree with that.  The question is whether it is a good decision on their part, right?  What’s the imam saying.  Now, the imam apparently is overseas and has been overseas on a State Department mission bridge building for three weeks.  And so the question is, what is the nature of this particular imam and the sect?  It’s a Sufi sect, apparently, and that’s supposed to be the most peaceful of all the–that sect is under attack by al-Qaeda.

GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-MI) | Michigan has the largest Arab-American population in the country.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  David, I called, because Michigan has the largest Arab-American population outside of the Middle East.

GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-MI) | A recent poll indicated that 85% of Americans don’t want to see Social Security cut to solve the deficit.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Well, you know, no.  I think it’s far outside the mainstream. In fact, one of the things–you just held up Paul Ryan’s, you know, proposal regarding Medicare and regarding Social Security.  I think a lot of which you’ve jumped onto as well.  But there was a recent poll out that said that 85 percent of Americans don’t want to see Social Security cut to solve the, the deficit.

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX) | No Republicans/conservatives are suggesting that Social Security be dismantled.

REP. ARMEY:  Now, there’s nobody that’s talking about dismantling these systems.

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX) | Revenue in America doubled as a result of President Reagan cutting taxes.

REP. ARMEY:  Reagan cut taxes, revenue doubled.

GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-MI) | The CBO has said that cutting taxes for the wealthiest 2% of Americans is the least effective way to create jobs.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  It’s–the question is, should the tax cuts expire for the wealthiest 2 percent so that we can make the investments that will grow jobs? Yes.  That’s the most effective way of creating job growth.  The CBO has said that cutting taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent is the most ineffective way of creating job growth.

FMR. REP. RICK LAZIO (R-NY)

1) Within a month of Sept, 11, 2001, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said that Americans were “an accessory to the crime of 9/11.”
2) Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said that Osama bin Laden was created in America.
3) Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has made statements with the past several months that could be deemed supportive of Hamas.
4) Recently one of the Cordoba House developers said that they would consider taking money from Iran.

FMR. REP. LAZIO:  Well, first of all I would say, David, there are millions of peace-loving, good Muslims in America.  This Imam Rauf is not one of them.  He’s not a bridge builder.  This is a man, the very same month that people were burying their loved ones that were lost in 9/11, he said that America was an accessory to the crime of 9/11.  He said that Osama bin Laden was created in the USA.  He refuses, only months ago, to, to distance himself from Hamas, in fact, protecting him–protecting them, and only recently one of the developers said that they would consider taking money from Iran.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the August 8, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. While we will always fact-check as much as we can on our own, the success and depth of Meet the Facts is definitively improved by the crowd-sourcing of people like you – please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

CAROL BROWNER (White House Energy Adviser) | The oil spill recovery effort utilized 6,000 vessels and 40,000 people.

MS. BROWNER:  Well, I think it’s important to understand that this was the largest response to an environmental disaster.  We had over 6,000 vessels, more than 40,000 people, and the goal was to keep the oil off the beaches and out of the marshes and the estuaries.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH)

1) There are 40,000 wells operating in the Gulf Coast.
2) Gulf Coast oil drilling has been occurring for 60 years.
3) The oil drilling moratorium leaves 100,000 people out of work (was a statement of opinion, but let’s check it just to see if that’s right anyway)

REP. BOEHNER:  I believe the moratorium should be lifted.  We’ve been drilling in the Gulf Coast now for 60 years.  There are 40,000 wells operating in the Gulf Coast.  There clearly was a mistake made with regard to this one well, but I think that we’re risking 100,000 jobs in the Gulf Coast with the continuation of this moratorium, and I do believe that, that there are enough practices in place, enough safety precautions in place to allow this drilling to continue.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) | Economist Mark Zandi indicated several weeks ago that he thought raising taxes at this point in the economy was a very bad idea.

REP. BOEHNER:  Listen, you can’t raise taxes in the middle of a weak economy without risking the double-dip in this recession.  President Obama’s favorite Republican economist, Mark Zandi, came out several weeks ago and made it clear that raising taxes at this point in, in the economy is a very bad idea.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH)  | There are 100 House seats “in play” this fall, and 94 of them are held by Democrats.

REP. BOEHNER:  Well, David, listen, it’s only August.  There are a lot of things that can happen between now and Election Day.  Is it possible?  Yes, it certainly is possible.  There are a hundred seats in play around the country, and 94 of them are held by Democrat members.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) | There is still about $4-500 billion of the stimulus plan that has not been spent.

REP. BOEHNER:  Why don’t we stop the stimulus spending?  There’s still about $400 billion or $500 billion of the stimulus plan that has not been spent.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) | In certain parts of America, schools and hospitals are being overwhelmed with undocumented immigrants.

REP. BOEHNER:  Listen, I think it’s worth considering.  But it’s a serious problem that affects our country.  And in certain parts of our country, clearly, our schools, our hospitals, are being overrun by illegal immigrants, a lot of whom came here just so their children could become U.S. citizens.

REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN) | The current unemployment rate in America is the result of the failure of the Obama administration’s economic policies. [is that what he’s saying here?]

REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN):  Well, I think the, the way you resolve it is you focus on jobs.  I got to tell you, when I’m home in Muncie, Indiana, people are asking the question, “Where are the jobs?” I mean, we have more than 14 million Americans unemployed.  National unemployment is 9.5 percent.  Clearly, the economic policies of this administration, however well intentioned, have failed.

REP. MIKE PENCE (R-IN) | The President “imposed” a debt commission which would not report until after the fall elections.

REP. PENCE:  Look, we, we’ve got some terrific people on the Republican side working on the debt commission, and they’re working in good faith on it.  But, but why, why the president imposed a debt commission that wouldn’t report until after the election was a bit telling.

ANDREA MITCHELL (NBC) | The debt commission was set up only after mostly Republican senators, who had previously supported the debt commission, abandoned the legislation that would have established a commission with binding results.

MS. MITCHELL:  The reason the president appointed the debt commission was because some senators who had supported it…

REP. FORD:  Republican senators…

MS. MITCHELL:  …including mostly Republican senators, abandoned it.  So they couldn’t pass the legislation which would have a debt commission with teeth.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the August 1, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. While we will always fact-check as much as we can on our own, the success and depth of Meet the Facts is definitively improved by the crowd-sourcing of people like you – please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

GOV. ED RENDELL (D-PA) | Starting in 1993, after raising taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans and cutting the budget, the Clinton administration produced over 23.5 million new jobs over the next 7 years.

GOV. RENDELL:  The debt commission.  Both parties have to get together and say, “We’re going to do this together, we’re going to make the changes. They’re not going to be popular, but they’re necessary.” But you have to have increased taxes along with those reductions.  And this fairy tale that increased taxes on the rich is going to hurt the economy, well, we don’t have to look any further than 1993.  What Bill Clinton did, without one Republican vote, is essentially the same thing.  He raised taxes on the top 2 percent in, in America.  That was combined with budget cuts that the president and the Republican Congress did together, and it produced 23.5 million new jobs in the seven years that followed.

MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG (I-NY) | The financial reform bill will enable the SEC, Fed, and other agencies to have the responsibility to write regulations

MR. GREGORY:  Today is Wall Street different, and will financial reform make Wall Street different?

