www.astralcodexten.com/p/last-rights
5 corrections found
Congressional approval dipped below 20% during the Great Recession and hasn’t recovered since.
This is incorrect: Congress’s approval rating has risen back above 20% multiple times since the Great Recession, including into the mid-30s in 2021.
Full reasoning
Gallup’s long-running congressional approval polling shows that Congress did not stay below 20% after the Great Recession. In March 2021, Gallup reported that 36% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing, after 35% in February 2021. That directly contradicts the claim that approval “hasn’t recovered since” dipping below 20% during the recession-era period.
So while congressional approval has often been low, the specific factual claim that it has not recovered above 20% since the Great Recession is false.
1 source
- U.S. Satisfaction Continues to Improve in March | Gallup
More than a third of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing (36%), similar to the rating Gallup recorded in February -- which at the time marked the legislative body's highest approval rating in nearly 12 years.
Eighty three years later - in 1872 - a Congress voted themselves a pay raise
The famous 'Salary Grab' was enacted in 1873, not 1872.
Full reasoning
This date is off by a year. The congressional pay raise commonly known as the Salary Grab was passed on March 3, 1873, the last day of the 42nd Congress.
A Northwestern University working paper on the episode states that the Salary Grab was a legislative initiative "passed on the last day of the 42nd Congress (March 3, 1873)" and that it made the raise retroactive nearly two years. A Treasury Department history page likewise identifies the Panic of 1873 as the financial crisis of that year. So the article’s placement of the pay raise in 1872 is incorrect.
2 sources
- Who Should Govern Congress? The Salary Grab of 1873 and the Coalition of Reform (WP-05-07)
We examine the politics surrounding the "Salary Grab," a legislative initiative passed on the last day of the 42nd Congress (March 3, 1873) that increased congressional salaries by 50 percent and made the pay hike retroactive to the first day of the Congress, nearly two years earlier.
- Financial Panic of 1873 | U.S. Department of the Treasury
One of the worst happened in 1873 - during the time of the Freedman's Bank.
this became the only A+ ever given in the history of the University of Texas.
UT Austin did not officially record an A+ here. Its official grade scale has no A+, and reporting on the case says Gregory Watson’s grade was formally changed from C to A.
Full reasoning
The article overstates what UT Austin officially did.
UT Austin’s own grading page lists the university’s standard letter grades and includes A, A-, B+ ... F, but not A+. And KUT’s detailed reporting on Gregory Watson’s grade change says that although the professor wrote that he "deserves A+" on the form, the university ultimately "changed that C to an A."
So the documented official outcome was an A, not an officially recorded A+. That means it was not literally "the only A+ ever given in the history of the University of Texas."
2 sources
- Grades - Texas One Stop - University of Texas at Austin
Offices and departments on campus use a standard set of grades (A through F)... Valid Grades: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, F.
- He Got A Bad Grade. So, He Got The Constitution Amended. Now He's Getting The Credit He Deserves. | KUT
On April 20, the dean of the McCombs School of Business ... signed off on the grade change. So, 35 years after Gregory wrote his paper, he finally changed that C to an A.
Zero state or national legislative seats are currently occupied by third parties
This is false at the state level. Vermont’s legislature currently includes members listed by the state itself as Progressive/Democrat, so the number is not zero.
Full reasoning
The claim is too absolute. While there may be no third-party members in Congress, there are state legislative seats currently held by legislators with third-party affiliation.
For example, the Vermont General Assembly’s official member pages list Rep. Chloe Tomlinson and Rep. Kate Logan as "Progressive/Democrat". That means at least some state legislative seats are currently occupied by legislators affiliated with the Vermont Progressive Party, contradicting the article’s statement that the number is zero.
Because even one such seat disproves an absolute zero, this claim is factually incorrect as written.
2 sources
- Representative Chloe Tomlinson | Vermont General Assembly
Representative Chloe Tomlinson ... Party Progressive/Democrat
- Representative Kate Logan | Vermont General Assembly
Representative Kate Logan ... Party Progressive/Democrat
Ohio decided - better late than never - and became the 9th state to ratify the amendment
Ohio was not the 9th state to ratify the congressional-pay amendment; it was the 8th.
Full reasoning
The ratification count here is off by one.
The National Archives says the congressional-pay amendment (later the 27th Amendment) was initially ratified by six states: Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Vermont, and Virginia. It then says Kentucky ratified it in 1792, followed by Ohio in 1873 and Wyoming in 1978.
That means Ohio came after six original ratifications plus Kentucky, making Ohio the 8th state to ratify it, not the 9th.
1 source
- A Record-Setting Amendment | National Archives
Six states initially ratified it-Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Vermont, and Virginia... Kentucky ... ratified it on June 27 of that year. Then Ohio in 1873, and Wyoming in 1978.