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♦
- 51.9k
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 ...
- 1,335
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♦
- 51.9k
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 ...
- 106k
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 ...
- 22.4k
94
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 ...
- 1,405
79
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. ...
- 1,046
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 ...
- 59.8k
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 ...
- 4,094
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
39
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 ...
- 740
37
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 ...
- 57.5k
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 ...
- 4,360
33
votes
Is the Japanese government encouraging the young to consume more alcohol?
Yes, here is a decent article about it:
Why Japan is asking its young people to drink more
The country’s National Tax Agency (NTA) has introduced content named ‘Sake Viva’ where it has invited ideas ...
- 44.9k
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 ...
- 141k
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 ...
- 897
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 ...
- 4,701
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 ...
- 30.8k
16
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 ...
- 169
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 ...
- 12k
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 (...
- 30.8k
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 ...
- 44.1k
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 ...
- 33.3k
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 ...
- 5,074
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 ...
- 9,325
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible