172
votes
Accepted
Has Trump's administration been making more human trafficking arrests than the Obama administration?
The earliest mention online - and thus likely the source for this - seems to be maga1776.com.
The numbers for 2010 to 2016 are official statistics - the 2016 numbers are directly from ICE, the ...
tim♦
- 51.2k
172
votes
Accepted
Entire GOP voted against letting senators read the new tax bill?
The claim refers to the fact that the 500-page tax bill was given to the senators immediately before the vote. Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer moved to adjourn, to give senators the weekend ...
- 1,325
153
votes
Are US workers legally required to pay income taxes?
The IRS has a section of their website, The Truth About Frivolous Tax Arguments dedicated to explaining the flaws of popular incorrect arguments of why taxes don't have to be paid.
Specifically, it ...
tim♦
- 51.2k
129
votes
Accepted
Is this pie graph describing US government spending accurate?
The graphic is the FY2014 requested discretionary spending, which is only a small part of the total budget as explained in the article President Obama Proposes 2014 Budget. This article specifically ...
- 102k
129
votes
Accepted
Does Shell get $2 billion a year in subsidies from the US government?
The infographic is false. Shell does not receive $2 Billion in subsidies a year. They do receive tax breaks, but not for "no real reason".
The $2 Billion claim in the infographic seems to ...
- 22.3k
93
votes
Accepted
Is the US federal government still paying Civil War survivor benefits?
According to multiple recent news reports and articles, this is an accurate claim.
According to the US News article:
UPDATE, May 26, 2017: Randy Noller, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans ...
- 1,375
77
votes
Accepted
Did Scotland spend $250,000 for the slogan "Welcome to Scotland"?
No, but on the signs
They did spend $250,000, but that included making and installing new signs for the airports.
The original article at earthtimes.org (archived) claims:
GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. ...
- 1,036
76
votes
Did the French government print posters explaining COVID-19 vaccination passport policy already in January 2020?
According to several French newspapers, e.g. Liberation, the explanation is that the 2020 date was a typo.
Plusieurs affiches sur le pass sanitaire indiquent une date au 20 janvier 2020, avant les ...
- 55k
69
votes
Is this pie graph describing US government spending accurate?
First off, Republicans don't actually blame the government deficit on SNAP (food stamps.)
That aside, no, the representation of U.S. government expenditures in the pie chart in question is not even ...
- 4,086
66
votes
Is this pie graph describing US government spending accurate?
Politifact has determined it to be false, noting that this chart shows only discretionary spending:
If we look at all of federal spending, the picture changes:
The "military" share, ...
- 717
60
votes
Are US workers legally required to pay income taxes?
No it is not true. The Sixteenth Amendment was adopted in 1913, so taxes not apportioned to states are constitutional. US Code 26 Subtitle A is the relevant law.
The quoted text seems to allude to a ...
- 15.8k
38
votes
Accepted
Did the Mexican Government publish a manual for how to illegally enter the US?
This manual appears to be an authentic manual published by the Mexican government. A translation of its contents can be found here (American source) and here (Mexican source). The pamphlet does appear ...
- 18.7k
36
votes
Accepted
Was the wild west less violent than the current west?
Apparently not
In The American West: A New Interpretive History by Robert V. Hine, John Mack Faragher, they quote the annual homicide rate of Dodge City (one of the towns mentioned by Ridley) as 50 ...
- 56.7k
34
votes
Accepted
Were these 'Communist Rules for Revolution' written in 1919?
While it would be impossible to prove that no communist ever said anything like this, the answer is still not at all legitimate.
This appears to be a recurring myth used to discredit political ...
- 690
33
votes
Does Shell get $2 billion a year in subsidies from the US government?
The number in your claim appears to come from a 2014 report by a "subsidy tracking group" called Good Jobs First, quoted in
an article in "cheatsheet.com" about corporate welfare recipients. They ...
- 4,350
31
votes
Accepted
Did 60% of polled South Africans say the country was better run during apartheid?