MAYOR BLOOMBERG:  The devil’s in the details.  A 2,000-page bill that very few people have ever read, but it basically turns over to the SEC and the Fed and other agencies the responsibility to write regulations.  This is a dream piece of legislation for lobbyists and for lawyers.  And nobody knows the answer to your question.

MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG (I-NY)

1) Canada sets aside 36% of its visas for people with skills that it needs.
2) The US sets aside 6% of its visas for people with skills that it needs.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG:  And then you have to give visas for the skills we need.  Canada sets aside 36 percent of their visas for people with skills they think their country needs.  We set aside 6 percent.  We educate the doctors and then don’t give them a green card.

GOV. ED RENDELL (D-PA) | Less than 5% of Americans objected to the “deal” the government arranged with BP [to put aside money to pay for the damage of the oil spill].

GOV. RENDELL:  I think we hold the House.  We lose significant seats, but we hold.  And I think we hold the Senate only because the Republicans have made a slew of mistakes, PR mistakes like opposing unemployment compensation extension, like going after the president for the BP deal.  There weren’t 5 percent of Americans who didn’t think that was a good deal.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the July 25, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

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Statements are listed in chronological order

TIMOTHY GEITHNER | The US has seen six months of private sector job growth.

SEC’Y GEITHNER: They’re — I think businesses across the country , you know, again, faced with the prospect of an economy falling off the cliff, are still cautious, still very cautious. So they’ve been trying to get as much productivity out of their employees as possible. They’re in a very strong financial conditions, though, and I think that’s very promising, because there’s a lot of pent-up demand and there’s a lot of capacity still for them to step up and start to invest and hire again. But you’re seeing it start. You know, we’ve had six months of private sector job growth . Not as fast as we like, not as fast as we need, but I think you’re going to see it, again, gradually start to get better.

TIMOTHY GEITHNER | In the recently passed financial markets reform bill, Congress did not grant the power to get back the bonuses that were paid to bank executives during the financial crisis.

MR. GREGORY: Let me talk about the achievement of financial reform legislation that you’ve worked so hard on. The, the pay czar, Ken Feinberg , has been working on compensation, just issued a new report saying that, at the height of the crisis , you had some of the biggest banks paying bonuses that were not warranted. Do you have any way to get any of that money back?

SEC’Y GEITHNER: You know, he spoke to that earlier. Congress did not give him the authority to do that. But they did give him authority he used very effectively to change how Wall Street was paying its executives, and he did an enormously important job in trying to make sure that we have in place ways to make sure these guys don’t go back in the future — don’t go in the future back to paying executives to take risks that could imperil the stability of the economy . He did a great job, limited authority, but he used that authority very well.

MARC MORIAL (Urban League President) | Andrew Breitbart doctored the video of Shirley Sherrod before posting it on his website.

MR. MORIAL: He threw a firecracker in a crowded room. He yelled “fire” in a crowded theater and doctored a video, which caused an innocent, hard-working, responsible woman, whose story was of racial reconciliation , to be cast in a negative light. And then it began from there.

MARC MORIAL (Urban League President) | There have been more filibusters in the last two years than in the previous century.

MR. MORIAL: One of the things this distracts from is the news of the week that the Senate cut out $1 billion for summer jobs, but is prepared to spend $60 billion on a troop surge if — in Afghanistan. One of the things this distracts from has been the repeated use of the filibuster to block legislation and block measures that would help the economy in urban communities, and that, to me…

MR. MORIAL: …that, to me, and the persistent use of the filibuster, it being used more times in the last two years than in the previous century…

MARC MORIAL (Urban League President)

1) Latino unemployment is lower than white unemployment.
2) African American unemployment is lower than Latino unemployment.

MR. MORIAL: I don’t agree that Latinos and Asians have not suffered discrimination in this country or that Native Americans have not suffered discrimination in this country . I think the question is, how do you target and tailor policies that are going to help all economically and socially disadvantaged people. And it’s a fair debate to have, but it also needs to be positive with facts . Look at the Latino unemployment rate . It’s higher than the white rate. The black rate is higher than the Latino rate. So to suggest that there are not disparities that affect the Latino community , that affect the Native American community , most in depth, the African- American community , we’ve got to have the discussion that Jim Webb wants to have. We have facts , real facts , that give a picture of how life is in this nation.

RICK SANTELLI (CNBC)

1) 41 cents of every dollar the US government spends in fiscal year 2010 will go to pay debt.
2) The 2010 budget is $3.5 trillion.

MR. SANTELLI: Forty-one cents of every dollar this government spends in fiscal 2010 goes to pay debt. It’s borrowed money. Forty-one cents of every dollar. Marcus , we have a $3 1/2 trillion 2010 budget . Let’s look at that $34 billion for extension. These people need help, but to think that this administration — and in Timothy Geithner ‘s interview, he talks about getting their fiscal house in order. In a $3 1/2 trillion budget , they can’t come up with a way to offset $34 billion in spending. It isn’t that the conservatives want to be mean-spirited. It’s that at the end- game, if the country is broke, everybody loses.

DAVID BROOKS (NY Times)

1) In the past year the Obama administration’s approval rating has dropped about 20%.
2) A poll last week indicated that faith in the US Congress was 11%, the lowest the nations history.

MR. BROOKS: Right. There’s been a, there’s been a massive recall in the past year. The Obama administration has dropped about 20 percent among independent voters, in part because of the debt and other issues. But faith in government has plummeted back to its historic lows. Faith in Congress this week hit an 11 percent, an historic low forever. So how do you persuade people that you can do things when you have that kind of distrust, and that hasn’t been solved? The stimulus obviously created some jobs. But the fact is, it’s taken forever to get out; and the underlying reality is, the more the debt goes up, the more people are scared, and the more they’re scared, especially small business , they’re just not investing.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the July 18, 2010 Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. While we will always fact-check as much as we can on our own, the success and depth of Meet the Facts is definitively improved by the crowd-sourcing of people like you – please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ)

1) Over the course of the Bush [43]administration there was a 72% increase in the national debt, from $5.7 trillion to $9.8 trillion.
2) At the end of the Bush [43]administration, the U.S. had a $1.5 trillion budget deficit.

SEN. MENENDEZ:  And it’s not just talking about President Bush, it’s the policies that they espouse that are in essence Bush’s policies.  Those led us to a 72 percent increase in the debt from $5.7 trillion to $9.8 trillion when Bush left.  It led us to a massive elimination of the surplus that Bill Clinton gave George Bush, and he had a $1.5 trillion deficit when he left office.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD)

1) Last week’s Washington Post/ABC News poll indicated that respondents had less confidence in Congressional Republicans than Democrats.
2) Over the course of the Bush [43] administration 600,000 private sector jobs were lost.
3) Currently the US is experiencing positive job growth.
4) Last week Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) said he would move to repeal the financial reform bill.

