PolitiFact: The Roundup


How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?

Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.

To fact-check the claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.

The fact check then moves on to a panel of editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.

PolitiFact and PolitiFact Georgia last week covered the waterfront, truth-testing people in politics, at the pulpit and at the pinnacle of football.

We fact-checked claims that Medicaid needs to be expanded in Georgia and that, for all the talk of the hard hits some football players take on the field, they may have longer lives.

And we looked at whether the cost of the food stamp program is at an all-time high.

We also looked at state Sen Nan Orrock’s claims about proposed legislation to require drug testing of food stamp recipients.

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Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.

Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.

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Facebook posts: The cost of the food stamp program is at an all-time high.

Many conservatives are rejoicing that the recently passed farm bill contained cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program. Too much money is being spent on that program, they say.

“The cost of the food stamp program is at an all-time high,” we saw on the Facebook pages of some conservatives.

One person had a chart showing the annual totals. The highest number was for the 12-month fiscal year period that ended Sept. 30, at nearly $80 billion.

We wondered whether this chart is correct and about the claim that spending for the program is at an all-time high.

The U.S. Agricultural Department keeps data on annual food stamp spending on its website. Spending on SNAP has risen in recent years like fly balls used to do on summer nights in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. In fiscal year 2008, SNAP spending totaled about $53.6 billion. Five years later, it was $79.64 billion — the highest total since the program started in 1969. Adjusted for inflation, the 2013 total is higher than any other fiscal year.

The department’s chart shows spending per recipient was at its highest in fiscal year 2011, at $133.85. The 2013 fiscal year total was $133.07.

We rated this claim Mostly True.

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State Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta: Florida shelled out more money for drug testing than it saved by denying welfare benefits to people who tested positive for drugs.

During a television appearance Jan. 22, Orrock debated the merits of legislation introduced by state Rep. Greg Morris, R-Vidalia, that would mandate drug testing of participants in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as the food stamp program.

Orrock said she based her statement on a story in The Miami Herald about Florida’s program, which operated for four months testing recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or welfare, before it was halted due to legal challenges. The newspaper reported that 4,086 welfare applicants were subject to drug testing, and 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed. An additional 40 people scheduled but canceled their tests.

State law required Florida to reimburse applicants who tested negative an average of

$35 for the screening — or a total of $118,140. The result was a net loss of $45,780, the newspaper reported.

The Florida Department of Children & Families, the agency that headed the four months of drug testing of TANF applicants, didn’t calculate the net savings. But an agency spokeswoman agreed with most of the newspaper’s numbers.

We rated Orrock’s statement as True.

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The Rev. Raphael Warnock: “Georgia has the fifth-highest number of uninsured people of any state in the union.”

Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and the keynote speaker at this year’s MLK Commemorative Service at the church, used the occasion to demand that the Medicaid program be expanded.

Warnock said he had done some research on where Georgia ranked nationally in terms of uninsured residents and believed he was “in the ballpark” on his claim. He forwarded a two-page fact sheet by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute that says Georgia ranks fifth in the number of uninsured residents. He also shared a 2012 Kaiser Family Foundation report that ranked Georgia tied for fifth in the percentage of uninsured residents, at 19 percent.

Our research showed Warnock was in the ballpark. We rated his statement as True.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: NFL players are living, on average, “longer than the average male.”

Goodell made the comment during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” the day of the Super Bowl.

We found the statement was accurate but requires some additional explanation.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a government research agency within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied the mortality rates of former NFL football players in a report released in 2012.

The study included nearly all NFL players who played in the league for five or more years from 1959 to 1988 — a pool of 3,439 men. Researchers said based on current mortality rates, they expected 625 players to be deceased. But by the end of 2007, only 334 were.

The former NFL players also had lower rates of heart disease and cancer compared with average males, the report found.

There are a few important caveats to point out. NFL players aren’t like your average male in a number of ways. They are professional athletes, many of whom might be wealthy, and they are likely to have access to quality health care.

We rated Goodell’s statement Mostly True.