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Bernie Sanders talks and talks. Are his facts right?

By Louis Jacobson
Published on Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 5:18 p.m.

Related rulings:

False
"Last year, ExxonMobil made $19 billion in profit. Guess what. They paid zero in taxes. They got a $156 million refund from the IRS."

Bernie Sanders, Tuesday, November 30th, 2010.

Ruling: False | Details

True
In 2007, "the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income," which is "more than the entire bottom 50 percent."

Bernie Sanders, Tuesday, November 30th, 2010.

Ruling: True | Details

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made a speech highlighting the concentration of wealth within America's richest 1 percent. We checked to see whether his statistics were accurate.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made a speech highlighting the concentration of wealth within America's richest 1 percent. We checked to see whether his statistics were accurate.

On Dec. 10, 2010, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, attracted national attention with his filibuster on the Senate floor in which he attacked a tax-cut deal between President Barack Obama and congressional Republican leaders.
 
We haven't fact-checked his stemwinder yet, but we happened to be finishing two new fact-checks of a Nov. 30, 2010, speech Sanders made. And he made similar points in both speeches.
 
One we checked was the claim that in 2007, "the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income," which was "more than the entire bottom 50 percent." We rated this one True.
 
The second was that "last year, ExxonMobil made $19 billion in profit" but "paid zero in taxes. They got a $156 million refund from the IRS." We rated this one False.
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Researchers: Louis Jacobson

Names in this article: Bernie Sanders

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