Fact-checking Ohio Democratic debate
On a crowded debate stage, a dozen Democratic presidential candidates sparred over health care, talked about reining in the excesses of capitalism and debated how to protect workers in an age of technological upheaval.
PolitiFact fact-checked several statements made by the candidates at the Tuesday debate in Westerville, Ohio.
Warren on insurance, bankruptcy
“Back when I was studying it, two out of three families that ended up in bankruptcy after a serious medical problem had health insurance.” — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
In a back-and-forth about “Medicare for All” and the cost of health care, Warren directed the discussion back to medical debt and bankruptcy. We rated this statement Mostly True.
Warren’s campaign directed us to research published in 2009 in the American Journal of Medicine. Co-authored by Warren, it looks at a random sample of 2,314 bankruptcy filers from 2007.
The paper examined what debtors reported as their cause of bankruptcy. Warren is referring here to people who either cited significant direct medical debt, remortgaging a home to pay medical debt or lost income due to illness.
In that category, more than twothirds of families had health insurance — in fact, three-quarters did. So from that simple standpoint, the number checks out.
But it isn’t necessarily that simple. This specific paper focuses on people who have declared bankruptcy, rather than looking at the financial impact of medical debt at large.
Biden’s Medicare for All claim
“For people making between $50,000 and $75,000 a year, their taxes are going up about $5,000 because the fact is, they will pay more in new taxes” for Medicare for All. — Former Vice President Joe Biden This is Mostly False.
Biden’s numbers don’t come out of thin air, but they are based on too many assumptions to be reliable.
Biden’s campaign told us the figure was derived from approximating the impact of a 4% income tax, plus a 7.5% payroll tax — financing mechanisms they said have been proposed under Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.
For one thing, Sanders’ bill doesn’t actually propose financing Medicare for All through a combined 4% income tax and 7.5% payroll tax. The bill doesn’t include any financing mechanism at all.
Another problem is that highlighting the potential tax burden of Medicare for All without discussing overall costs is misleading.
Castro wrong on jobs
“Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania actually in the latest jobs data have lost jobs, not gained them.” — Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro
False. Official government figures show that each state gained jobs between July and August, the latest month-over-month period available. To arrive at his figure, Castro cherry-picked a time period that he didn’t mention in his remarks — a time period that ignores the existence of the most current data.
His assertion is belied by data showing each state has seen job gains in the past year and since Trump took office.
Gabbard claims media called her a Russian asset
“Just two days ago The New York Times put out an article saying I’m a Russian asset... This morning a CNN commentator said on national television that I am an asset of Russia.” — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii
Let’s start with The New York Times, which co-hosted the debate with CNN. Gabbard appeared to be referring to an Oct. 12 article headlined, “What, Exactly, Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To?“
Political reporter Lisa Lerer’s article does not explicitly call Gabbard a Russian asset. Rather, it explores why she has garnered support from alt-right and white nationalist activists, and notes that some Democrats “worry about supportive signs from online bot activity and the Russian news media.”
Gabbard is right that a CNN commentator called her a Russian asset. Bakari Sellers, a former state legislator in South Carolina, leveled the charge during an Oct. 15 panel discussion.
“There is a chance that Tulsi is not just working for the United States of America,” Sellers said, later adding, “There is no question that Tulsi Gabbard — among all the 12 — is a puppet for the Russian government.”
Booker on Planned Parenthood
“We are in a state that has had two Planned Parenthoods close.” — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
Booker is right. Two Planned Parenthood clinics announced they were closing in Cincinnati in September. Their last day of service was Sept. 20, and neither provided abortions.
The move came after Planned Parenthood said it would stop participating in a federal program that supports family planning services. The organization received about $60 million annually through Title X, a federal grant program.
Planned Parenthood pulled out of the program after the Trump administration issued a rule that forbids clinics with Title X funding from referring women to abortion providers.
Yang on wealth taxes abroad
“A wealth tax makes a lot of sense in principle. The problem is it’s been tried in Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and all those countries ended up repealing it because it had massive implementation problems and did not generate the revenue that they projected.” — Andrew Yang
Yang was responding to Warren’s proposal to directly tax the wealth of American billionaires. His claim is accurate, but it’s unclear whether the same problems would extend to the United States.
Yang’s claim about the failure of wealth taxes in Europe is similar to one we fact-checked in April. We rated that claim Mostly True.
A 2015 review of the wealth tax option by the European Commission found that determining the value of people’s assets was difficult and that cheating was easier. A 2018 report from the OECD said revenues collected from wealth taxes were generally low and that there were several “efficiency and administrative concerns.”
However, we’ve spoken to experts who say the same thing wouldn’t necessarily happen in the United States.