US Senate debate produces some questionable claims
Sen. Kay Hagan and state House Speaker Thom Tillis met for the first of two scheduled debates Wednesday, and both used some lines that rang bells with WRAL’s fact checking staff.
Here are some of the claims from both Hagan and Tillis from the debate that stood out to us and where they rate on our fact checking scale if we can make a call on the spot.
Tillis to Hagan: "Since you’ve been in Washington, you’ve voted with President Obama 95 percent of the time." This is true, but as we found in previous posts, it leaves out a lot of context. Green light, but voters should know more.
Hagan: "I am the most moderate senator in the nation." Hagan makes this claim based on a National Journal ranking. It’s worth noting there are other scales that rate how conservative or liberal a senator is. Tillis hasn’t articulated much of a health care platform one way or the other,
titleist 915 d3, but he has expressed support for a congressional budget that would have involved vouchers for private insurance.
Hagan on Tillis: "Speaker Tillis has denied Medicaid expansion in North Carolina." Hagan went on to say that the move denied coverage to 500,000 North Carolinians. Tillis was indeed part of the Republican legislative leadership that pushed a bill that blocked Gov. Pat McCrory from expanding Medicaid without permission. There is pretty good evidence that "roughly 500,000 low income people in North Carolina were expected to gain coverage through Medicaid expansion." Green light. That’s nearly double the number of ‘cancellations,’ even though North Carolina was a state that chose not to accept the provision of expanded Medicaid in the law." Red Light.
Tillis: "We passed,
titleist 915 d3, this year, one of the largest pay increases for teachers." Politicians have to be very careful with regard to this claim. Was this year’s pay raise "one of the biggest" in state history? Yes, because "one of" is poorly defined. Was it, as Tillis said later in the debate, "the single largest pay increase for teachers in 20 years?" Barely. In 1994, the General Assembly gave teachers with more than three years in the profession a 7 percent raise. Those with one to three years in got a 5 percent raise. Yellow light, and it’s turning quick.
Hagan, speaking about unemployment insurance, said Tillis "actually said ‘no’ to $780 million coming to North Carolina." Hagan was referencing a 2013 state bill that changed North Carolina’s unemployment insurance system. Because that bill changed how benefits were paid, it triggered a federal law that cut off long term unemployment insurance benefits to workers in the state. Hagan gets the $780 million number from a Department of Labor news release. Green light.
Tillis said the national debt has risen $7 trillion while Hagan has been in office. Treasury Department. When Hagan took office, the national debt was roughly $10 trillion. It has risen to roughly $17 trillion as of Labor Day. Green light.
Tillis hit Hagan several times with the fact that, like President Obama,
titleist vokey sm5, Hagan said that, if you liked your health insurance, you could keep it.
Tills also said, "Now I’m going to see my insurance rates go up 11 percent." Better fact checkers than us have taken a run at the claim that premiums will rise steeply as a result of Obamacare. While there is certainly evidence that health insurance costs continue to rise,
titleist vokey sm5, like The Washington Post, we’re going to leave this one unsettled for the time being.
Hagan accused Tillis of being callous toward teachers, accusing him of saying they only care about their pensions and paychecks. The actual quote, which comes from a 2011 News Observer story, was, "They don’t care about kids. They don’t care about classrooms," Tillis said. "They only care about their jobs and their pensions." To be fair, Tillis was referring to the North Carolina Association of Educators, a group that lobbies for teachers at the General Assembly, rather than all teachers writ large. Yellow light.
If you want to be a FACT CHECKER, please be fair and do not interject bias into your "fact checking" comments in order to sway voters.
For example."the biggest teacher pay increase". IT WAS, as Fact Checkers admit. Then you add the word "BARELY".
The FACT is. IT WAS. The degree to which it was is irrelevant,
titleist 915 d2.
Please leave your biases at home if you are going to be a FACT CHECKER!
Further, the AP is hardly a defining source on facts! Unless you want a heavy does of liberalism. Posted by roadrider18
It wasn the biggest increase in NC history. Not even close. It wasn even 7% as McCrory has admitted as it took away longevity pay and then gave it back in order to make the raise seem larger. Why back in 2006 2007, teachers received a 8% raise w/ no strings attached. So sorry, the claim is bogus.
Page 15/16Where is the close captioning for your video ? I looked for it under the debates and saw the testing but never got to the close captioning and see the same problem with many of your videos and news reports. Where are we the hard of hearing suppose to get our news from and hear what the politicians are saying? Posted by sunshine1040
but to be serious, if you google "transcript of hagan tillis debate" you will get a CSPAN video with a transcript below.
Whether you want to vote for Haugh or not he should be allowed on the debate. By allowing other party candidates to debate you are offering more solutions and options to this dual party stuff we have now.