Bernie Sanders in 2020 FactCheck

On Gun Control: 2005: Allow suing gun manufacturers for negligence

Joe Biden said Sanders voted to allow gun manufactures to not be sued. But the law that Sanders originally supported does allow lawsuits in some cases.

Biden said, "The biggest mistake that Sen. Sanders made, he voted to give the gun manufacturers a loophole that does not allow them to be sued for the crimes they have created."

Sanders voted in favor of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005, which largely protects licensed manufacturers & firearms dealers from civil lawsuits over the misuse of guns or ammunition. But the legislation included six exceptions where civil suits could still be brought. The exceptions include cases in which a firearm seller acted with negligence, cases involving the transfer of a firearm with the knowledge that it would be used to commit a crime, and cases of sales in violation of state or federal law.

A decade later, Sanders switched positions and signed on as a cosponsor of an unsuccessful bill that sought to repeal the law he helped enact.

Source: FactCheck.org on 8th Democrat 2020 primary debate Feb 8, 2020

On Health Care: FactCheck: US pays twice OECD average, but not every country

Citing high health care costs, Sanders said, "We are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country." He has made some version of this claim since at least 2015. It's still not true.

According to the most recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, which is for 2018, US per capita spending on health care totaled $10,586. That's twice as much as every country, except for six. Sanders is correct that the U.S. spends a lot more than other nations. It spends more than double the $3,992 average for OECD countries ["OECD counties" means "the developed world," excluding developing countries -- ed.]. But Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Austria and Denmark all pay a little more than half of what the U.S. does.

Source: FactCheck.org on 8th Democrat 2020 primary debate Feb 8, 2020

On Homeland Security: FactCheck: $1.8 trillion on all military, not just weapons

In discussing his hope to galvanize international support to collectively combat climate change, Sanders inaccurately characterized a statistic on global military spending. "Here is my dream--maybe it's a radical dream," Sanders said. "But maybe, just maybe, given the crisis of climate change, the world can understand that instead of spending $1.8 trillion a year, collectively, on weapons of destruction, designed to kill each other, maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change."

That $1.8 trillion represents spending on more than just weapons. The figure is the 2018 total world military expenditure, as calculated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. "Military expenditure" refers to all government spending on current military forces and activities, including salaries and benefits, operational expenses, arms and equipment purchases, military construction, research and development, and central administration, command and support.

Source: FactCheck.org on 8th Democrat 2020 primary debate Feb 8, 2020

The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2020 Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Senatorial campaigns. Click here for other excerpts from Fact-checking on 2020 Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Senatorial campaigns. Click here for other excerpts by Bernie Sanders. Click here for a profile of Bernie Sanders.
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Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021