Fact Checking Glenn Beck

So I was unlucky enough to come across Glenn Beck on C-SPAN this weekend giving the keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference. There were three things I wrote down as he said them, fully expecting them not to be true. Here is what he said:

"Calvin Coolidge was one of Reagan's favorite presidents. There's a reason.

Taxes went from 77% to 25%.
Spending dropped by 50%.
Unemployment dropped to 1.8%."

So, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States. Served from 1923 until 1929. Let's check out what ol' Glenn has to say:

"Taxes went from 77% to 25%"

No they didn't. When Coolidge took office, the top tax bracket was 50%. When he left it was 25%. So I guess he was half-wrong on that one, on the side of overstating his case, of course.

"Spending dropped by 50%"

No it didn't. In 1923, total federal outlays were $3.14 billion. In 1929, total federal outlays were $3.127 billion. That's a 0.4% drop if my math is correct.

"Unemployment dropped to 1.8%"

Uh, take a guess whether he's right or wrong. It was 5% in 1923, the year he took office; "peaked" at 4% in 1926, and in 1928-29 went from 5% down to 4.8%. At no time was it even remotely close to 1.8%. It didn't even get down to twice that. At least Glenn is consistent.

The thing about Beck, Hannity et. al. is, they fully expect you to not think. Of all the people going bananas in that room during his speech, of all the conservatives who have read, watched and fawned over it since, I guarantee you not one of them did any fact-checking whatsoever. None. And that's what Glenn is counting on: that you will accept everything he says at face value and would not dare to think for yourself.