REP. VAN HOLLEN:  Well, David, if you look at that Washington Post/ABC poll, the most, I think, interesting fact that came out of it, and the one that was right on the front page, was the fact that the American people have a lot less confidence in Republicans in Congress than they do in Democrats in Congress, and that’s not surprising.  It’s pretty fresh in their memory exactly what those Republican policies did to the economy.  After all, during the whole eight years of the Bush administration, we actually lost over 600,000 private sector jobs.  We’re now seeing positive job growth. And the good news, I think, for the American people is our Republican colleagues are reminding people every day that they would adopt the same policies they had before.  John Boehner, the Republican leader, just this week said that he’s going to move to repeal the Wall Street reform bill.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) | President Obama’s approval rating is about 38% among independent voters.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX):  The president’s approval rating’s about 38 percent among independent voters

DAVID GREGORY (NBC) | Last week on Meet the Press White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said/indicated that “Democrats are in trouble in the House”

MR. GREGORY:  Well, and we’ll get into some of the issues.  I want to go back to Congressman Van Hollen on some of the fallout from the news that was made right here last Sunday, Robert Gibbs stating what a lot of people in politics thought was obvious, which is that Democrats are in trouble in the House, they could indeed lose majority status in the House.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) | Congressional Republicans blocked a recent piece of legislation designed to restrict tax incentives for American companies that employ people in countries other than than the U.S.

REP. VAN HOLLEN:  I mean, frankly, you know, John Cornyn and his allies have been trying to block a whole lot of very important jobs measures.  We in fact sent a piece of legislation over very recently that would remove these perverse tax incentives to ship American jobs overseas, that give American corporations a bonus if they ship American jobs overseas.  Pete and his colleagues voted against getting rid of that loophole.

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ)

1) Sen. John Kyl said that $680 billion in tax cuts would not have to be paid for, that it could be added onto the debt.
2) During the first six months of the Obama administration, 2.9 million jobs were lost.
3) In the first six months of 2010, 890,000 jobs have been created.

SEN. MENENDEZ:  …positive or negative, may be viewed that way.  But look, when John Kyl says that you don’t have to pay for $680 billion of tax cuts whatsoever, just add it onto the debt, but you can’t even take care of $30 billion to have people who are unemployed in this country get through the emergency of the moment, you know, it’s a big difference.  And when we look at jobs, the reality is we lost 2.9 million jobs in the first six months of the president’s time that he inherited from Bush.  We created 860,000 jobs in the first six months of this year.  That’s a 3.7 million…

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) | The day President Bush [43] left office, the U.S. was losing 700,000 jobs a month.

REP. VAN HOLLEN:  Well, what you’re, what you’re hearing is–as, as Bob said, look, we know that we have a long way to go on the economy.  People are still hurting, that’s absolutely clear.  But we also know what the American people know, which is the day George Bush lost–left office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month.

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R- TX) | In the 12 years before the Obama administration began[?], the US economy doubled in size.

REP. SESSIONS:  First of all, it’s not truthful.  People had jobs when Republicans were, not only in charge, but George Bush was there.  We doubled the size of the economy over 12 years.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX)

1) In 2008 the US budget deficit was 3.2% of the US gross domestic product.
2) Now the US budget deficit is 10% of the US gross domestic product.

SEN. CORNYN:  Well, let’s look at a few facts.  I, I, thank you for the opportunity because I wanted to respond to what Chris said.  You know, in the last year that President Bush was in office, 2008, the deficit was 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product.  Today it’s 10 percent.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX)

1) US unemployment was “roughly” 6.9% on November 4, 2008.
2) Now it is 9.5%.

SEN. CORNYN:  You’re ignoring the stimulus that was–failed according to the own, the president’s own standards.  He said it was supposed to keep unemployment to 8 percent.  A $2.6 trillion healthcare bill, which I agree with, with Pete, will bankrupt not only the private sector but the states and the federal government creating a new entitlement program.  My point is that, you know, unemployment was roughly 6.9 percent when President Obama was elected.  Now it’s 9.5 percent.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) | Congressional Republicans [leadership?] have said that they will only support extending tax cuts for those who make less than $250,000 a year if the Bush era tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year are also extended.

REP. VAN HOLLEN:  They’ve said we’re only going support a continuation of middle class tax cuts, those for people under $250,000, if you also extend the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) | Regarding the financial reform bill, Sen. Chris Dodd said “We don’t know exactly how this will impact the economy or our financial systems for some time to come.”

SEN. CORNYN:  Well, I think–I mean, this is a 2,300-page bill that not even Chris Dodd, the principal Senate author, knows–he said, “We don’t know exactly how this will impact the economy or our financial systems for some time to come.”

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ)

1) 2 weeks before the financial reform bill was passed a hedge fund manager raised $1 million for Republican candidates.
2) Senate Republicans attempted to “stop” the financial reform bill 4 times.

SEN. MENENDEZ: On Wall Street reform, look, two weeks before, two weeks before the Wall Street reform bill was passed, you know, a hedge fund manager ultimately raised a million dollars for Republican candidates two weeks before the bill was being voted on, and they tried to stop us four times in the Senate before we got the Wall Street reform.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) | The CBO said that over a 20 year period the health care reform bill would reduce the deficit by $1.4 trillion.

REP. VAN HOLLEN:  The fact is, as the CBO has, has scored, which is the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, that if you look at a 20-year period, you actually reduce the deficit by $1.4 trillion, which means if you do what they want to do and repeal it, they’re actually adding to the deficit.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) | Currently, the unemployment rate in Nevada is 14%. [Sen. Cornyn also seems to be suggesting that it is a result of Sen. Harry Reid being in Congress for 27 years]

SEN. CORNYN: And if, if folks like in Nevada, for example, 14 percent unemployment since Harry Reid–now that Harry Reid is running for re-election, 20–after 27 years in the United States Congress, if you want to continue those policies and those sorts of results, then go ahead and vote for Harry Reid.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX)

1) Sen. Harry Reid called Alan Greenspan a “hack.”
2) In 2007 Sen. Harry Reid said that the Iraq war had been lost and that the “surge” would not be effective.
3) Sen. Harry Reid called a former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “incompetent.”

SEN. CORNYN:  Well, let’s, let’s look what Harry Reid has said.  He’s called the former chairman of the Federal Reserve a hack.  He declared the Iraq war lost and the surge a failure before it even started in 2007.  And he called the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff incompetent.

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX) | The Tea Party movement is comprised of about 1/3 Democrats, 1/3 Republicans, and 1/3 independents

REP. SESSIONS:  I think it’s clear to me that what–when I look at the tea party, it’s about one-third Democrat, one-third Republican, one-third independents.

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The following are the statements to fact-check from the July 11, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

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Statements are listed in chronological order

ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary)

1) In the last 6 months of 2008 the economy lost 3 million jobs.
2) In the first six months of 2010, 600,000 private sector jobs were created.
3) The US currently produces 2% of the world’s batteries.
4) As a result of Recovery Act investment (met with private capital), the US will [are projected to?] manufacture 40% of the world’s batteries by 2015.

MR. GIBBS:  Well, David, I don’t think it’s surprising that the American people are frustrated after having lost eight and a half million jobs.  But that’s exactly the argument that he’s making.  Understand, the last six months of 2008, right, we saw an economy that shed three million jobs.  The first six months of 2010, this economy has created 600,000 private sector jobs.  The, the point the president was making and the point that the president will make this fall is, do you want to go backward to an economy that led us into this mess, that saw the greatest financial calamity since the Great Depression, that turned record surpluses into record deficits?  Or do you want to continue on the track that the president has put us on, that has started to create private sector jobs.

