The revolving door of Virginia politicians on Comedy Central shows this week has included 5th District Congressman Tom Perriello and Richmond area Congressman, Republican Eric Cantor.
All of them were eager to reach a different audience in advance of Tuesday's election. And there's one statement in particular from Congressman Cantor, who appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, that deserves a second look.
Here’s what he said, “What you've seen is a crowd [Washington Democrats] that has taken advantage of a crisis back in late '08, early '09 and spent more money than this country has spent in the last 200 years combined, in the two years since.”
Is that true? Absolutely not says Politifact Virginia. And it didn't take much research for the group to fact-check this one.
In fact, Politifact Virginia’s staff calculated that the federal spending for 2009 and 2010 totaled $7.2 trillion. The spending for 2006, 2007 and 2008 equaled $8.3 trillion. That’s just three years.
Politifact Virginia even took it a step further. They looked at projected spending between 2009 and 20-15. That total equals $27.3 trillion. To exceed that total, you only have to look at 14 years, 1995 to 2008, no 200 years.
So Rep. Cantor's statement that the Democrats "spent more money than this country has spent in the last 200 years combined, in the two years since” is wrong no matter how you analyze it.
Politifact Virginia’s Truth-o-Meter verdict: pants on fire.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement