FactCheck by Rocky Mengle in Kiplinger newsletter, Feb. 3, 2021: He wants to raise the highest personal income rate back up to 39.6% (it was lowered to 37% by the 2017 tax reform law), cap itemized deductions for wealthier Americans, limit "like-kind exchanges" by real estate investors, and phase-out the 20% deduction for qualified business income for upper-income taxpayers. He won't raise taxes for anyone making less than $400,000, though. As a candidate, Biden's tax policy proposals also included eliminating the step-up in basis for inherited capital assets, which means more taxes on wealth passed to heirs, and ending favorable tax rates on capital gains for anyone making over $1 million. Also look for the federal estate tax exemption to be increased back to pre-tax reform levels.
The Proud Boys, a self-described "Western chauvinist" organization, is considered a violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic hate group, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization that tracks extremist groups. Proud Boys members marched at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and have organized against Black Lives Matter protests in recent months.
Biden commented on the Proud Boys reaction, responding to a journalist who tweeted out a screenshot of the group celebrating the mention. "This. This is Donald Trump's America," Biden tweeted.
Is that true, that no law enforcement has endorsed Biden? We found this article dated Sept. 4 on Fox News, headlined "More than 175 current, former law enforcement officials endorse Joe Biden, slam Trump as 'lawless' president." Excerpts:
"Fox News first obtained the list of the Biden-supporting law enforcement officials, which includes former sheriffs and former police chiefs who touted the former vice president's experience 'keeping communities safe.'
"The endorsements come after a number of high-profile law enforcement organizations threw their support behind Trump. In July, the National Association of Police Organizations endorsed Trump, praising his 'steadfast and very public support' for law enforcement. NAPO did not endorse a candidate in the 2016 election but endorsed Barack Obama and Biden in both the 2008 and 2012 elections."
"No, Joe Biden did not say he attended Delaware State University, the only historically Black university (HBCU) in the state. Biden said he got his "start" at DSU, and what followed was a slew of media reports slamming Biden for claiming to have attended an HBCU. Trump's campaign has even cited the claim as one of the "17 questions Joe Biden must answer" in the first presidential debate.
"In the video, Biden was referring to the support he received from the school when he announced his bid for Senate on the DSU campus in 1972. In the decades since, Biden has maintained close ties with DSU, serving as commencement speaker in 2003. Biden has often referenced to his time as a student at the University of Delaware, where the Biden School of Public Policy bears his name."
TRUMP: Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged.
BIDEN: That's not true; he was not dishonorably discharged.
TRUMP: For cocaine use.
BIDEN: None of that is true.
Fact-Check from NBC News, Oct. 16, 2014, headline "Joe Biden's Son Hunter Kicked Out of Navy for Cocaine"
A U.S. official told NBC News that Hunter Biden was kicked out of the Reserve earlier this year after he failed a drug test. The official said Biden failed the test in 2013, but he was not kicked out until Feb. 14 of this year. Senior US officials told NBC News that Biden, 44, tested positive for cocaine. Hunter Biden issued a statement saying: "It was the honor of my life to serve in the US Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy's decision. With the love and support of my family, I'm moving forward."
Yes, it's true. Some examples:
We checked, and no, it's not even close to true. Rasmussen College published "U.S. Presidents with College Education: From Learners to Leaders," on 4/24/2013, including the following list. Of recent presidents, the list is split evenly into 8 Ivy Leaguers and 8 not:
[OnTheIssues fact-check: Is that true? No]: Kiplinger.com analysis (9/18/20) of Biden's tax plan: He wants to raise the highest personal income rate back up to 39.6% (it was lowered to 37% by the 2017 tax reform law), cap itemized deductions for wealthier Americans, limit "like-kind exchanges" by real estate investors, and phase-out the 20% deduction for qualified business income for upper-income taxpayers. He won't raise taxes for anyone making less than $400,000, though.
FactCheck: "The Biden tax plan is highly progressive, increasing taxes for the top 1 percent of earners by 13 to 18 percent of after-tax income, while indirectly increasing taxes for most other groups by 0.2 to 0.6 percent," wrote the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent bipartisan nonprofit, in a recent report.
