A budget proposal, but without numbers

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 5:49 p.m.

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The Republican leadership's budget proposal "doesn't contain any numbers."

Robert Gibbs, Thursday, March 26th, 2009.

Ruling: True | Details

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the Republican budget proposal had no numbers. We found he was right.

President Barack Obama told his Republican critics that if they don't like his budget, they should propose their own. They did, but came under fire for a lack of specifics.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Republican plan didn't include any numbers.

"I think if I intoned to you that I would produce a 20-page document that outlined my budget priorities, that it might actually contain a chart with some numbers. I don't think that's a whole lot to ask," he said.

We looked into the matter and found that Gibbs is right. We rated his statement True .

And in case you missed it, read our previous coverage of Obama's budget:

• Obama said at a prime-time news conference that his budget plan would halve the deficit in five years, a claim we found to be technically true, but also somewhat misleading because the initial number is so big. We gave it a Mostly True .

• Republican Sen. Judd Gregg claimed Obama's budget would double the national debt in five years. We gave that one a Mostly True.

• Obama claimed in a news conference that with his plans, nondefense discretionary spending — as a percentage of the gross national product — will fall to its lowest level since the 1960s.We rated this one a Barely True .

• Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis said that under Obama's proposal, families earning at least $250,000 a year would lose their mortgage and charitable deductions. We found this one to be so alarmist and misleading, it earned our lowest rating, Pants on Fire .