This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/us/politics/fact-check-december-debate.html
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Fact-Checking the December Democratic Debate | Fact-Checking the December Democratic Debate |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Seven candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination took the debate stage Thursday night in Los Angeles for the sixth round of debates. | Seven candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination took the debate stage Thursday night in Los Angeles for the sixth round of debates. |
| Here is how the candidates’ remarks stacked up against the truth. | Here is how the candidates’ remarks stacked up against the truth. |
| What They’re Talking About | What They’re Talking About |
| What Mr. Buttigieg Said: | What Mr. Buttigieg Said: |
| “Senator, your net worth is 100 times mine.” | “Senator, your net worth is 100 times mine.” |
| According to Forbes, Ms. Warren has a net worth of $12 million, or 120 times Mr. Buttigieg’s net worth of $100,000. | According to Forbes, Ms. Warren has a net worth of $12 million, or 120 times Mr. Buttigieg’s net worth of $100,000. |
| Ms. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, were both professors at Harvard University and added to their wealth through retirement funds available to teachers. Forbes reported that their home, bought in 1995 for $447,000, is now worth an estimated $3 million. | Ms. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, were both professors at Harvard University and added to their wealth through retirement funds available to teachers. Forbes reported that their home, bought in 1995 for $447,000, is now worth an estimated $3 million. |
| Mr. Buttigieg is the least wealthy Democratic contender. The disparity between their net worths reflects a generational wealth gap between millennials and boomers. | Mr. Buttigieg is the least wealthy Democratic contender. The disparity between their net worths reflects a generational wealth gap between millennials and boomers. |
| what they’re talking about | what they’re talking about |
| What Mr. Buttigieg said: | What Mr. Buttigieg said: |
| “Senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big ticket fund-raisers you now denounce. Did it corrupt you, Senator? Of course not.” | |
| As The New York Times reported in September, Ms. Warren transferred $10.4 million in leftover funds from her 2018 Senate campaign to underwrite her 2020 presidential run. Some of that money was raised under the same guidelines she is now running against. | As The New York Times reported in September, Ms. Warren transferred $10.4 million in leftover funds from her 2018 Senate campaign to underwrite her 2020 presidential run. Some of that money was raised under the same guidelines she is now running against. |
| However, The Times noted that there was no way to say exactly how much of the $10.4 million Ms. Warren transferred from 2018 was attributable to large donations. Records show about $6 million of her Senate funds also came from donors who gave at least $1,000. | |
| Still, Ms. Warren’s criticism of Mr. Buttigieg for holding a fund-raiser in a Napa Valley “wine cave” could leave her open to some cries of hypocrisy. Last year, Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania, recruited donors to attend a fund-raising dinner for Ms. Warren at Barclay Prime in Philadelphia. The steakhouse serves a $120 cheesesteak that includes Wagyu rib-eye, foie gras, truffled cheese whiz and a half-bottle of champagne. | |
| Mr. Rendell said that Ms. Warren sent him a “glowing” thank-you letter. | |
| What the facts are | What the facts are |
| What Mr. Biden said: | What Mr. Biden said: |
| “I got in a big fight for a long time with the Pentagon because I strongly opposed the nation-building notion we set about. Rebuilding that country as a whole nation is beyond our capacity. I argued from the very beginning that we should have a policy that was based on an antiterrorism policy with a very small footprint that in fact only had special forces to deal with potential threats from that territory to the United States of America.” | |
| This is true. In 2009, he did propose this, during a period of reassessment of Afghanistan strategy, but President Barack Obama at the time sided with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, choosing to add to the American troop presence. | |
| Later, in 2011, Mr. Obama supported Mr. Biden’s proposal for a drawdown and ordered the departure of 30,000 troops by the summer of 2012. | Later, in 2011, Mr. Obama supported Mr. Biden’s proposal for a drawdown and ordered the departure of 30,000 troops by the summer of 2012. |
| What the Facts Are | What the Facts Are |
| What Mr. Sanders Said: | What Mr. Sanders Said: |
| “Today in America, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth.” | |
| This is mostly true. The United States has a childhood poverty rate of 21.2 percent. That is high among peer nations — the rate in Finland is 3.6 percent — but lower than that of six other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Chile (21.5 percent), Spain (22.2 percent), Israel (23.7 percent), Turkey (25.3 percent), Costa Rica (28.4 percent) and South Africa (32 percent). | |
| What they’re talking about | What they’re talking about |
| What Ms. Warren said: | What Ms. Warren said: |
| “For 2 cents, what can we do? We can invest in the rest of America. We can provide universal child care, early childhood education, for every baby in this country age 0 to 5. Universal pre-K for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old. And raise the wages of every child-care worker and preschool teacher. We can do even more for our public schools, for college graduates. We can cancel student loan debt.” | |
| Ms. Warren made a similar claim during the debate last month. Here is what we said about it then: The revenue that Ms. Warren would raise from her tax proposal is a subject of intense debate and it is not clear that her wealth tax could pay for the plans she listed. According to a New York Times analysis, the total cost of Ms. Warren’s plans for universal child care, increased spending on public schools, student debt cancellation and free college would be about $2.9 trillion over a decade. The two Berkeley economists advising her campaign, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, estimate that her wealth tax would generate $2.75 trillion over that period of time. If that is correct, then Ms. Warren would be close to being able to pay for those proposals. (Ms. Warren has recently revised her wealth tax proposal, and Mr. Saez and Mr. Zucman have refined their calculations but the general conclusions are the same.) | |
| But other economists disagree, arguing that a wealth tax would spur waves of new loopholes and tax evasion efforts. Lawrence H. Summers, a Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Natasha Sarin, a law and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, estimated that Ms. Warren’s wealth tax would raise just 40 percent of what her campaign claims. | But other economists disagree, arguing that a wealth tax would spur waves of new loopholes and tax evasion efforts. Lawrence H. Summers, a Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Natasha Sarin, a law and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, estimated that Ms. Warren’s wealth tax would raise just 40 percent of what her campaign claims. |
| If Ms. Warren’s tax proposals raise less revenue than she projects, it will be difficult to pay for her grand plans without adding to the deficit. | If Ms. Warren’s tax proposals raise less revenue than she projects, it will be difficult to pay for her grand plans without adding to the deficit. |
| what the facts are | what the facts are |
| What Mr. Sanders Said: | What Mr. Sanders Said: |
| “My good friend Joe, and he is a good friend, he’s received contributions from 44 billionaires. Pete on the other hand, is trailing, Pete. You only got 39 billionaires contributing.” | “My good friend Joe, and he is a good friend, he’s received contributions from 44 billionaires. Pete on the other hand, is trailing, Pete. You only got 39 billionaires contributing.” |
| This is true. Mr. Sanders is referring to a Forbes analysis of each Democratic campaign’s billionaire donors. The magazine did count 44 billionaires for Mr. Biden to 40 for Mr. Buttigieg (so he has caught up a bit more than Mr. Sanders said). Both men lag behind Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who has 45 billionaire contributors. The Forbes analysis was of contributions to the candidates’ campaign committees by the billionaires or their spouses. Contributions to campaigns are limited to $2,800 per person. | |
| Ms. Warren has six billionaire contributors, while Mr. Sanders himself had one — though his campaign told Forbes it would return the check. | Ms. Warren has six billionaire contributors, while Mr. Sanders himself had one — though his campaign told Forbes it would return the check. |
| Fact-checks provided by Linda Qiu and Alan Rappeport. |