FactChecking the Second Democratic Debate

[Hiraeth]

Summary
The three Democratic presidential candidates faced off on a Saturday night, and made several inaccurate claims:
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said that in President Reagan’s first term, the highest marginal income tax rate was 70 percent. But Reagan signed a bill in his first year dropping that to 50 percent, and it dropped again to 28 percent in his second term.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said that the U.S. “has more income and wealth inequality than any major country on earth.” But Israel, Brazil and Chile have both greater income and wealth inequality, and more countries beat the U.S. in one of the measures.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrongly said that wages “haven’t risen since the turn of the last century.” Real average weekly earnings of rank-and-file workers rose 7.2 percent since 1999.

Sanders repeated his talking point about billionaires paying “an effective tax rate lower than nurses or truck drivers.” That may be the case for some in those professions, once we factor in payroll taxes, but it’s not accurate for all.
When Clinton cited Princeton economist Alan Krueger’s support for her minimum wage proposal, O’Malley called him a Wall Street economist. He’s not. O’Malley boasted that Maryland was “the only state” to freeze college tuition four years in a row. This year, Maine did so as well.

more at link: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/factchecking-the-second-democratic-debate/ar-BBn1s9P?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=iehp

[dsc]

1. the century turned in 2000

not 1999. She still may have been inaccurate but when checking facts it would help to have ones own facts straight. The first year was year 1 not year 0 and thus the last year of the century was 2000, not 1999.