The president will travel this week to Holland, Michigan.  Michigan, everybody in this country knows, is, is, is home to auto manufacturing in a big way. But what the president’s going to go visit is the ninth of nine advanced battery manufacturing plants–this will be a ground breaking–that will create jobs, that will supply advanced batteries for the Chevy Volt, an electric car that Chevy’s going to manufacture and will get a hundred miles on a single charge.  This is the ninth of nine that’s are–as a result of that recovery act plan.  Just in 2010, we produced 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries.  In other words, to produce something like the Chevy Volt, we were going to have to bring batteries in from overseas.  As a result of this Recovery Act investment that is met with private capital, in just five years, by 2015, we’ll manufacture 40 percent of the world’s batteries.  That creates the jobs of tomorrow.  So we have a choice.  Are we going to go back to the movie that we’ve already seen and we know the results, or are we going to look forward?

DAVID GREGORY (NBC) | The stimulus has produced less jobs than were promised, with unemployment at 9.5% instead of 8% as promised.

MR. GREGORY:  And we know that there’s a sense that even the stimulus is not producing the jobs that it was promised to; 9.5 percent unemployment now.  The original reporting was we’d keep unemployment with the stimulus at 8 percent.

ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary)

1) In the last two quarters of the Bush administration the economy was contracting by 6%.
2) Now the economy is growing by 3%.

MR. GIBBS:  Well, let’s take a look at it.  Again, the quarter before–the, the two quarters of economic growth that we had before the president came to office, our economy was contracting by 6 percent.  Now we’re growing by 3 percent.

ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary)

1) John Boehner would be Speaker of the House if the Republicans regained the majority in the House of Representatives.
2) Last week Rep. John Boehner compared the financial problems of 2008 to an ant.

MR. GIBBS:  Well, look, let’s take financial recovery as something were, again, we can look backward and we can look forward.  John Boehner, who would be the speaker of the House if the Republicans were to take the House back over, last week equated the wreckage that was left as a result of the financial calamity to an ant, OK?

DAVID GREGORY (NBC) | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee 90% of US mortgages.

MR. GREGORY:  …proved unsuccessful.  And the, the two largest former private companies and now quasi-government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they guarantee 90 percent of the mortgages in this country.

DAVID GREGORY (NBC) Vs ROBERT GIBBS | [Possibly more of a clarification than a fact-check] What are the differences, if any, between the Bush and Obama administration’s policies regarding North Korea and Iran?

MR. GREGORY:  More broadly on foreign policy, I can remember back two years ago, as you certainly can, July of 2008, the president giving a major foreign policy speech in Berlin.  Still a candidate and yet really well received. This was, in effect, an attempt to show the world a new face of foreign policy that would happen under President Barack Obama.  And yet, as the president tried to do a 180 from Bush foreign policy, you find how difficult it is.  The promise to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, yet it’s still open.  The Afghanistan war is not scaled down, it’s been escalated.  This administration has upheld the state secrets exemption in its pursuit of terrorists legally. It appears the worst-kept secret in Washington is that there appears to be abandoned plans to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in front of a civilian trial. Same strategy for North Korea and Iran basically.

MR. GIBBS:  Well, hold on, let’s…

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MR. GIBBS:  I hate to interrupt, but let’s understand this.  We have the toughest sanctions on North Korea that we’ve ever had as a result of unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution.

MR. GREGORY:  Same strategy.  Same strategy.

MR. GIBBS:  Same strategy…

MR. GREGORY:  Pursued by the Bush administration.

MR. GIBBS:  More important, better tactics.  We’ve got the strongest sanctions regime on Iran that has ever been in place.  And, David, go back…

MR. GREGORY:  Same strategy as the Bush administration.

MR. GIBBS:  But, but understand–let’s go back to the Bush administration.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

MR. GIBBS:  You brought this up.  I know the next panel’s going to say I blamed this all on the Bush administration…

MR. GREGORY:  No, no, no.  But can I just finish?

MR. GIBBS:  But–let me…

MR. GREGORY:  The predicate here, which is, is it harder to do a reversal from Bush foreign policy than you originally thought?

MR. GIBBS:  No, because I think you’ve greatly oversimplified it.  It–if you ask Ed Gillespie, ask any of the folks that you had right now, if in September of 2008 or October of 2008 or November of 2008 whether China and Russia were going to come on board for strengthening sanctions against Iran.  The answer to that would be a flat no.  You wouldn’t have gotten to the security council because you would have had at least two countries raise their hand to veto those.  This president has put together a coalition that includes Russia and China, that’s actually strengthened our sanctions regime on South Korea***(as spoken).  We have better relationships with virtually every country in the world as a result of the president’s foreign policy outreach.  We’re reducing nuclear weapons in this world that we know can cause the type of calamity, whether, whether they accidentally launch or whether they fell, fell into the hands of a terrorist.  There’s no doubt, David, that we have taken foreign policy in a different direction.  We have improved relationships with countries, but not just as a means to an ends.  That’s actually making our country safer and more secure as a result.  I, I think you created oversimplified sort of what the president is trying to do, because the things that he’s instituted couldn’t have been done in the last administration.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.  But those are all accurate issues?  I mean, I didn’t misstate any of that, did I?

MR. GIBBS:  Well, I think I–I think you and I had a little interchange there on North Korea and Iran because, again, whether you go through the same strategy is not necessarily what is at case here, and that is we have built–and the president has taken a different strategy with Iran, right?  He said to the world, “I’m happy to discuss Iran with Iran if its–if it will come to the table and live up to its obligations.” That’s what brought the Chinese and the Russians to the table at the United Nations.  That’s what showed the world that it wasn’t, it wasn’t anything that had to do with American or our allied aggression toward Iran, it was that Iran was hiding a secret nuclear weapons program.  And if Iran is unwilling to, in front of the world, discuss that, as the president invited them to do, then it becomes clear for everybody in the world that this is an Iranian secret nuclear weapons program.  That’s why everybody’s at the table, and that’s what we have the strongest sanctions regime on Iran that we’ve ever had.

ED GILLESPIE (Republican strategist)

1) The national deficit is currently $1.4 trillion.
2) The national debt is currently $13 trillion.
3) The Obama administration has doubled the national debt since taking office.
4) Under Obama administration policies, the national debt will triple in 10 years.

MR. ED GILLESPIE:  The fact is that we’ve got unemployment at 9.5 percent.  They said it wasn’t going to go above 8 when they passed the stimulus.  We have a $1.4 trillion deficit.  We have $13 trillion in debt.  They’ve doubled it since coming in, and they’re going to triple it in 10 years.

RACHEL MADDOW (NBC) | During the Bush administration while the Republicans controlled Congress, the following government actions were instituted without any plan to pay for them: the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the [Medicare] prescription drug plan, and two tax cuts.