Biden: So did I, and I went out and campaigned for it.
Sanders: $15 an hour?
Biden: $15 an hour, in New York City. Go to the Governor. You should be aware of it.
Sanders: I will talk to the Governor. I am not aware of it. Four years ago, it was a radical idea. Very few people in Congress were talking about it.
FactCheck by PolitiFact:Biden is right about his efforts in NYC. In 2015, Biden campaigned with NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to boost NY's minimum wage to $15 per hour. Biden spoke for nearly 30 minutes and called "stagnant wages" the biggest issue facing the economy. Cuomo eventually signed legislation to gradually increase the hourly minimum wage to $15 for all New Yorkers.
Biden: You want to do that? Do what I proposed over 30 years ago: federally fund all elections.
FACT-CHECK: Did Biden propose campaign finance reform long ago? Yes, he proposed donation limits when there were no limits, in 1974, with federal matching funds:
Biden on 1974 WGBH "Open Vault" (PBS interview): "The system does produce corruption; I think implicit in the system is corruption. If the only way you can raise any money to run for public office is to go to vested interest groups, then you prostitute the ideas you have about government. If you limit the amount that can be spent, you run the risk of the tyranny of the incumbent [against] a challenger. [I support] a bill that limits the amount that an individual can contribute [to] $3,000. And I support [a bill to federally] match donations up to $100.
It's true that in 2009 Biden chaired a committee that oversaw the troop withdrawal, while also keeping an eye on economic and political issues in Iraq. The Biden committee included representatives from the Defense Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Treasury Department and other agencies.
But what Biden fails to mention is that later--in Obama's second term, with Biden still vice president--the U.S. sent troops back into Iraq to combat the Islamic State fighters who had occupied much of the country. Near the end of the Obama administration, in late September 2016, the number of U.S. troops deployed exceeded 5,000.
Sanders pointed to a speech Biden gave to the Brookings Institution in April 2018. Biden's overall message was that the tax code "is widely skewed toward taking care of those at the very top." Sanders plucked out what Biden said about Ryan, but ignored the complete passage which showed that Biden wanted Social Security and Medicare protected, and to accomplish that goal would require making changes to the tax code.
The Sanders campaign omits what Biden said next: "We need a pro-growth, progressive tax code that raises enough revenue to make sure that the Social Security and Medicare can stay. It still needs adjustments, but can stay."
We looked for outside data on [entering Congress poor] and did not find much, but indications are Biden didn't have much wealth. Roll Call magazine has done wealth rankings, but only for members of Congress and dating back only to 1990. The summary Biden reported outside income in 1973 of $6,050, all from speeches.
On Biden's second claim about leaving as one of the poorest officials in government, Biden's estimated net worth was -$52,493 in 2007. In other words, it appeared that his debts outpaced his assets. Biden again ranked near the bottom: 577 of 581 officials in 2014: his estimated net worth was -$947,987. Since leaving the White House, Biden has reaped millions.
But a review of Biden's public statements about Iraq in the lead up to the invasion shows he was never entirely opposed to military action against Saddam Hussein:
BIDEN: The fact is that the senator knows that that's not my position. Everybody on this stage has been in the Congress and the Senate or House has voted for the Hyde Amendment at some point.
Fact-Check from Vice.com, 6/14/19: [Is that true? Yes.] The Hyde Amendment blocks federal funding for abortion. But Members of Congress don't vote directly on Hyde; rather, they vote for the package of spending bills that include Hyde. Every House or Senate member who's running for president has voted for bills that included Hyde language. Two days after declaring his support for the Hyde Amendment, Biden reversed his decades-long position on it. "If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's ZIP code," Biden said.
He was misrepresenting his own record. Biden expressed unequivocal support, in both 1994 and in the years following, for the law's billions in funding to build state prisons. He argued in 1994 that the law should include less money for prison construction than Republicans wanted to spend--but he emphasized that he too wanted to spend billions.
Biden's campaign did not dispute our conclusion that Biden did support this kind of spending. Biden "was referring to how Republicans wanted to provide more money for prison construction than he felt was right," said a campaign spokesperson.
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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 Joe Biden. Click here for a profile of Joe Biden.
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