Tom FeranPlain Dealer reporter
Tom Feran is a reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
The latest Truth-O-Meter items from Tom Feran
Betty Sutton "gutted Medicare by $500 billion" with her vote for the president's health care bill.
Says that President Obama promised that with the stimulus plan, "unemployment would never go above 8 percent. He even said it would be 6 percent by now."
Jim Renacci "voted repeatedly to end Medicare."
Says the average Ohio student graduates from a four-year college or university with nearly $27,000 in tuition debt.
"Student loan rates set to double because a Democratic-controlled Congress voted to double them."
"The Democrat-controlled Senate, it hasn't passed a budget in more than 1,000 days."
The Buffett Rule "will bring in less than $5 billion per year. ... Enough to pay one week’s interest on the national debt."
Says President Obama's decision to not issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline meant "we were denied the ability immediately to reduce prices at the pump."
"Our rainy day fund has gone from 89 cents to $240 million."
"We were the No. 1 job creator in America in February and we are now the No. 4 job creator in the last year."
Recent stories from Tom Feran
John Boehner and the state of the economyA persistent talking point used by House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans is that President Barack Obama’s policies have actually made it worse. We took on the challenge of trying to gauge whether the economy is really worse today than when Obama took office.
Dave Thomas anecdote a favorite from 2011State Rep. Jay Hottinger served up a Whopper, er, Classic Triple, when he told a story about Wendy's founder Dave Thomas to illustrate why Ohio should repeal it's estate tax. We said "Where's the beef?" and made it one of our favorites from 2011.
Sherrod Brown's Red Sox claim one of 2011's big hitsSen. Sherrod Brown hurled a high hard one in defense of the Cleveland Indians when he got some good-natured ribbing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. We raised our Chief Wahoo mug of morning Joe in salute and picked his claim about the Red Sox as one of the year's favorites.
Location, location, location a favorite for 2011Location is commonly cited as the most important consideration in buying real estate, and geographic location was the reason that Cleveland once was tagged as being -- or occupying -- "the best location in the nation." Gov. John Kasich put a new spin on that pitch to help sell Ohio. His claim became one of our favorites of 2011.
Water pollution claim tapped for favorites listWater pollution from sanitary sewer and storm runoff has long been a concern for one Cleveland councilman. His ward has nearly 2 miles of Lake Erie shoreline, much of which is public beach. He compared the water quality to that of the Third World. We tapped as one of our favorites for the year. Could it really be that bad?
Energy usage claim makes our 2011 list of favoritesIn a newspaper column he penned earlier this, year Sen. Rob Portman made the claim that the U.S. government is the largest energy user in the country. We checked out his statement then and liked the item so much we tapped it as one of our favorites of the year.
Quip about Ben Franklin among 2011 favoritesNone of the Founding Fathers is more quotable than Benjamin Franklin. Arguably the greatest mind of the founding generation his range of interests and prolific writing over his 84 years produced a shelf of memorable maxims, thoughts and observations. So when a state legislator said he doubted Franklin could have envisioned Ohio's estate tax, it got our attention (we had our doubts that there was anything Franklin couldn't have envisioned). We like this item so much we tapped it as one of our favorites of the year.
Defining just what constitutes a 'jobs bill'Led by Speaker John Boehner, Republicans cite the "Forgotten 15," which they describe as jobs bills that have passed the Republican-controlled House but not the Democrat-led Senate. But we found that nailing down the definitions needed to rate the speaker's claim about those bills wasn't so easy.
Answering reader questions about MedicareReaders weighed in after we reviewed a statement from Sen. Rob Portman on the costs of Medicare. Portman had described the program as unsustainable, and said a couple retiring today will get $3 in benefits for every $1 they paid into the program. That sparked a number of questions. Here's some answers.
Fact-checking the federal budget fightA deadline looms for the federal budget on Friday, with even more deadlines to come.
We want to hear your suggestions and comments. Email the Ohio Truth-O-Meter with feedback and with claims you'd like to see checked. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.
