Friday, July 29, 2016

Fact checking Hillary Clinton at Democratic convention on jobs, income gains, border security

 Associated Press photo by J. Scott Applewhite
Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic National Convention by accepting the nomination for president. Fact-checkers looked at her speech and those of other speakers. If you want to re-publish them, we encourage you to look at reports by The Washington Post's Fact Checker unit, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org for full context and things you may want to add.

Clinton said the U.S. has created “nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs” under President Obama, but that depends on when you start counting. Post fact-checkers Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Le write, "The economy has added 14.8 million private-sector jobs since February 2010, the low point after the Great Recession, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the gain is 10.5 million private-sector jobs from the start of President Obama’s presidency." Robert Farley of FactCheck.org notes that the number drops to 10.1 million "when accounting for the loss of 460,000 public jobs."

"Clinton misrepresented Donald Trump’s 'I alone can fix it' line, suggesting he said he could fix everything by himself," Farley reports. Trump was referring to a 'rigged' system, and went on to talk about working with others." Clinton also "said '90 percent' of income gains 'have gone to the top 1 percent.' But that is an outdated figure, Farley reports: It’s now 52 percent.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "now covers more than 40 million more Americans," which was off base. Kessler and Lee write, "Pelosi’s prepared text said '20 million Americans.' But in a case of over-exuberance, she doubled the figure. This 20 million figure comes from a March 2016 estimate by the Department of Health and Human Services that was intended to show how many people gained insurance through the Affordable Care Act since full implementation in 2013. But it’s not necessarily precise, since it is based on survey data. . . . Not only did she double the figure, but she suggested that 40 million people currently have insurance they would not have gained before the law. (Clinton, in her speech, got the number right.)"

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