We are a third of the way through and both Biden and Trump have made multiple factual missteps.
Biden started out his debate with a gaffe, claiming he had created 15,000 jobs. The correct number is more than 15 million, a dramatic undercount from someone trying to renew voters’ confidence in his economic leadership.
Biden also said, “It’s $US15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $US400.” Out-of-pocket insulin costs for older Americans on Medicare were capped at $US35 in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that US President Joe Biden signed into law. The cap took effect last year, when many drugmakers announced they would lower the price of the drug to $US35 for most users on private insurance.
Trump said the US economy was ready to start paying down its national debt before the pandemic. That’s not true. Budget deficits were increasing under Trump because his 2017 tax cuts didn’t pay for themselves as he had promised they would. Trump inherited a budget deficit of $US585 billion and it ballooned to $US984 billion in 2019, only to climb above $US3 trillion in 2020 after the pandemic hit, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.
And Trump’s claim that “millions” were admitted to the country from prisons and mental institutions is unsubstantiated. There is no evidence of that.
AP
Source Agencies