The Guardian article is from 2002.
I owe a huge hat-tip to @Klanomath for finding the original 2002 survey where I failed, including a code book with the list of questions.
The questions cover a lot ...
- 137k
26
votes
Has Trump's administration been making more human trafficking arrests than the Obama administration?
A reddit thread has attributed as a source for this graphic to this link.
The numbers for Trump are sourced from individual news stories, the numbers for Obama are sourced from composite numbers ...
- 1,495
24
votes
Are US workers legally required to pay income taxes?
Let me take a different tack on this. The statement as presented,
There is no law which requires the average American worker (in the
private sector) to pay a direct unapportioned tax on their ...
- 387
23
votes
Accepted
Did the US government classify the Whaley House as haunted?
This seems to be a bit of a shortcut...
The book "A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate Paranormal Activity from Spirits and Hauntings to Poltergeists" tells us:
Both the Whaley House ...
- 747
22
votes
Accepted
Has there been a dramatic expansion of the U.S. federal workforce in recent years?
As DavePhD pointed out, the executive memorandum only applied to the executive branch. The Office of Management and Budget reports historical data since 1981 for "Total Executive Branch Civilian Full-...
- 10.2k
20
votes
Does the fossil fuel industry benefit from trillions of dollars of subsidy from governments every year?
Yes, the fossil-fuel industry benefits from subsidies equivalent to trillions of dollars, each year. Yes, the IMF's figures are broadly consistent with other studies: in particular, the cost of ...
- 4,700
17
votes
Has Trump's administration been making more human trafficking arrests than the Obama administration?
NO. Arrests statistics were lower in 2017 than 2016.
As has been pointed out the 2017 numbers shown in the chart are for all arrests by every agency - state, local and federal - made worldwide. The ...
- 179
17
votes
Are people with a high IQ not allowed to become police officers in New London?
The lawsuit reported on by ABC News did happen (Robert Jordan vs. the City of New London, CT). The court case can be found here. That page verifies many of the facts given in the article, including ...
- 27.4k
14
votes
Did Brock Chisolm, the first director of the United Nations WHO, say this anti-individualism quote about a "world government"?
Researching this quote has led me down the predictable spiral of conspiracy theory bloggers. They generally don't cite their sources, and when they do their sources are either just more conspiracy ...
- 11.9k
14
votes
Do the "Presidential Alerts" give the government full access to all phone functionality?
The presidential alerts are part of a bigger system that also includes AMBER alerts and alerts for bad weather and "other threatening emergencies". These alerts are called Wireless Emergency Alerts (...
- 27.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Was the U.S. government responsible for Popeye's dependance on spinach?
No.
The 'eat your vegs' campaign as an established social norm is older, started with World War One, not during the Depression. Further, spinach is no meat substitute, whether you look for any iron ...
- 43.7k
12
votes
Accepted
Did the FBI not require assistance from Apple to unlock the San Bernadino terrorist's phone?
There was a discussion at security stackexchange about this issue.
The top rated answer says:
Yes, it is possible. However, that runs the risk of destroying the device without getting the data ...
- 32.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Did Milton Friedman say that nothing was so permanent as a temporary government program?
This appears to be true
Tyranny of the Status Quo, by Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman, 1984, Pg. 115:
Each recession has produced government spending programs supposedly as a temporary device to ...
- 4,784
11
votes
Did the French government print posters explaining COVID-19 vaccination passport policy already in January 2020?
For the extra skeptics out there, another strong indication of this date being a mere typo is the name of the "anti Covid" app mentioned near the bottom of this PDF document:
Téléchargez l’...
- 211
11
votes
Accepted
In 1984, was the top income tax rate lowered from 70% to 28%,and was Social Security then taxed for the first time?
Just a few additional references and context, to add to Joe W's answer:
The 1981 tax cuts were enacted by the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, Public Law 97-34, signed into law by Reagan on August ...
- 8,554
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible