fact-checking bill clinton's dnc speech

bill c, speaking at the dnc yesterday said a lot of things i can get behind, particularly that a lot of the world’s problems demand uniquely american solutions, and that by increasing our standing in the eyes of the world and taking the reins of that leadership, we and the rest of the world will be the beneficiaries.

that said, a fair amount of his speech was tripe, aimed at the usual voter who doesn’t bother to understand context or look back in time more than ten or fifteen minutes.

with that in mind, a few fact checks:

“The American dream is under siege at home… Middle-class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining, job losses, poverty, and inequality rising, … health care coverage disappearing, and a very big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.”

incomes are not declining, the poverty rate remains the same (see here for some perspective. more people have health insurance now than at the same time last year. and the cost of food and utilities had not risen enough to justify the phrase ‘a very big spike’.

not so for gas — its price has gone nuts. also, the unemployment rate is high for the united states, but still on par with other unemployment rates in the western world.

classic fear politics at work here.

" American workers have consistently given us rising productivity… what did they get in return? Declining wages, less than one-fourth as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty, and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s."

income is up across most of the country (with the exception of the northeast), pension problems have largely been the fault of the unions, poverty is holding steady percentage-wise. most of that paragraph is simply incorrect, at worst, dishonest. more fear politicking.

there’s also a problem with the idea of ‘income inequality’. as the country progresses forward in time, the wealth of previous generations are passed on. the top end of the income ladder is naturally going to proceed upward. this is natural, unless you do away with inheritance. also, some industries are producing more revenue than previous generations were capable of (think technical ones) .. in short, the notion of ‘income inequality’ is wholly fallacious.

“What about the assault on science and the defense of torture?”

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