According to CBS News, listed below is their evaluation of his claims.
Clinton: Democratic administrations create more jobs than Republican administrations.
Fact check: This statement is true, based on the data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, going back to John. F. Kennedy. Since the early 1960's, Republican administrations added 23.9 million jobs and Democratic administrations added 42.1 million jobs.
Clinton: President Obama started out with a much weaker economy than President Clinton did.
Fact check: This is true. In fact, President Obama began his administration with an economy that was in danger of total collapse.
Clinton: The Recovery Act saved and created millions of jobs.
Fact check: According to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Recovery Act created 2.2 to 4.2 million jobs; according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it created between 200,000 and 1.3 million jobs. Clinton may have exaggerated a bit when he claimed that it created millions of jobs, depending on whose numbers you prefer to use; however, it did create jobs.
Clinton: The stimulus package cut taxes for 95 percent of American people
Fact check: According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center the number was closer to 93 percent, so there was also an exaggeration of this number. However, nearly every worker, as well as retired senior citizens, received a tax rebate or tax cut during the past four years.
Clinton: The economy has created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months,
Fact check: According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is true that the economy created 4,517,000 private sector jobs since January, 2010, which was 29 months ago.
Clinton: Obama's administration could have done more, if the Republicans had not blocked his job plan.
Fact check: It is true that Republicans have blocked several administration supported stimulus plans. However, Congress was able to reach bi-partisan support this past April on a jobs program. Therefore, Bill Clinton was not telling the whole truth on this, since he failed to mention the recent bi-partisan support of one jobs bill. On the other hand, he is correct in saying that more could have been done if other stimulus packages had not been blocked.
Clinton: Under President Obama, 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created.
Fact check: It is true that 500,000 manufacturing jobs were created since 2010. However, manufacturing jobs dropped significantly during the first two years of his administration before they began to increase again during the past two years. Manufacturing jobs have been steadily increasing, but have not reached the pre-recession levels. Bill Clinton did not paint a complete picture of the current situation with manufacturing jobs.
Clinton: The auto bailout saved over a million jobs.
Fact check: This is absolutely true. In fact, a November 2010 study shows that 1.14 million jobs were actually saved as a direct result of the auto bailout.
Bottom line on Bill Clinton's numbers: Overall, according to government statistics, it appears that Bill Clinton's speech was generally truthful, although there were some exaggerations as well as some information that was omitted to make his statements appear even more impressive. However, in general the speech writers did an excellent job of fact checking, since reporters picked the speech apart and could not find any gross exaggerations. This was a pretty truthful speech compared to some that Bill Clinton told when he was president! However, if you are able to find statistics that support a different point of view on Clinton's speech, feel free to leave your information in the comments section.
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Factual Errors in Paul Ryan's Convention Speech
The Collapse of Lehman Brothers
Politics and Lies
The Government Will Not Pay Your Utility Bills
Misinformation about Affordable Healthcare Act
You are reading from the blog: http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com
Photo of Bill Clinton courtesy of www.en.wikipedia.com/commons
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