McCarthy's dine-and-dash on the debt ceiling The latest standoff in Congress concerns the federal government's debt ceiling, with Republicans opposed to an increase now that President Biden is in office. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that without congressional action, the government won't be able to pay its bills sometime in the coming weeks, which would mean defaulting for the first time in history and economic chaos. Congress in bipartisan votes suspended the debt ceiling in December 2017, March 2019 and August 2019. The national debt rose by roughly $7.8 trillion during the Trump administration and is now at $28 trillion. Now, with a Democrat back in the White House, the GOP blockade last seen during the Obama administration has returned. "The past debt ceiling paid for everything in the Trump administration, plus seven months of this Biden administration," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed in an interview on Fox News this week. He earned Three Pinocchios. Raising the debt limit would cover the cost of programs that were approved in the past, such as the GOP tax cuts from 2017. The government continues to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars a year to finance them, $1.9 trillion over 10 years. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Pompeo strikes again with Iran claim On Fox News this week, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo (R) had punchy words for the Biden foreign-policy team. "The folks that are around President Biden today in his White House talking about foreign policy are the same leaders — a fellow named Brett McGurk sent $150 billion, pallets of cash, to the Iranians, who are hosting the senior al-Qaeda leadership in Tehran today," he said. We've fact-checked this one many times but it keeps popping up. It shows the staying power that comes from Donald Trump incessantly repeating a falsehood. According to a representative of his, Pompeo misspoke and supposedly meant to refer to a different, $1.7 billion transfer to Iran. If so, it wouldn't be the first time he misspoke. Last year on Fox News, Pompeo repeated the same debunked claim. ("We provided them $150 billion, pallets of cash.") The $150 billion, as we've written, was an aspect of President Barack Obama's Iranian nuclear deal. It was always an exaggerated number — and it referred to Iran's foreign-currency reserves, heavily restricted by sanctions. It was never U.S. taxpayer money. And the Treasury Department said in 2015 that the real figure was closer to $55 billion. Pompeo earned Four Pinocchios. It's time to retire this talking point. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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