Below are the statements that seem to be the most important to confirm from this week’s Meet the Press. Lots to look into this week. Help us research them and either email us your work or (preferably) post it in the comments below. We will publish the results as they become available. Please include all your work, sources/links/etc, and also tell us how much time you spent.


SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER | When Elena Kagan ran HLS, it had a $160 mil. budget and 500 employees

SEN. SCHUMER: To have someone practical, someone who ran a big legal business, Harvard Law School–which she ran by all reports very well, $160 million budget, 500 people.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER | Justices Marshall, Frankfurter, Jackson, and Rehnquist had limited/no judicial experience CHECKED: HALF TRUE

SEN. SCHUMER: And this idea that she has to be a judge and has judicial writing, some of our greatest justices had no judicial–Justice Marshall, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Jackson. Rehnquist, who many conservatives would consider a great justice, had about as much judicial experience as Kagan has.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER | NYC’s anti-terrorism funding was cut by 27% – will only get 12% of port anti-terrorism funding

MR. GREGORY: And we’ll put that up on the screen. “For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don’t get it and are not doing right by New York City on anti-terrorism funding.” You say it was cut by 27 percent. Secretary Napolitano of Homeland Security says, “Hey, wait a minute. New York has unused anti-terror funding available to it now.” And you got additional stimulus money to help in this regard. What’s at issue here?

SEN. SCHUMER: Should New York get only 12 percent of the port anti-terrorism security funding? You know, Secretary Napolitano points out that not all the money is spent. That’s how Washington works. Bottom line is, a lot of the money hasn’t been spent because FEMA, an agency under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security, hasn’t spent it.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER | When Sec. Napolitano says not all the NYC anti-terrorism money has been spent, her context is incorrect.

SEN. SCHUMER: In other words, when you do a three-year contract to put in radiation detectors, she’s saying “Well, years two and three haven’t been spent yet.” That’s true. But they’ve been accounted for.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER | Polls indicated the stimulus package is getting more popular CHECKED: FALSE

SEN. SCHUMER: The stimulus, which was unpopular at first, now, if you look at the polls, is getting more popular.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | Elena Kagan argued it would be OK to ban books/pamphletsCHECKED: MOSTLY TRUE (but highly misleading)

SEN. McCONNELL: Number one, the, the case that Chuck Schumer mentioned, the Citizen’s United case, which was a blow for the First Amendment, a very important free-speech case. Solicitor Kagan’s office in the initial hearing argued that it’d be OK to ban books. And then when there was a rehearing Solicitor Kagan herself, in her first Supreme Court argument, suggested that it might be OK to ban pamphlets.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | Elena Kagan attempted to ban military recruiters from HLS and the Supreme Court decided 8-0 against that position – CHECKED: TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: Secondly is the issue of the military recruitment at Harvard.  She took the position that Harvard should not allow military recruiters at the law school, later supported that position in a decision in the–in a, in a case in the court system that ended up with the Supreme Court ruling 8-to-nothing against the position that she took.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | Pres. Obama, VP Biden, Sen. Harry Reid, & Sen. Patrick Leahy filibustered the S.C. nomination  of Sam Alito CHECKED: TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: the way Sam Alito was, who was filibustered by the president, the vice president, the Democratic leader and the chairman of the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | Sen. McConnell has never filibustered a S.C. nomination CHECKED: TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: I’ve never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | While running HLS, Elena Kagan decided they would take their chances re: losing fed funding after banning recruiters

SEN. McCONNELL: Well, you left out the most important point, and that was that the law, the Solomon Amendment, required that military recruiters be allowed on campus or the university give up their federal funding. So I think a more appropriate response might have been to follow the law. I think it’s something we’re going to look into at the committee because the decision was apparently made, “We’ll take our chances on federal funding by not allowing those recruiters at Harvard Law School.”

MR. GREGORY: Right. But they did, of course, have access to students through other military groups and, and veterans groups associated with campus.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The US receives 30% of it’s oil from the Gulf. W/o it gas would be $14 (a gallon) – CHECKED: FALSE if consumption, TRUE if production

SEN. McCONNELL: As horrible as this is, it’s important to remember that we get 30 percent of our oil from the Gulf and, if you shut that down, you’d have $14 gasoline.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. is running banks, insurance companies, and car companies

SEN. McCONNELL: They’re running banks, insurance companies, car companies.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. has nationalized the student loan business, resulting in the loss of 31K private jobs – CHECKED (Jobs #): FALSE

SEN. McCONNELL: They nationalized the student loan business, which will kill 31,000 private sector jobs.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. has “taken over” the health care industry

SEN. McCONNELL: They’ve taken over health care.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. financial regulation plan will “take over” the financial services industry

SEN. McCONNELL: They’re in amount–they’re about to do to financial services what they did to health care.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. FCC is trying to “take over” the internet

SEN. McCONNELL: Their appointees over at the FCC are trying to take over the Internet.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | The Obama admin. will have doubled the national debt in the next 5 years, triple it in 10 – CHECKED: TRUE

SEN. McCONNELL: They’ve doubled the national debt in the last–will double the national debt in the next five years, triple it in 10.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL  | During the Obama admin.  3,000 private sector jobs have been lost and 260,000 government jobs have been added

SEN. McCONNELL: What we know right now is there have been 3,000 private sector jobs lost when the president–since the president came to office. We know they’ve added 260,000 government jobs. We know the only boomtown in America is Washington because they’re exploding government employment, hiring new government workers by borrowing money from our grandchildren.

JONATHAN ALTER  | In Jan 2009 the US economy was losing 740K jobs a month. Now it is gaining 250K jobs a month. CHECKED: MOSTLY TRUE

MR. ALTER: When Barack Obama came to office, the economy was losing 740,000 jobs a month in January of 2009. We’re now adding about 250,000 jobs a month

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU (from McCain political ad) | Half the unauthorized immigrants in the US enter through Arizona

SHERIFF PAUL BABEU (Pinal County, Arizona): We’re outmanned. Of all the illegals in America, more than half come through Arizona.

MIKE MURPHY | Violent crime in Arizona as a result of unauthorized immigration has increased during the Obama admin. / Obama admin has done nothing – CHECKED: FALSE

MR. MURPHY: It’s a lawless frontier because of the failure of the Obama administration to protect the American border…

MR. GREGORY: Right. This goes back before Obama, though, to be fair.

MR. MURPHY: It–but it’s gotten, it’s gotten worse and worse…People are getting killed and murdered. It has become really bad in Arizona. It’s a crisis the Obama people have failed to address. They’ve had a year to do something, they’ve done nothing.

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