RADAR ALERT: Want a Good Laugh? Check Out the SAFE Act!

What if you knew a bill had been introduced in Congress in which most of the findings were misleading, outdated, or simply false? Welcome to wonderful, wacky world of HR 739, the Security and Financial Empowerment Act (SAFE).

The bill contains 53 different claims. Only 4 of those claims can be verified as accurate, current, and truthful. As for the remaining 49 claims, whoever dreamed up this stuff has an incredible sense of humor!

The following bold-faced quotes come straight from the SAFE Act findings. They are followed by the actual facts. So get ready for some side-splitting humor:

1. "Violence against women has been reported to be the leading cause of physical injury to women." Here's what the website of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows:
   • Under the graph the DHHS states, "All of the leading causes of injury in 2006 were unintentional." But domestic violence is an intentional cause of injury. In other words, DV is not even on the list of leading causes of injury.
2. "According to recent Government estimates, approximately 987,400 rapes occur annually in the United States". Here's what the FBI really says:
   • "In 2007, the estimated number of forcible rapes (90,427) decreased 2.5 percent from the 2006 estimate." So the SAFE number is off by about 900,000. We'll just call it a rounding error.