Factchecking and Live-Tweeting the Democratic Presidential Primary Debates

Tonight's Democratic presidential primary debate marks the fifth round of debates of the 2020 campaign and will surely touch on fiscal issues.

Through our US Budget Watch 2020 project, we will factcheck candidates' claims and estimate the fiscal costs of their proposals. During the 2016 campaign cycle – through our Fiscal FactChecks and signature report Promises and Price Tags – we tallied the cost of every significant proposal from the major presidential candidates.

We have already released policy explainers analyzing Elizabeth Warren’s higher education plan, Kamala Harris’s LIFT the Middle Class Act, and Bernie Sanders’ Social Security Expansion Act through US Budget Watch 2020 and plan to release additional policy explainers and fiscal factchecks in the coming weeks and months.

Following the last debate we factchecked claims made by the candidates about Medicare for All, including whether the annual cost of a Medicare for All plan would be more than the entire federal budget and if it would cost $30 trillion over ten years.

During the debate, we'll be factchecking the budget-related claims at our Fiscal FactCheck page and live-tweeting using the Twitter handle @BudgetHawks. You can check out a live Twitter feed below:

Tonight, we will be live on social media offering our expert analysis for why the candidates’ claims are (or are not) true. Follow us on our Fiscal FactCheck page and on Twitter and Facebook. If you believe that we have overlooked a particular claim that should be addressed, contact us and we will do our best to run the claim through our Fiscal FactCheck.