The House health care bill pays for "about six years of program with a decade of revenue, with the heaviest costs concentrated in the second five years."
Three presidents in the last century — Harding, Kennedy and Reagan — all cut taxes during recessions and produced "rapid and dramatic economic recoveries," while two, Herbert Hoover and Barack Obama, did "the opposite."
"Democrats rang up a $1.42 trillion budget deficit in 2009 — the single largest in American history."
"The first installment of health care reform ... will raise the deficit by $250 billion."
Forty percent of gross domestic product "is state, local, or federal money."
Under President George W. Bush, the U.S. "spent $1.3 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy" and "trillions" each on a war and on Medicare drug benefits.
"Across the country, $174 billion of the Recovery Act have been committed in its first 130 days."
"Medicare and Medicaid are the single biggest drivers of the federal deficit and the federal debt by a huge margin."
ACORN "could get up to $8.5 billion more tax dollars despite being under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen states."
Pay-as-you-go "is the principle that helped transform large deficits into surpluses in the 1990s."
"About halfway through fiscal year 2009, Washington has run out of money."
"Already we've identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade."
The Republican leadership's budget proposal "doesn't contain any numbers."
Obama's budget plan would "take national debt up to about 80 percent of gross national product. ... Historically, it's been about 40 percent."
His proposed budget would "cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term."
"As a percentage of gross domestic product, we are reducing nondefense discretionary spending to its lowest level since the '60s, lower than it was under Reagan, lower than it was under Clinton, lower than it was under Bush, or both Bushes."
Obama's proposed budget "doubles the debt in five years, triples it in 10 years."
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PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More
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