Fact-checking Chris Christie’s keynote speech

In his keynote address at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, Gov. Chris Christie repeated a couple of familiar lines about New Jersey and took aim at the rising national debt.

As many other New Jersey Republicans have said in the past, Christie claimed “taxes were raised 115 times in the eight years before I became governor” and those increases were part of a “path that led to wealth and jobs and people leaving our state.”

But those increases included raising taxes, fees and other tax policy changes. Also, there are many other factors affecting the loss of jobs, wealth and residents.

For that statement, the governor received a Half True.

Christie also claimed naysayers said it was “impossible to balance a budget at the same time, with an $11 billion deficit” and “we did it.”

The deficit figure Christie cites refers to a $10.7 billion projected structural deficit, a calculation Christie uses to his advantage in his first budget year but has since dismissed as the old way of budgeting.

Christie received a Half True.

As for the rising national debt, Christie said there has been “$5 trillion in debt added over the last four years.”

Depending on the type of measurement used, Christie’s number is either slightly high or a little low. Also, his implication that President Barack Obama and the Democrats are to blame has some merit, but it ignores the role Republicans have had.

PolitiFact National gave Christie a Mostly True.

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