MS. MADDOW:  Well, you end, you end up with the situation which again you’re back to choice vs. referendum because Republicans, like great strategists like Mr. Gillespie, can argue about how it’s all about spending, it’s all about debt.  But it’s not just talking about the past to say, “When Republicans have had the reins, this is what they’ve done:  two wars not paid for, prescription drug benefit not paid for, two tax cuts that mostly benefited the rich not paid for.” They put all that stuff on the deficit, $1.3 trillion sitting there as–in a deficit when Obama took over, after the previous Democratic president had handed him a surplus.  If you talk about–if Republicans want to run as this fiscally responsible party, it’s neat, but it’s novel.  It’s not how they’ve actually governed.

ED GILLESPIE (Republican strategist) | Virginia governor Bob McDonnell eliminated a $4.2 billion budget deficit, which was the largest deficit in the history of the state.

MR. GILLESPIE:  Oh, I think, I think there’s a great opportunity for conservative policies, and I think the public is open to hearing from us on that.  And I just disagree with David.  Look, in New Jersey and Virginia, we have two Republican governors just been elected, one in a purple state, Virginia, one in a deep blue state, or at least royal blue, New Jersey, who are acting on what they said they would do, they’re governing as they campaigned.  In New Jersey, Governor Christie is trying to change the tailspin, turn things around in New Jersey, taking on the government employee unions there.  In Virginia, Bob McDonnell as governor eliminated a $4.2 billion deficit, the largest in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We will govern as we said we would.

RACHEL MADDOW (NBC)

1) Extending unemployment benefits have been proven to work in stimulating the economy during a recession
2) Congressional Republicans are currently blocking the extension of unemployment benefits

MS. MADDOW:  If you really want, if you really want a stimulus, do what we–what’s proven to work in stimulus, which is things like extending unemployment benefits, which is something that Republicans are completely blocking.

ED GILLESPIE (Republican strategist)

1) After the Bush administration tax cuts, there were 52 months of continuous job creation. (and)
2) It was the largest such period in American history.
3) US revenues in 2007 were the highest in American history.

MR. GILLESPIE:  Well, my point was not wanting to go back to the math because the fact is, under the Bush tax cuts, we did have 52 months of–in uninterrupted job creation, longest in the history of the country, and revenues were at an all-time high in 2007.  The problem wasn’t lack of revenue, the problem still remains today too much federal spending, and this administration’s not addressing that.

REP. HAROLD FORD JR. (D)

1) Similar statement to Ms. Maddow’s above regarding Bush administration spending.
2) The Medicare prescription plan passed under the Bush administration was the largest entitlement program passed since the introduction of Medicare.

REP. FORD:  Because–largely because people don’t see job numbers and the economy improving for middle class people, for small business owners.  Again, Republicans can’t–aren’t totally off the hook.  Rachel is right.  We–I was there when the Medicare drug prescription bill passed.  That’s the largest entitlement that we’ve passed since–with the introduction of Medicare.  The fact is the tax cuts, these things were not paid for, the war was not paid for.  However, when you become president, you can’t argue all the time that the last guy before you created all the problems and he deserves no credit. TARP was a George Bush idea.  The Detroit bailout was a part of a, a Bush idea.  The reality is people are going to look at today.

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The following are the statements to fact-check from the June 27, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:
VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. The success of Meet the Facts depends on the crowd-sourcing of people like you, please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ)

1) White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel appeared on Meet the Press on June 20, 2010.

2) Last week White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel reiterated the Obama administration’s plan to begin withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in mid-2011.

3) The president’s spokesperson [Robert Gibbs?] said, regarding the date for the beginning of withdrawal, “It’s etched in stone, and he has the chisel.”

4) US Troops are “in some ways” confused about what the long term strategy is in Afghanistan.

5) A high ranking Taliban prisoner said, “You’ve got the watches, and we’ve got the time.”

SEN. McCAIN: I think that that’s a fairly accurate description of the situation in Afghanistan. I think that it’s pretty obvious that the effort in Marjah did not achieve the elements of success certainly quickly enough. The offensive into Kandahar has been delayed–which, by the way, argues against this setting a date certain for beginning the withdrawal. A lot of the behavior that Karzai is displaying, a lot of the things that are going on right now are a direct result of the president’s commitment to beginning withdrawal–whatever not turn “out the lights” means. That’s an indecipherable statement. Rahm Emanuel on your program last, last Sunday reiterated the commitment to leaving middle of 2011. The president’s spokesperson said, “It’s etched in stone, and he has the chisel.” So people in the region, they can’t leave. They have to adjust and they have to accommodate. And Karzai is doing some of the things he’s doing because he’s not confident that we’re going to stay. The troops on the ground are, are in some ways confused about what the long-term strategy would be. And I guess the best example I can tell you is a high-ranking Taliban prisoner said, “You’ve got the watches, and we’ve got the time.” And that’s what is, is pervading this entire environment, the fact that they think we’re–that we’re going to leave. And if they believe that, then they are going to act very differently.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | No military adviser recommended to President Obama that he set a date of mid-2011 for the beginning of withdrawl of coalition forces from Afghanistan.

SEN. McCAIN: Look, I, I’m against a timetable. In wars, you declare when you’re leaving after you’ve succeeded. And, by the way, no military adviser recommended to the president that he set a date of the middle of 2011. So it was purely a political decision, not one based on facts on the ground, not based on military strategy or anything. Now…

MR. GREGORY: All–Senator, is that fair? All of his military advisers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Petraeus, General McChrystal, they all signed onto the idea…

SEN. McCAIN: They signed onto it…

MR. GREGORY: …of July. 2011. Well, isn’t it their obligation to say…

SEN. McCAIN: It’s not their idea.

MR. GREGORY: …that this is wrong?

SEN. McCAIN: In my view it is.

MR. GREGORY: Well, they didn’t do that, though.

SEN. McCAIN: In my view it is. They didn’t.

MR. GREGORY: So they were for it.

SEN. McCAIN: They didn’t do it. They didn’t do it, and they should have because they know better.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | The US timetable for withdrawal from Iraq was established after the “surge.” [or “after it was succeeding”]

SEN. McCAIN: We may need more troops. We may need more as we did…

MR. GREGORY: But did we do that in Iraq? Didn’t we set a timetable…

SEN. McCAIN: After.

MR. GREGORY: …after we surged up…

SEN. McCAIN: After we succeeded, after we were succeeding, yes indeed. And we should.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | US allies in the war in Afghanistan have not contributed the 10,000 troops as part of the overall 40,000 troop increase.

SEN. McCAIN: I think there should be constant reviews. And that review, by the way, will show that we have not seen the pace of success. And, by the way, we have not seen our allies contribute the 10,000 troops that were part of this overall strategy of 40,000 troops that would be engaged in this surge.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | [Not sure this is a check so much as an exchange in need of clarification]

MR. GREGORY: What are the consequences of success? Tom Friedman wrote in his column this week something very poignant, and I’ll put it up on the screen. “What do we win if we win? At least in Iraq, if we eventually produce a decent democratizing government, we will, at enormous cost, have changed the politics in a great Arab capital in the heart of the Arab Muslim world. That can have wide resonance. Change Afghanistan at enormous cost and you’ve changed Afghanistan-period. Afghanistan does not resonate.”

SEN. McCAIN: Well, I have the greatest respect for Tom Ridge, I think both books…

MR. GREGORY: Tom Friedman.

