The following is a fact-check from the July 18, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.

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 – MOSTLY TRUE

2) At the end of the Bush [43] administration, the U.S. had a $1.5 trillion budget deficit – TRUE

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

1) According to the Treasury Department, when George W. Bush took office in 2001 the national debt was $5.73 trillion and when Bush left office in 2009, the national debt had increased to $10.63 trillion. That’s a 85% increase of $4.9 trillion. Sen. Menendez is off by 13%, but he is correct in the underlying message that the national debt did significantly increase under George W. Bush. Thus, we rate Sen. Menendez’s statement MOSTLY TRUE.

2) According to the Congressional Budget Office, under former president Bill Clinton there was a budget surplus in 1999 ($1.9 billion) and in 2000 ($86.4 billion). But the surpluses in 1999 and 2000 were not enough to eliminate the national debt. When the federal government spends more money than it takes in, that’s a deficit. When the government takes in more money than it spends, that’s a surplus (Treasury Department budget FAQs). Though former president Bill Clinton had two consecutive surplus years, the U.S. national debt actually increased $400 billion over his term (1992 to 2000).

When former president Bill Clinton left office in 2000 there was a $86.4 billion surplus. When former president George W. Bush left office in 2008 there was a $1.5 trillion budget deficit. Because Sen. Menendez was correct in stating that there was a $1.5 trillion budget deficit when George W. Bush left office and the budget surplus that Bill Clinton left from his presidency had turned into a deficit, we rate Sen. Menendez’s statement TRUE.

Special thanks to crowd-sourcer Shelley for assisting with this fact-check.

This fact-check took a combined 2.5 hours.

The following is a fact-check from the July 18, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

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 – TRUE

2) Over the course of the Bush [43] administration 600,000 private sector jobs were lost – TRUE

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.

1) We tracked down the Washington Post/ABC News poll and according to their statistics, 75% don’t trust the Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country’s future. 24 percent do, which is up 5 points from October. 68% don’t trust decision-making by the Democrats in Congress, up 12 points since January. Distrust is high in both parties, but since the distrust is higher for the Republicans (75%) than the Democrats (68%), we rate Rep. Van Hollen’s statement TRUE.

2) According to the BLS seasonally adjusted figures, there were 111,624,000 people employed in the private sector at the end of February 2001, and 110,961,000 people at the end of January 2009. That’s a total decrease of 663,000 jobs. Although, there is a disparity of 63,000 jobs between the actual number and Rep. Van Hollen’s statement, he understated the number, which works against his interests.  Thus, we rate Rep. Van Hollen’s statement TRUE.

Special thanks to crowd-sourcer Shelley for assisting with this fact-check.

This fact-check took a combined 1.5 hours.

The following is a fact-check from the July 18, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

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

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.

According to the April CBS News/New York Times poll that looked at the makeup of the Tea Party, 54% of members call themselves Republicans, 41% call themselves Independents, and 5% call themselves Democrats. In an earlier March USA Today/Gallup poll, 49% of Tea Party members called themselves Republicans, 43% Independents, and 8% referred to themselves as Democrats. That same poll was used with two other Gallup polls, the latest in June, all together indicating even less consider themselves Independents or Democrats:

Since we prefer to take a look at statements in a fairly technical sense, Rep. Sessions does preface his statement with “I think it’s clear to me that” which could be used to show he is stating his opinion rather than a fact. However, it seems fairly obvious to us that he was attempting to state that the Tea Party is almost perfectly balanced ideologically, but it’s reasonable to assume he has seen/heard the heavily reported data that has indicated the opposite. Frankly, we are also inclined to give none of the guests this week any benefit of the doubt, as all are party campaign committee chairmen and spoke so often in talking points.

Sooner or later we may need to come up with a stronger worded conclusion than “FALSE” for statements like this, but for now, because there is no basis in any data we could find to correlate Rep. Sessions’ statement that the Tea Party is made of up of equal parts Republican, Democrat and Independent, we rate his statement FALSE.

This fact-check took a combined 2 hours.

UPDATE/ED NOTE: As a rule, Meet the Facts will never weigh in on whether or not a statement is a “lie” – it is simply impossible to ever know for sure if someone is deliberately making a false statement. Obviously lying is most likely commonplace in the world of politics, but it is not something we believe we have the right to conclude on one way or the other. We believe readers can and will make up their own minds.

**A previous version of this post included a typo incorrectly stating that Rep. Sessions represented the state of Alabama, he represents the 32nd district of Texas.**

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.

Did we miss something? Let us know!

If you can help us research them please either email us or (preferably) post your work in the comments below. Also also let us know how long you spent researching each fact.

THANKS!

Identifying and posting these statements took 3 hours.

POST YOUR RESEARCH HERE