View this email in your browser ([link removed])
An update from FactCheck.org
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images


** What's in the Debt Limit Agreement?
------------------------------------------------------------

It was a busy week for procrastinators.

Just days before the nation runs out of money to pay its bills, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ([link removed]) and President Joe Biden ([link removed]) on Sunday announced a two-year agreement that would suspend the debt limit and allow the U.S. to borrow money above the current limit of $31.4 trillion.

The House passed the bill, called the Fiscal Responsibility Act, by a vote of 314 to 117 on Wednesday night. About 24 hours later, the Senate approved the bill in a late-night session by a 63 to 36 vote. The president needs only to sign the bill before June 5, the date when Treasury has said the federal government "would be unable to satisfy all of our obligations."

So, what's in the two-year agreement? Staffers Lori Robertson, D'Angelo Gore and Eugene Kiely reviewed the legislation, a White House background briefing, a House Budget Committee summary and separate budget analyses by the Congressional Budget Office and Penn Wharton Budget Model to find out.

The legislation is a compromise between Republicans, who wanted larger spending reductions, and the White House, which wanted no spending cuts in a debt limit bill. It includes cuts to the IRS, caps on discretionary funding and modified work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

The CBO estimates that the bipartisan deal would reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over 11 years, but that also assumes that Congress follows through on nonbinding spending caps after 2025.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that the legislation would reduce federal spending, not including interest spending, by about $1.3 trillion over 10 years. But the reduction could be $234 billion or as high as $1.8 trillion, depending on whether Congress enforces discretionary spending caps in the last eight years of that budget window.

For more about what's in the bill, read "Debt Limit Agreement Breakdown ([link removed]) ."
HOW WE KNOW
In writing about a social media claim that a study found ventilators killed “nearly all” COVID-19 patients, Staffer Kate Yandell checked with a co-author of the study. Dr. Benjamin Singer, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Northwestern Medicine, told her: “It’s not the ventilator that was the cause of death. The ventilator was very much life support for these patients. It was ultimately COVID-19” that caused the deaths. Read more ([link removed]) .
FEATURED FACT
From January 2017 to June 2022, 1,581 service members were diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to “HIV/AIDS in the Military,” a report published in March by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The amount of new HIV cases has fluctuated in recent years. There were 280 in 2018, 314 in 2019, 237 in 2020, 309 in 2021, and 124 in 2022, according to data provided by the Department of Defense. Read More ([link removed]) .
WORTHY OF NOTE
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and co-founder of FactCheck.org, participated ([link removed]) in a discussion May 24 on combatting misinformation and disinformation at the Nobel Prize Summit in Washington, D.C.

At the three-day summit ([link removed]) , which was hosted jointly by the National Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation, Jamieson presented the findings of a new APPC report on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a monitoring system managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to detect possible safety issues in vaccines.

But, as we have reported on ([link removed]) numerous ([link removed]) occasions ([link removed]) , the VAERS system has been misused by anti-vaccine advocates to spread misinformation and disinformation about vaccines, especially COVID-19 vaccines.

The APPC report recommends that the CDC and FDA change the name of VAERS to “Vaccination Safety Monitor” or “Vaccination Safety Watch” to reduce the likelihood its information will be misinterpreted or misused.

For more information, you can watch Jamieson's remarks ([link removed]) on VAERS and read APPC's report ([link removed]) .
REPLY ALL

Reader: Did President Obama propose that military veterans should carry their own private insurance for injuries sustained while on active duty?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: Wow, this bogus claim is still circulating? We wrote about it in 2009. It isn't true. It was the invention of a conservative humorist, John Semmens, who made up quotes and attributed them to Obama for his column, "Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News," at the online publication The Arizona Conservative. The satirical column ([link removed]) appeared March 21, 2009.

For more, read "Would Obama Have Soldiers Pay for Own War Injuries? ([link removed]) "


** Wrapping Up
------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "mRNA Vaccines Protect Against COVID-19 Mortality, Contrary to Misleading Posts ([link removed]) ": Numerous studies have shown the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in preventing severe disease and death from COVID-19. But some social media posts are citing a criticized study that focuses on overall mortality to falsely imply the vaccines are harmful and don’t work.
* "Ventilators Save Lives, Did Not Cause ‘Nearly All’ COVID-19 Deaths ([link removed]) :" Ventilators can be lifesaving for critically ill COVID-19 patients. A social media claim that a new study shows ventilators killed “nearly all” COVID-19 patients is “quite wrong,” according to the study’s co-author. Ventilator-associated complications can contribute to deaths, but patients are typically put on ventilators when they would otherwise die.
* "Database Errors Fuel False Claims about HIV Cases in Military ([link removed]) ": The rate of new HIV infections in the military has been relatively unchanged since 2017. But social media posts falsely claim that the military has recorded a “500% increase in HIV since the COVID vaccine rollout.” A Defense Department spokesperson said errors in a military database sparked the inaccurate claim.
* "Post Misrepresents Legal Power of Arizona Resolution on Electronic Voting Machines ([link removed]) ": The Republican majority leader of the Arizona Senate informed county election officials that a Senate resolution essentially bars electronic voting systems in the state. The state’s Democratic secretary of state and attorney general say the resolution carries no legal weight. Nonetheless, based on the resolution, a Facebook post misleadingly claimed the state “has banned electronic voting machines.”

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Vacunas de ARNm protegen contra el COVID-19, al contrario de lo que afirman publicaciones engañosas ([link removed]) ": Numerosos estudios han demostrado que las vacunas de ARNm contra el COVID-19 son seguras y efectivas en la prevención de enfermedades graves y la muerte por COVID-19. Pero algunas publicaciones en las redes sociales citan un estudio criticado que se enfoca en la mortalidad general para insinuar falsamente que las vacunas son dañinas y no funcionan.
* "A los niños pequeños no se les ofrece tratamiento médico de transición de género ([link removed]) ": Las familias que acuden a un proveedor de salud para pedir información sobre la identidad de género de un niño pequeño pueden obtener respuesta a sus preguntas o recibir asesoramiento. En algunas publicaciones se afirma erróneamente que a los niños pequeños se les “hace la transición”. Para que quede claro, a los niños preadolescentes no se les ofrece cirugía ni medicamentos de transición.

Do you like FactCheck.Weekly? Share it with a friend! They can subscribe here ([link removed]) .
Donate to Support Our Work ([link removed])

============================================================
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
We'll show up in your inbox every Friday with this fact-focused rundown. But you can message us any day of the week with questions or comments: [email protected].
Copyright © 2023 FactCheck.org, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
FactCheck.org
Annenberg Public Policy Center
202 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3806

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed][UNIQID]&c=ff9a7620f9&utm_source=FactCheck.org&utm_campaign=58c0938d4f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_05_26_02_43&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-58c0938d4f-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D)
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed][UNIQID]&c=ff9a7620f9&utm_source=FactCheck.org&utm_campaign=58c0938d4f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_05_26_02_43&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-58c0938d4f-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D)
.

This email was sent to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
why did I get this? ([link removed]) unsubscribe from this list ([link removed]) update subscription preferences ([link removed])
FactCheck.org: A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania . 202 S 36th St. . Philadelphia, Pa 19104 . USA