Bill Clinton’s claim about Democrats spurring job growth
Posted by Glenn Kessler at 04:00 PM ET, 09/06/2012
"The Pinocchio Test
"We considered giving this our “true but false” label but instead settled on One Pinocchio. For readers unfamiliar with our rating scale, a single Pinocchio does not represent an outright falsehood but more a selective telling of the truth. In this case, the numbers add up, but they are used to reach a conclusion that doesn’t tell you much about how either political party has managed the economy in the past — or would in the future."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/bill-clintons-claim-about-democrats-spurring-job-growth/2012/09/06/9dec4164-f858-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html
Fact check: Clinton's claims are a stretch
By Tom Raum, Associated Press
CLINTON: "For the last two years, health care spending has grown under 4 percent, for the first time in 50 years. So, are we all better off because
President Obama fought for it and passed it? You bet we are."
THE FACTS: That's wishful thinking at best. The nation's total health care tab has been growing at historically low rates, but most experts attribute that to continued uncertainty over the economy, not to Obama's health care law.
CLINTON: "I know many Americans are still angry and frustrated with the economy. … I experienced the same thing in 1994 and early 1995. Our policies were working but most people didn't feel it yet. By 1996, the economy was roaring, halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in American history."
THE FACTS: Clinton is counting on voters to recall the 1990s wistfully and to cast a vote for Obama in hopes of replicating those days in a second term. But Clinton leaves out the abrupt downward turn the economy took near the end of his own second term and the role his policies played in the setting the stage for the historic financial meltdown of 2008. . .
Also, as president, Clinton supported the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law dating back to the Great Depression that separated banking from high-risk financial speculation. Robert Rubin, who had been Clinton's first treasury secretary, helped broker the final deal on Capitol Hill that enabled the repeal legislation to pass. Some financial historians say the repeal of the law paved the way for banks to invest in risky investments like mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations that played a role in the 2008 financial meltdown.
http://www.usatoday.com/USCP/PNI/Nation/World/2012-09-07-CVNDemocratsFactCheck-96_ST_U.htm