Like the Seattle Times “Truth Needle,” wherein they fact check politicians’ claims, the Washington Post has something called the Pinocchio Test (the further a statement is from the truth, the more Pinocchios it gets). It’s kinda clunky, but on the flip side, politicians can also win “Gapetto Checkmarks” for telling it like it is.
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA, 5, Eastern WA) scored a Gapetto award this week for an evocative GOP soundbite on deficit spending that checked out.
Speaking at a press conference with Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) to support a bill cutting $6 billion in federal spending (a bill the Tea Party doesn’t support coincidentally because it doesn’t cut enough, nor does it de-fund President Obama’s health care reform), Rep. McMorris Rodgers said:
“For every $10 that the federal government collects in tax revenue, it is borrowing about $7. And just to put that into perspective, if you’re a family making $50,000 a year, that would be like borrowing $35,000 every year.”
The Post says she’s on to something:
Let’s look at the charts contained in the president’s budget. For the current fiscal year, the budget anticipates receipts of nearly $2.2 trillion, and the deficit (that’s the borrowing) of $1.6 trillion. So for the current fiscal year, she is right—the United States is borrowing $7 for every $10 in tax revenue.
Thanks for the heads up on this from the Spokesman Review.
