Fact-checking Bill Clinton on ABC’s ‘This Week’

ABC’s Jake Tapper interviewed Bill Clinton on This Week on April 18, 2010, covering issues ranging from Supreme Court nominees to health care to financial reform.

We examined Clinton’s claim that, unlike President Barack Obama in his first year, Clinton never had a filibuster-proof Senate. Clinton said that was why he had to reach out more to Repubicans in the process to select a Supreme Court nominee, and why his health care plan ultimately fizzled. We found that the closest Clinton ever got to filibuster-proof was his first months in office, when he was still several Democrats short. In fact, Clinton spent most of his presidency with a Republican majority in the Senate. We ruled his statement True.

We also checked Clinton’s claim that the 1993 balanced budget “led to an enormous flowering of the economy in America.” We rated that Half True.

Stay tuned. We’ll be publishing another Clinton Truth-O-Meter item on Tuesday.