Fact Check of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Interviews conducted by AARP | Poynter Institute

PolitiFact reader Robert Knaus noted after reading interviews conducted by AARP featuring Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump without fact checking their responses. On August 29th and October 2nd respectively, each presidential candidate for 2016 spoke by phone with Robert Love, vice president and editor-in-chief of AARP Publications’s, before answering some identical Q&A’s about inflation, Social Security, Medicare and drug prices. AARP published these Q&As. As part of our service to readers, we conducted some fact checks of candidates’ statements: Harris: In terms of grocery costs, one of the major problems has been price gouging; whereby unscrupulous entities increase prices significantly for everyday essentials including groceries. PolitiFact experts have noted the lack of context presented here. Price gouging can occur, yet inflation has typically resulted from other sources. An instance of price gouging was insinuated into an antitrust lawsuit brought forth in 2023 against Agri Stats Inc, an analytics and consulting company, by the Justice Department for harming grocery stores and consumers by illegally “collecting, integrating, and disseminating competitively sensitive information related to price, cost and output among competing meat processors.” Agri Stats was said by the Justice Department to encourage meat processors to raise prices and cut supply; their suit is currently ongoing. Furthermore, Washington state attorney general has won price fixing cases against tuna companies and broiler chicken producers. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Missouri) researchers determined in 2023 that price markup growth — when product sale prices exceeded costs — contributed over 50% of inflation during 2021. Researchers concluded that markups could be explained as precautionary steps companies took “anticipating future cost pressures”, rather than to extract profits solely. PolitiFact received opinions from economists which indicate that rising production costs — such as wages, raw material costs and real estate prices — are primary causes for higher consumer prices rather than price gouging practices. A 2024 Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco study concluded that corporate price markups weren’t behind the recent inflation surge. Joseph Balagtas, an agricultural economics professor from Purdue University, noted the COVID-19 pandemic caused supply-chain disruptions beginning in 2020 that eventually lead to high inflation through 2022 when year-to-year inflation reached its highest rate ever of 9.18%. Balagtas noted that these factors combined to drive prices higher. Production cost increases, the pandemic altering consumer behaviors and fiscal and monetary policy increases are all forces which drive prices higher, according to Balagtas. Donald Trump claimed he signed “the largest tax cut” ever seen by our country – when in reality this claim is false. Trump signed into law an inflation-adjusted tax bill which ranks fourth largest since 1940 and seventh when considered in terms of gross domestic product — the total monetary value produced in an economy. Our colleagues at the Washington Post Fact Checker found this was Trump’s second most frequently repeated false claim – having shared it 295 times while president. Trump: Under Trump, Americans enjoyed low interest rates and no inflation while under Biden they experienced “the highest rates and greatest inflation of our history. Interest rates under Biden have been higher than under Trump, yet Trump miscalculates Biden-era inflation as being historic worst. Under President Trump himself, year-on-year inflation ranged between 1.5% to 3% per annum during Trump’s pre-Pandemic years. After reaching its highest under Biden in mid-2022 at around 9%, inflation is currently 2.6%–which is lower than some points during Trump’s term, though not always. At Biden’s maximum point inflation wasn’t at record-levels. The United States experienced its highest sustained, year-over-year inflation rates from 1970s and early 1980s price increases ranging between 12-15% annually; one year — 1946 after U.S. victory in World War II — exceeded an 18% annualized inflation rate. Before the pandemic triggered interest rate cuts, mortgage interest rates under Trump ranged between 3.5% to 5% while under Biden they reached 7.6% due to Federal Reserve rate hikes designed to combat inflation. Since that point, Social Security rates have steadily declined to just more than 6% but were higher at any point during Trump’s presidency than any time during Obama. Harris: For our seniors who depend solely on Social Security income to survive financially – this claim is far-fetched.” Our most up-to-date data comes from a report released in 2020 by the National Institute on Retirement Security based out of Washington D.C. Report findings indicated that approximately 40% of American 60 and overs had only Social Security income, not income from defined benefit plans (such as company pensions or 401(k) plans) or defined contribution plans ( such as 401(k) accounts). Some may have earned additional money through part-time work opportunities; nonetheless this 40% may also include those receiving disability payments or retirement plans as their only source. Harris stated that Donald Trump attempted to abolish the Affordable Care Act 60 times while in office. Although Trump did seek to kill this act enacted under former President Obama and passed in 2010, Harris exaggerated its frequency. As president, Donald Trump cut millions in federal funding allocated to outreach services that promote health coverage under the Affordable Care Act and navigators who help people enroll. He legalized short-term health plans that don’t comply with consumer protections in the act and sold for longer durations – taking people away from healthcare law’s marketplaces and diverting revenue away. Trump’s administration supported state Medicaid waivers with work requirements that reduced enrollment significantly. He further abolished insurance company subsidies that helped offset costs for low-income enrollees, supported an unsuccessful effort at repealing a law and supported ending penalties associated with failure to purchase health coverage. Trump’s presidency saw enrollment for the Affordable Care Act plummet by over 2 million individuals while uninsured Americans increased by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children, making 60 specific actions under Trump nearly impossible without counting hundreds of attempts from 2010 through 2017 that fell short. This period encompasses events prior to Donald Trump being elected, or becoming active in politics. According to Donald, Medicare premium increases caused by Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act are rising sharply; health policy analysts previously highlighted this concern as legitimate. However, Biden administration actions seem to have avoided creating “massive” increases for beneficiaries–at least so far. Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act that included a $2,000 cap for out-of-pocket spending associated with Medicare Part D — the portion that covers prescription drug coverage – when signing it in 2022. It was an encouraging development for beneficiaries while unsettling to insurers who now must bear more costs themselves and bear an increased share. At first it appeared this may force insurance providers to raise premiums sharply in order to recoup some of those costs from premium payments. Luckily this did not come to pass and premium increases remain low across most providers today. But under President Biden, his administration used its authority to implement an “insurance demonstration program”, providing additional money to insurers that limited premium increases to $35 a month thereby softening premium increases and mitigating impacts, according to KFF analysis published last October. Health research organization Pew Charitable Trusts determined that federal efforts had substantially moderated insurer premium increases. Some congressional Republicans have been critical of President Obama’s election-eve announcement as being too hasty in its execution. Republicans used a similar tactic before and during 2006 midterm elections and 2007 to cushion the blow after then-President George W. Bush instituted Medicare prescription drug benefit (MedPdB). Trump: His administration instituted rules giving seniors $35 worth of insulin each month – something neither Bush administration had attempted before this point. Trump’s administration implemented a limited program to lower insulin costs for some Medicare recipients; this point lacks context. KFF reported in 2020 that President Donald Trump established the Part D Senior Savings Model through his Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation as part of an experimentation scheme known as voluntary time limited model under CMSI titled Part D Senior Savings Model voluntarily time limited model according to KFF Under this model, Medicare Part D prescription drug plans that participated provided coverage for at least one dose form and type of insulin product at no more than $35 monthly from 2021-2023; less than half of all Part D plans chose to participate. In 2022, this program included 2,159 Medicare drug plans; according to estimates by CMS and CMS-MCOI, over 800,000.000 Medicare recipients who used insulin would have benefitted. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that more than 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries paid more than $35 a month for insulin before President Trump’s program took effect in 2021. Congress passed and Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022 with an insulin provision that went further than Trump’s voluntary initiative, capping out-of-pocket costs for Medicare patients at $35 monthly. As opposed to Trump’s program, which only applied to certain Medicare Part D plans, Biden-era legislation required all Medicare drug plans — including Part B coverage of medical equipment such as insulin pumps — to place caps on out-of-pocket insulin costs for all users. The Affordable Care Act stipulated that an out-of-pocket price cap applies to all insulin products covered under one Medicare plan, not just some. Trump also signed an executive order reducing insulin prices for low-income patients who use Federally Qualified Health Centers — serving 10% of Americans — but Biden took steps to nullify it, effectively cancelling it before its full implementation could occur. Trump claims energy prices as the source of inflation; although economists generally accept this thesis. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine furthered inflationary trends by spurring oil price spikes and disrupting world trade flows, according to economists. Invasion by Russia occurred shortly before U.S. inflation peaked under Biden at around 9% during summer 2022. Economists widely concur that supply-chain shortages during COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act relief bill, were major catalysts of inflationary increase and further fuelled it through placing too much cash in Americans’ hands at an already tenuous moment when supplies were running short. Inflation has declined from its 2022 peak by two-thirds to 2.6% year over year – close to what the Federal Reserve needs before cutting interest rates. Oil prices and inflation both decreased since their mid-2022 peaks. Trump: Under President Trump, we were energy independent. However, his policies led to some definitions of energy independence being met, yet not others; additionally he overlooks that Biden too has reached certain benchmarks of energy independence. Under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, one definition that describes U.S. energy exports would be its inflows exceeding exports. Energy Information Administration, a federal office which tracks energy statistics, noted that in 2019 — while President Donald Trump was in office — the US became a net exporter of overall energy consumption for the first time since 1952. Since that point, this trend has continued, widening to record levels by 2023 – the latest full year with available statistics. Another measure of energy independence would be whether or not the United States exports petroleum. In 2020, during President Donald Trump’s final year in office, the U.S. became a net exporter of petroleum for the first time since 1949 – something it continued into 2022 as data became available. Energy independence occurs when domestic production exceeds domestic consumption – this third form. From 2019-2023, under both presidents, this trend continued, though with one important exception: crude oil production — key for making gasoline for consumer vehicles — did not show similar upward progression as energy in general. Crude oil imports were higher than exports during each of Trump’s four years in office and during Biden’s initial three. Though theoretically producing enough crude to meet domestic consumption needs, U.S. refineries lack capacity to process all its output due to being built to process heavy, sour crude from Middle Eastern and international suppliers rather than domestically produced light sweet crude. Crude oil is graded according to both weight and “sweetness”, or sulfur content, making the United States export more domestic crude on international markets than it imports domestically, necessitating additional purchases of oil from overseas in order to satisfy domestic demands. Trump asserted: “America has more oil and natural gas reserves than any other nation worldwide by far – an assertion which is demonstrably false.” Venezuela held the world’s top proven crude oil reserves at 304 billion barrels at the start of 2021, followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Canada, Iraq, United Arab Emirates Kuwait and Russia (according to US Energy Information Administration estimates). U.S. ranks ninth internationally with 61 billion barrels in oil reserves; its natural gas production ranks fourth; while it tops all countries worldwide for coal reserves with 1. This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact which is part of Poynter Institute and can be seen here along with sources for their work.