SEN. McCAIN: Excuse me, I’m sorry, Tom Ricks I have the greatest respect for.

MR. GREGORY: Yeah.

SEN. McCAIN: Mr. Friedman was wrong about Iraq. He said we couldn’t succeed in Iraq. He said we’d fail, we had to withdraw. Enough said.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | The Afghan Army consists of excellent fighters and is functioning properly.

SEN. McCAIN: It’s, it’s gauge–no, no. It’s, it’s again, like other counterinsurgencies, and this is a counterinsurgency based on the same principles but very different conditions than we had in Iraq. And that means that gradually we will clear, hold, make the people that support the government and against the Taliban, which they already are, an Afghan army–and, by the way, they are very excellent fighters that is functioning, and the corruption is a huge problem.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) | Elena Kagan showed “steadfast” and “zealous” opposition to military recruiters while at Harvard University.

SEN. McCAIN: I want to look at–watch the hearings. The hearings, I think, are always very important. But I’ll tell you one thing I’m disturbed about was her obvious steadfast and even zealous opposition to military recruiters, to the presence of military on the campus of the most prestigious university, in, in the view of many, in America.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ)

1) Phoenix, AZ averages the second highest numbers of kidnappings in the world.

2) A police chief in Nogales said that the officers are being told they will be murdered by the Mexican drug cartels.

3) As a result of  violence and the influence of the Mexican drug cartels, the Arizona [or US?] government has installed signs in the southern part of Arizona warning people they are in a drug and human smuggling area.

SEN. McCAIN: Not until we get the borders secure. By the way, on that issue, why is it that Phoenix, Arizona, is the number two kidnapping capital of the world? Does that mean our border’s safe? Of course not. Why is it that the police chief in Nogales reported that his police officers are being told they’re going to be murdered by the drug cartels on the other side of the border? The, the rise of violence and the influence of the drug cartels and the human smugglers have made our government put up signs in the southern part of the state of Arizona warning them that they are in a drug smuggling and human smuggling area of this country. That’s not, that’s not how America should…

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ)

1) The Mexican drug cartel movement across the border has “dramatically” increased.

2) 23,000 thousand people have been killed in Mexico in the last 3 years.

MR. GREGORY: Do you agree with the governor of Arizona who says that most people who come across the border illegally are actually drug mules?

SEN. McCAIN: No. I think that there’s a large number and I think she’s right in that the drug cartels movement has dramatically increased and the violence. Twenty-three thousand people, Mexicans, have been killed in the last three years in Mexico.

GEN. BARRY McCAFFREY (Ret.)

1) There have been 7,000 US casualties from the war in Afghanistan.

2) The war costs $5.4 billion a month.

3) The American public does not support the war.

GEN. McCAFFREY (Ret.): Sure. Look, this is a political dilemma, not a military one. There’s 7,000 killed and wounded, $5.4 billion a month, the American people don’t support the war. We have a goofy, incompetent Afghan government. We’re trying to build an Afghan security force and get it largely done in a very short period of time. None of this is going to work the way we’re going about it. So, again, back to, I think, the congresswoman’s remarks, you either got to pull out in, in a stated time frame with huge negative consequences, potentially, to Pakistan, the Afghans themselves, U.S. foreign policy; or you, you announce that we’re in there until we have achieved a stable political system in Afghanistan.

WES MOORE | During his deployment in Afghanistan, there were 19,000 US troops in the country.

MR. MOORE: Well, I think it’s important to understand that we are going on close to 10 years. But this war has not been a priority for close to 10 years. I mean, in the time when I was over there, we had around–a little over 19,000 troops on the ground to cover a land mass that is 50 percent larger than Iraq.

WES MOORE | There has been a 30% increase in Afghan security force participation.

MR. MOORE: Well, I think the indication that we have right now is that the system that we have in place and the systems that we put in place over the past few years are actually starting to show some results. We have a 30 percent increase in Afghan security force participation. We now are finally seeing complete integration between the civilian side and military side.

SEBASTIAN JUNGER

1) According to the Human Rights Watch organization, 16,000 Afghan civilians have died during the US war in Afghanistan.

2) According to the Human Rights Watch organization, 400,000 Afghan civilians died during the time of Taliban control.

MR. JUNGER: I’ve been reporting from Afghanistan since ’96, for the first 10 years of that, from the perspective of the civilian population. It’s of incredible concern to me. I mean, human–these are human rights watch figures. Since NATO has been there, 16,000 Afghan civilians have died in combat operations. It’s a horrifying number. That ended a period of violence in Afghanistan under the Taliban where 400,000 Afghans were killed.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA) | The American public does not support the war and would like it to end.

REP. LEE: The American people are war weary. This [Afghanstian] is an endless war, and they want it to come to an end.

SEBASTIAN JUNGER | According to polls in early 2002, 90% of Afghans supported the US invasion of Afghanistan.

MR. JUNGER: Let me just jump in. I was in Kabul in ’01 after Kabul fell, after the Taliban were toppled. I was getting hugged by Afghans because I was American, because they hated the Taliban so much. Ninety–I don’t know who does these surveys, 90 percent of Afghans–after 9/11, in early ’02, 90 percent of Afghans supported the U.S. military action that, that destroyed the Taliban. So you really–the word occupation really is not accurate.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA) | General Jones said that there are less than 100 members of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

REP. LEE: David, General…

MR. GREGORY: Yeah, yeah.

REP. LEE: …Jones actually indicated that, I believe, less than 100 members of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

TOM RICKS (Foreign Policy) | Military personnel make up 1% of the US population.

MR. RICKS: Yeah. It reminds me of something Ryan Crocker, the ambassador in Iraq, used to say, “Just because you walk out of a movie doesn’t mean it’s over.” Just because you walk out of Afghanistan doesn’t mean it’s over. We’re all sick of the war in Afghanistan. Nobody’s sicker than the U.S. military. I actually think one reason McChrystal blew up on the launching pad was because he and his guys are tired. They’ve been doing this for years. The U.S. military is 1 percent of this country, and it’s carrying 99 percent of the burden of the war.

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the June 20, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.
Transcript | Video

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. (Anonymity is fine) Also let us know how long you spent researching each fact, we will be tracking it. The success of Meet the Facts depends on the crowd-sourcing of people like you, please help if you can!

Statements are listed in chronological order

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA) | [Confirm existence of document]

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA):  Right now, again, we’re dependent upon BP and the execution of their capacity to be able to put a cap over this well.  I actually have a document that shows that BP actually believes it could go upwards of 100,000 barrels per day, which would be about four million barrels a day.

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA) | Canada deliberately spills oil in water to practice their clean up efforts.

SEN. LANDRIEU: I learned this week that Canada and–as one country, for instance–does spills into their water to practice in the event that this would happen.

JOHN HOFMEISTER | Jones Act prevents use of foreign ships from assisting with the oil spill cleanup.
REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA) | Jones Act does not prevent use of foreign ships from assisting with the oil spill cleanup.

