Checking Some Facts: Thursday’s GOP Senate Debate

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Linda McMahon and Christopher Shays debated each other Thursday at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, their first one-on-one match-up of the primary season. You can read the full story about the debate here and the debate was broadcast statewide tonight on Fox CT.

Both candidates hit each other hard on the economy and other issues and the Courant checked a few of those statements for fact below:

Shays, on the U.S. economy: “It’s not natural to have 15-20 million people unemployed.”

Christopher Shays

The number of people Shays cited was true. According a June 1 report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 12.7 million “unemployed persons” in the U.S., the number of people without work who have looked for a job within the past four weeks. The official unemployment rate was 8.2 percent.

However, the report says that an additional 2.4 million people were “marginally attached” to the workforce—people who aren’t working but wanted to and were available to and had looked for work in the past 12 months. When combined with the 12.7 million unemployed people, the total number is 15.1 million people unemployed, near the lower bound of Shays’ range.

And the report also notes that 8.1 million people are working part-time because their hours have been cut back or they are unable to find a full-time job. When combined with the unemployed and the marginally attached, the total number grows to 23.2 million people who are either unemployed or underemployed.

McMahon, on government spending: “Let me give you a staggering example: When the recession began, we had one member of the (federal)

Linda McMahon

Department of Transportation that made over $170,000. Eighteen months into the current administration, we have 1,690 that make over $170,000.”

Correction: True.  A 2009 article from USA Today reported this fact almost exactly. An earlier version of this blog post cited a FactCheck.org post about a statement made by Minnesota Republican congresswoman Michelle Bachmann made  before Bachmann announced her run for U.S. President. Using data from the federal Office of Personnel Management, that website found that about two-thirds of those employees were making more than $170,000 before President Barack Obama took office. But Bachmann’s statement said that the workers were added after President Barack Obama took office. In Thursday’s debate, McMahon said the workers were added after the start of the recession, which began long before Obama took office, as was reported by the newspaper in 2010.

Shays: McMahon contributed to the campaigns of prominent Democrats such as Rahm Emanuel.

True. Federal campaign finance records (which you can search here by a contributor’s employer) shows that Linda McMahon of World Wrestling Federation made contributions to Emanuel in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2008. The contributions totaled about $5,300. Emanuel, a Democrat who represented Chicago’s western suburbs, held his seat until early 2009, when he resigned to become President Obama’s Chief of Staff. He is now the mayor of Chicago.

McMahon: “We have 47 (federal government) programs for job training.”

True. According to Politifact.com, the federal Government Accountability Office published a 2011 report that found the federal government has 47 job training programs run by nine agencies. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney made a similar claim at a campaign stop in Florida last month, though he was slightly off with his numbers.

Shays, on jobs in Connecticut: “As long as we have a governor and a Legislature that taxes wealth, it will flee. We rank at the very bottom because wealth is fleeing.”

Could be false. Shays didn’t say what Connecticut ranks at the bottom in–but it probably isn’t money and wealth. According Census data (PDF, table 719)  from 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, Connecticut had about 47,000 “top wealth holders” with a net worth of at least $1.5 million. That’s far from the highest in the nation (that goes to California, with 428,000 “top wealth holders”) but it’s also far from the bottom–states there had less than 10,000 top wealth holders.

Looking to more recent U.S. Census data, Connecticut had a median household income of $67,740 from 2006-2010, significantly higher than the U.S. average. And Connecticut isn’t at the bottom in terms of current unemployment, either: the state ranks 30th, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,  with an April unemployment rate of 7.7 percent–but unemployment rate was lower than the national average at the time and still is. Numbers for the state’s May unemployment situation are due out later this month.

McMahon:  “Kids out of college can’t get a job. One out of two is either unemployed or underemployed.”

True. An analysis of 2011 Census Bureau data by Northeastern University researchers, reported in May, found that about 53.6 percent of people under 25 who held a bachelor’s degree were either unemployed or underemployed.