In a rarity, a statement made by Hillary Clinton has been judged as “false” by fact-checking website PolitiFact.
On Saturday, at her first rally since choosing Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate, Clinton claimed that Donald Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, “slashed education funding.”
“While Mike Pence slashed education funding in Indiana and gave more tax cuts to the wealthiest, Tim Kaine cut his own salary and invested in education from pre-K through college and beyond,” Clinton said.
So did Mike Pence really “slash” education to extreme lows like Clinton alleges? No. He didn’t even cut education spending. In raw dollars, Indiana went from spending $9 billion on education in 2012 to $10 billion in its fiscal 2017 budget. After adjusting for inflation, the increase is basically negligible, but there have still been minor increases every year since Pence took office.
It’s actually Clinton’s running mate, Kaine, who cut education spending when he was governor. After adjusting for inflation, education spending in Virginia was down $3 million from where it was when Kaine took office. Granted, many states were cutting education budgets when Kaine was in office due to the Great Recession and dwindling tax revenues.
“The clear implication from Clinton’s statement is that Pence cut education in Indiana while Kaine grew it in Virginia,” Politifact’s Lauren Carroll writes. “That sends voters an inaccurate message.”
Of the 225 times Clinton has been fact-checked by Politifact, only 14 percent of her claims have been scored as “false,” or worse, “Pants on Fire.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
