Jimmy Carter fact check

 US News

MISCONCEPTION: Jimmy Carter was an unabashed liberal.

MORE ACCURATE: Carter was a moderate politician, campaigned deliberately and, once in office, pursued policies that don't fit easily under one label.

THE DETAILS: Carter sought the presidency in 1976 as an outsider in a party largely controlled in Washington by New Deal liberals and Kennedy loyalists. Carter was a “Southern Democrat” who never gelled with Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, who challenged him in a damaging 1980 primary. Carter had described himself in Georgia as both “conservative” and “progressive,” depending on the issue, the audience and the campaign. Sometimes he even used those words together.

He was a good-government policy wonk who spent considerable political capital reorganizing government in Atlanta and then Washington. He pushed windfall taxes on big oil (unsuccessfully) but frustrated fellow Democrats on spending priorities and added little to the national debt compared to all his successors (less than $300 billion in four years). The deregulatory era often associated with Reagan actually began with Carter loosening regulations on airlines, trains and trucking.

Carter advocated for a national health program but his top health care bill failed because it didn’t go far enough for party liberals, including Kennedy. Carter grew more openly progressive as a former president, voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primaries. But he also warned his party ahead of 2020 not to move too far left if they hoped to defeat then-President Donald Trump.