Republicans did well on the Truth-O-Meter this weekend with claims about the growth pace of the nation’s debt to how women are faring jobs-wise since the recession.
In case you missed it, the Truth-O-Meter ruled Sunday on a claim by U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) about how much debt the nation is incurring compared with how the economy is growing. Monday’s claim by Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Monmouth) was about whether women or men are having an easier time of gaining employment in the three years since the recession ended.
Frelinghuysen claim
Frelinghuysen claimed in a May 25 e-mail newsletter that the country has borrowed $2.52 for every $1 of economic growth during the first quarter of 2012. PolitiFact New Jersey found that gross debt grew by more than $359.1 billion for the first three months of the year, compared with the GDP, which increased by $142.4 billion. Broken down, that’s $2.52 added to the debt for each $1 added to the nation’s economy.
Casagrande claim
Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, Casagrande (R-Monmouth) said women are having a more difficult time than men returning to the workforce and noted that unemployment among women has increased since President Barack Obama’s been in office. The Truth-O-Meter found that men actually had higher unemployment than women during the recession, but labor fields typically dominated by women are having a much slower recovery than male-dominated industries.
Read the complete rulings of both stories at PolitiFactNJ.com and then join the conversation about them, and other rulings, at NJ.com.
Our Sources
PolitiFact New Jersey, Rodney Frelinghuysen says debt rose more than twice as fast as the overall economy in first quarter of 2012, June 3, 2012
PolitiFact New Jersey, Caroline Casagrande says women have come through the recession worse off than men, June 4, 2012