MR. HOFMEISTER:  Well, there’s a Jones Act that gets in the way.  The Jones Act, decades-long enforced, prevents foreign ships from operating in domestic waters.
MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.
MR. HOFMEISTER:  It would have to have a waiver.  There was a waiver after Katrina to help do whatever needed to be done.  There should be a waiver now. This is a unique, unprecedented situation.  The U.S. hasn’t made supertankers in–ever.  Supertankers have always been made in foreign shipbuilding yards.  And we need to bring that kind of scale to bear, in my opinion.
MR. GREGORY:  Congressman, you’re shaking your head.  You don’t…
REP. MARKEY:  The, the Jones Act, the Jones Act does not apply to situations like this, emergency situations, relief situations.
MR. GREGORY:  You should be able to get those ships in there right away.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS)

1) The Mississippi government recruited 1163 vessels to help with spill cleanup.
2) Coast Guard communications issues prevented the use of those vessels [ED NOTE: is that what he was saying?]

GOV. BARBOUR:  Yeah, David, I was just, I was–well, I was just going to say, Senator Landrieu made a point earlier about command and control, which has been a huge problem.  We recruited 1,200–1,163 vessels to work on our spill, designed a multilayered plan to start defending our shores 20 miles south of the barrier islands.  And then, unfortunately, the Coast Guard told us weeks later, “Well, we don’t have a way to communicate with those vessels.  We don’t have a way to identify even where they are, and so we’ve been relying for about three weeks on a system that existed but couldn’t be executed.” To their credit, in the last two weeks the Coast Guard has, has, has corrected that or begun the correction of that.

DAVID GREGORY (NBC) | Obama made a promise to leave the Gulf Coast (of Gulf of Mexico) in better shape than it was before the oil spill. [ED NOTE: Statement is listed because it seems possibly unclear, from the quote used, whether Obama was actually promising or making a statement of belief.]

MR. GREGORY:  Can I have you respond ultimately, Governor, to the sense of what government is capable of here?  Because that’s what people are really thinking about in the long term.  Here’s what the president said.  He issued a promise when he was in Alabama, Theodore, Alabama, this week.  Let’s listen to that.
(Videotape, Monday)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA:  We are going to do everything we can 24/7 to make sure that communities get back on their feet.  And in the end, I am confident that we’re going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before.
(End videotape)
MR. GREGORY:  “In better shape than it was before.” That caught my eye and my team because we went back to 2005, President Bush speaking in New Orleans, and this is among the promises he made.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS) | The $20 billion BP has promised is broken up into $5 billion increments over a period of four years.

GOV. BARBOUR:  Right.  Well, I thought that they were talking about taking $20 billion from BP all at once, and my fear was if you took $20 billion from them all at once, put it in an escrow account, then they wouldn’t have the working capital to generate the revenue to pay us.  I think the president was smart, and I congratulate him and BP that they reached an agreement.  Instead of $20 billion taken out of that working capital all at once, it’s actually going to be $5 billion this year, $5 billion the next year, $5 billion the following year and $5 billion the fourth year.

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA)

1) Oil industry had said that the risks of an oil rig ever sinking were zero [%].
2) Oil industry had said that they had the capacity to handle a spill of up to 250,000 barrels a day.

REP. MARKEY:  I, I agree with you.  When an agency responsible for safety turns into a lapdog and not a watchdog, then, unfortunately, boosterism creates complacency, and complacency leads to disaster.  It happened in the financial sector.  Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns and AIG, they all said, “There’s no risk with derivatives and credit default swaps.  Don’t worry.” And it created a financial disaster.  The same thing was true here.  The industry said that the risks of a rig ever sinking were zero.  Their capacity to handle a spill up to 250,000 barrels per day was absolute.  None of it was true.  And so, if you allow this risk to be built into the system, then it’s ordinary families’ financial and health and well-being which is affected, and the government has to play the role of protecting ordinary people against the short-term financial goals of companies that are going to assure the public that everything is safe.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS)

1) 30% of US domestic oil production comes from Gulf of Mexico.
2) 80% of Gulf of Mexico US oil production comes from deepwater wells.
3) 25% of US domestic oil production comes from deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

GOV. BARBOUR:  Well, the moratorium.  The skill–the spill’s a terrible thing, but the moratorium is a, is a terrible thing that’s not only bad for the region, it’s bad for America.  Thirty percent of the oil produced in the United States comes out of the Gulf of Mexico, and 80 percent of that is from deepwater drilling.  So that’s a fourth of all of our oil.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS) | President Obama told a San Francisco newspaper that under his cap and trade plan, electricity plans [rates] would necessarily skyrocket.

GOV. BARBOUR:  As President Obama said, under–he told a San Francisco paper, and I quote, “Under my cap and trade plan, electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.” One of the things President Obama and I agree on.

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA) | Gov. Barbour’s Obama quote was from three years ago.

REP. MARKEY:  The governor is wrong.  And the governor is using something that then Senator Obama said three years ago, not the Waxman-Markey Bill along with senator–along with Speaker Pelosi that we passed through the House last year.  What we do is we create a, a program of market-based incentives so that we move towards wind and solar, towards geothermal, towards biomass, towards plug-in hybrids, towards all-electric vehicles; efficiency, doubling the efficiency of the homes and the, and the buildings that we work in; moving in a way that captures the innovation, captures the science lead that we have on the rest of our country.  And over time it will actually lead to lower electricity, lower energy bills for our country.  We only have 2 percent of the oil reserves in the world, and we consume 25 percent of the world’s oil on a daily basis.  That is nonsustainable.  Either we have this technological revolution going forward while we keep the oil and gas and coal that we have, but unless we unleash this market-based revolution and make it possible for us to back out the oil from OPEC, make sure China isn’t selling all of these new products to us…

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Here are the statements to fact-check from the June 13, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.
Transcript | Video

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Statements are listed in chronological order

TONY HAYWARD (BP) | (from ad) Thousands of BP employees live near the Gulf of Mexico.

MR. TONY HAYWARD:  To those affected in your families, I’m deeply sorry.  The Gulf is home for thousands of BP employees

DAVID AXELROD | Obama administration insisted BP drill two relief wells instead of one.

MR. AXELROD:  They wanted to drill one relief well, which is ultimately the answer to, to shutting down that well completely.  We said, “No, you’re going to drill two,” because if one didn’t work we want to make sure there was a back, a backstop.

DAVID AXELROD | Obama administration has brought in outside experts that have developed more effective methods for capturing the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon leak.

MR. AXELROD:  And understand, when the president says he’s talking to experts, we’ve assembled under the, under the chairmanship of our secretary of energy a group of, of the best minds in an out of government, and they’ve been guiding a lot of what’s happened a lot–this effort to capture the oil is largely working better now because of theories that were developed by this outside group.

DAVID AXELROD

In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, relief efforts have included the addition of 26,000 personnel.

In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, relief efforts have included the placing of 5 million feet of boom.

In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, relief efforts have included the mobilization of 5,500 vessels.

In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, relief efforts have included 200 oil burns.

MR. AXELROD:  We’ve got–we’ve put 26,000 personnel on the ground, we’ve put down five million feet of boom, we’ve mobilized 5,500 vessels into the Gulf to deal with this.  We’ve [had] 200 burns of oil.

