In a speech calling for an expansion of voting rights, Hillary Clinton attacked what she described as efforts to restrict voting by Republican governors who also are potential presidential candidates.
That includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker."
Politifact rated her statements Mostly True.
In Florida, when Jeb Bush was governor, state authorities conducted a deeply flawed purge of voters before the presidential election in 2000 and "a 2004 a plan to purge even more voters was headed off." The 2000 effort started before Bush was in office, though it continued under his watch. In 2004, the state scrapped another purge after officials admitted errors. Clinton called the purge "deeply flawed," and we found a lot of evidence to support that characterization.
"Former Gov. Rick Perry signed a law that a federal court said was actually written with the purpose of discriminating against minority voters." The law in question requires a photo ID from Texas voters and was greenlit by Perry in 2011. Federal judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos struck the law down in 2013. While that ruling was overturned by two higher courts, Ramos clearly described the law as discriminatory in her ruling. However, it's important to note that courts are still considering whether the law will stand.
"In New Jersey, Gov. Christie vetoed legislation to extend early voting." In 2012, state legislators passed a bill that would have added early, in-person voting to New Jersey's existing absentee ballot mail-in system. Christie rejected the bill, saying the existing system worked fine. The proposal would have extended early voting.
"In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker cut back early voting and signed legislation that would make it harder for college students to vote." Walker reduced the number of days allowed for so-called early voting, but the blanket claim about college students overstates those changes. Some provisions could make it more difficult for certain college students to vote -- if, for example, they don't have a Wisconsin drivers license, or moved to Wisconsin less than 28 days before an election.
Christie buys a corporate line
Chris Christie has said that U.S. corporations are taxed twice on income earned abroad, claiming IRS officials "don't recognize the tax you paid to a foreign country." That's false.
He is wrong to say foreign-earned income is being taxed twice. The Tax Policy Center: "(T)he United States allows corporations to claim credits for income taxes paid to foreign governments directly or by foreign subsidiaries on distributed earnings. These foreign tax credits can to offset U.S. tax liability on foreign-source income."
Christie says the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. The U.S. has the "world's highest statutory corporate tax rate" at 35 percent. The effective corporate tax rate in the U.S. - which is the rate corporations pay after claiming deductions, exemptions, deferrals and tax credits provided by the U.S. tax code - is similar to the effective tax rate in 33 other major countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The U.S. collects less in corporate tax revenue relative to Gross Domestic Production (2.3 percent) than the average of other OECD countries (3 percent).
Chip Tuthill lives in Mancos. Websites used: www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com
