PolitiFact: GOP ad about ISIS wrong; so is Sanders on Trump tax plan

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price attends a press conference at the State House in Concord, N.H., on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, following a meeting with local officials and community members about the opioid crisis. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Concord Monitor)

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price attends a press conference at the State House in Concord, N.H., on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, following a meeting with local officials and community members about the opioid crisis. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Concord Monitor)

Last week PolitiFact looked at Health and Human Secretary Tom Price's claim about new federal spending to combat the opioid epidemic, a political ad's claim about ISIS infiltrators in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders' interpretation of how President Trump's tax proposals would affect three very rich families. Here are abbreviated versions of our fact checks. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com.

“I think if you look at the entire federal government and the president’s commitment to (fighting opioid addiction), you’ll see that there are actually hundreds of millions of dollars increase on this issue.”

— Tom Price on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 in press conference about opioid addiction

Price reiterated Trump's commitment to end the opioid crisis in a visit to New Hampshire, a week after it was announced that the administration planned to cut the Office of National Drug Control Policy's budget by $364 million, about 95 percent. The proposed cut in Trump's final budget, it turned out, was not so steep.

When we contacted the Department of Health and Human Services to get a numbers breakdown a spokesman pointed to the congressional omnibus bill, the temporary spending measure to keep the government running that was passed in early May. However, that number includes some funding that was passed by Congress under President Obama, before Trump was elected, such as $500 million in 21st Century Cures Act grant money, which and doesn't account for the president's proposed federal budget.

Some experts on addiction say that other Trump proposals won't help ease the opioid crisis and could make it worse. His budget asks for almost $400 million in cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, for example, which could result in fewer mental health block grants distributed. And the recently proposed Republican health care bill, which Trump supports, proposes big cuts to Medicaid.

Our Ruling

Price said the government is already spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" more to fight the opioid crisis. More funding was approved in the recent omnibus bill to keep the government running, but other policies Trump is seeking to pursue, notably cuts to Medicaid, could wipe out that increase and then some. We rate the claim Half True.

“ISIS is infiltrating America and using Syrians to do it.”

An ad by the National Republican Congressional Committee against 6th District Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff

To date, there is no documented case of that happening.

ISIS members posing as refugees from Syria can make their way to central and western Europe over land or by boat from the Mediterranean. But that’s not the case for the United States.

NRCC spokeswoman Maddie Anderson argued for the ad’s accuracy by saying that in addition to physical infiltration, “ISIS is also infiltrating us with their ideology by seeking to inspire lone wolf attacks here from afar. The domestic terrorists have gotten their ideas and been inspired by what’s going on in the Middle East.” But the ad didn’t stress ideological propaganda on social media. It used the phrase “terrorists infiltrate” and referred to Syrian refugee admissions.

Far more common than “infiltration” cases are examples of self-radicalization by people already in the United States, mostly people who were born and raised here.

Our ruling

In the few examples since 2001 of an "infiltration" leading to a terror attack, they have not involved ISIS terrorists from Syria. We rate the statement False.

President Donald “Trump’s budget gives a $100 billion tax break to three of the wealthiest families.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Thursday, May 25, 2017 in a tweet

The accusation runs away with a flawed analysis of Trump’s tax plan.

Sanders' source is a report prepared by Democrats on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee that says the Walton family of Wal-Mart, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson stand to gain $52 billion, $38 billion and $12 billion respectively in tax breaks under Trump's proposal, or $102 billion all together.

Experts said Sanders miscast Trump’s tax plan and the Democratic calculations are overly simple. Sanders assumed those wealthy family members would pay nothing, and that’s not accurate.

Any person with a very large estate would bring on an estate tax lawyer to structure his or her estate in ways that would reduce estate tax. This means it is highly unlikely wealthy families would ever pay 40 percent tax on their wealth under the current estate tax law. Eliminating the estate tax thus would not save them 40 percent of their wealth relative to current law.

Our ruling

The three wealthy families Sanders had in mind would benefit handsomely under Trump's plan, but Sanders' office did not provide evidence that held up, and experts said the total would likely be less than $100 billion. We rate this claim Mostly False.