(ED NOTE: DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ & DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN ALSO CITE STATS FOR THIS SUBJECT IN THIS SHOW)

DAVID AXELROD

When Obama took office, the US economy was losing 750,000 jobs a month

When Obama took office, the US economy was losing 6.4% [unclear what Axelrod meant]

MR. AXELROD:  when he took office, the day he walked in the door, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month, we were losing 6.4 percent in our economy.

DAVID AXELROD | In the past three months the US economy has gained [we assume he meant gain] 140,000 new jobs per month

MR. AXELROD:  Now the economy is growing, now in the last three months we’ve averaged 140,000 jobs a month

DAVID AXELROD | Without additional assistance from the federal government, hundreds of thousands of school teachers will lose their jobs. [though he seems to walk back this assertion in his next comment]

MR. AXELROD:  But it’s clear we’re not out of the woods and we have to keep working at this; and that, and that’s certainly the prospect–the state governments are lagging behind.  The prospect that hundreds of thousands of school teachers, for example, are going to be laid off because of this…

DAVID GREGORY (NBC)

The US economy’s job growth last month included 41,000 private sector jobs.

US companies are hoarding cash, not spending it in the private sector.

Consumers have been cutting back on their retail spending.

MR. GREGORY:  Because you had, you had private sector job growth of 41,000 jobs last month, that was all.  You have companies that are hoarding cash, not spending it in the private sector.  You have consumers who are cutting down on their retail spending.

DAVID AXELROD

The currency situation in Greece and Europe negatively effected US consumer confidence.

On Friday, (June 11, 2010) the Consumer Confidence Index was up to a two-year high.

MR. AXELROD:  Well, David, you and I both know that there have been intervening events such as the crisis in Greece and the European currency situation.  So that has had an impact on confidence as well.  We were in a pretty good skein there.  But there are mixed signals.  On Friday the Consumer Confidence Index was up to a two-year high.  I mean, there are, there are mixed signals…

DAVID AXELROD

One of the mistakes made by Japan in dealing with their economic problems in the 1990’s was that they pulled out of their stimulative effort too quickly.

One of the mistakes made by the US in dealing with their economic problems in the 1930’s was that they pulled out of their stimulative effort too quickly.

MR. AXELROD:  …and that’s what generally happens in recovery.  But we don’t take anything for granted.  We have to keep pushing forward, and we should not be careless about pulling out of our, out of our stimulative effort too quickly.  That, that mistake was made in Japan in the ’90s, and… [Gregory comment] …and they had a decade of deflation.  That was–mistake was made in the ’30s in the United States.  We’re not going to make the same mistake.

DAVID AXELROD

In 1994 the Republican Party had a nearly 60% favorability rating.

Today, the Republican Party is at an all time low in favorability.

MR. AXELROD:  Look, the Republican Party–everybody says, “Is this 1994?” In 1994 the Republican Party was nearly at 60 percent in favorability.  Today, they’re at an all-time low.

DAVID AXELROD | In the past 16 months half of al-Qaeda’s leadership [assuming he means in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region] have been killed.

MR. AXELROD:  In the last 16 months, we have, we have damaged al-Qaeda in a way that hasn’t occurred since the beginning. Half their–of their top 20 leadership has been killed or captured because we’ve got cooperation on the Pakistan side of the border from Pakistan and because of our operations in Afghanistan.

CARLY FIORINA

There are reports of 13 separate federal agencies working on the Deepwater Horizon relief effort.

There are reports those agencies are not well coordinated.

There are reports of potentially useful cleanup equipment going unused in warehouses.

There are reports of local officials not getting the assistance they are requesting.

MS. FIORINA:  When we hear that there are 13 separate federal government agencies running around in confusion down there, when we hear that there is equipment that could be used to help clean up the Gulf sitting in warehouses, when we hear that there is assistance that is being pleaded for by local officials and that assistance is not coming,

CARLY FIORINA | Ken Salazar brought in the leader of the MMS, and he said it was to reform the agency.

MS. FIORINA:  despite the fact that the leader of MMS had been brought in by Ken Salazar in a move to reform the agency, according to him?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL)

The Republican party allowed the [oil] industry and the private sector [of the oil industry] to regulate themselves. [assume she means during the Bush administration]

When the Repulican party presided over the MMS [assume she means during the Bush administration]:

MMS regulators went on trips/vactions with oil industry executives.

MMS regulators had sex with oil industry executives.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL):  Where, where were the regulators? This from a party who has singlehandedly allowed industry and the private sector to regulate themselves, who presided over a, an agency in MMS that was so cozy with regulators–was so cozy with the oil industry executives that they were going on trips with them, taking vacations, even sleeping with them?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL) | Relief efforts for the Deepwater Horizon oil leak have included the authorization by President Obama of 17,500 members of the National Guard.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL):  President Obama has commanded over 5,000 vessels in the region to make sure that they are involved in the cleanup, 26,000 federal employees involved in the cleanup down there, mobilized and authorized up to 17,500 members of the National Guard, and is on his way down to the Gulf region for the fourth time.

CARLY FIORINA | The last head of the MMS (who recently resigned) came from the oil industry.

MS. FIORINA:  And may I just say, it was Ken Salazar who put in place the secretary or the head of MMS who just recently resigned and who came from the industry.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL) | The last MMS head (who recently resigned) came from the U.S. House of Representatives.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ:  The head of MMS was from the House of Representatives.  Liz Birnbaum came from the U.S.  House of Representatives. She was an employee for many years, and then she moved from the House of Representatives to MMS.

CARLY FIORINA | The last head of the MMS resigned because she failed to reform the department.

MS. FIORINA:  And she was forced to resign because of her failure to reform the department as she promised to.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

Women now make up 60% of college graduates.

Women now make up 68% of master’s degree graduates.

Women now make up almost 42% of MBA graduates.

MS. GOODWIN:  But I think something is different here.  I think what’s different is underneath, there’s a social revolution that’s gone on in the last 20 years.  Women are now 60 percent college graduates, 68 percent master degree graduates.  More PhDs, more–almost 42 percent MBAs.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL) | The NRCC has put out a list of 104 “young guns” races, of which seven are for women candidates.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ:  We have 104 members that the NRCC–a 104 races that the NRCC has put on their “young guns” watch list.  Of those–and they had a much ballyhooed aggressive attempt to recruit top female candidates–they have seven women out of 104 on that list

ROGER SIMON (POLITICO) | In this election season only two of 217 house members lost their primaries.

MR. SIMON:  That may be true, but it’s important to keep in mind that all but two of the 217 House members who ran for re-election won their primaries

CARLY FIORINA | Since the institution of the stimulus package, unemployment numbers have gone up substantially. [because of the context of her larger statement, an assumption can be made that she meant “because of the stimulus” as well]

MS. FIORINA:  Since the institution of the stimulus package, our unemployment picture has deteriorated substantially.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL)

Carly Fiorina is “pro-gun” [what does that mean?].

Carly Fiorina is pro-life.

Carly Fiorina supports expanded offshore drilling as a solution to our energy problems.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ:  Craig***(as spoken)***you’ll note, you’ll note that Carly didn’t mention anything that she disagrees with the Republican Party because she essentially doesn’t.  She’s pro-gun, she’s anti-choice, she supports expanded offshore oil drilling as a solution to our energy problems.

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