9 hours and 57 minutes ago filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - September 5, 2010
10 hours and 13 minutes ago filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - September 5, 2010
Holiday weekends make for quiet Sundays on the political talk circuit, but yesterday Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) shouldered the propaganda load usually carried by a larger rotation of Republicans. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. McCain took dishonest potshots at President Obama's economic record — economists agree the Recovery Act worked, and the administration has been pushing tax relief for small businesses all summer while McCain's Senate colleagues have blocked the bill — and lied about the future of Medicare. In reality, the Affordable Care Act strengthens Medicare without cutting benefits. On Meet the Press, Sen. Graham claimed the Affordable Care Act includes a government takeover of health care and higher costs (neither claim is true) before suggesting that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves (they don't) and that the Recovery Act led to 2.5 million job losses (it didn't).
September 05, 2010 11:25 pm ET filed under Blog
Five Ways "Speaker Boehner" Would Hurt American Workers
September 03, 2010 4:49 pm ET filed under Fact Check
American Crossroads' Attack On Sen. Bennet Is Full Of Distortions
The "shadow RNC" — Karl Rove's American Crossroads GPS 527 group — is back with another misleading ad attacking yet another incumbent Democrat. This time, in their attack against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), American Crossroads GPS takes aim at the Recovery Act's effect on Coloradans. Not only does the group get several facts wrong, they mislead viewers on the goals of stimulus projects and fail to point out that without the Recovery Act our economic outlook would be much worse.
September 03, 2010 11:06 am ET filed under Blog
As Republicans Spin Job Numbers, Small Business Bill Waits
September 02, 2010 2:44 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Americans For New Leadership Repeats Medicare Lie In Attack On Sen. Reid
Americans for New Leadership, a 527 group founded by Tea Party activist Eric Odom, is raising money to get their "Harry Reid Is Wrong For Nevada" ad on the air. The ad accuses Reid of supporting a "$500 billion Medicare cut" that simply doesn't exist in the Affordable Care Act, and implies that Reid's support for the Recovery Act, clean energy legislation and the unpopular TARP rescue package prove that Reid is "Wrong for Nevada." In reality, Congress' response to the economic crisis pulled us back from the brink, and clean energy laws would strengthen the economy further.
August 30, 2010 6:11 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Ad Check: Chamber Of Commerce's Attack On Rep. Paul Hodes Is Deeply Dishonest
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released a new campaign ad attacking Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH), the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. The ad claims that Hodes supported "a government takeover of health care" and "a job-killing energy tax," and blames the $13 trillion national debt on Hodes and the Democrats. In reality, the Affordable Care Act is not a "government takeover," the clean energy bill passed by House Democrats would create millions of American jobs, and the national debt has grown because of irresponsible policies from the Bush era.
August 30, 2010 3:38 pm ET filed under Blog
Rep. Gerlach's Claims About Small Business Aid Don't Match His Record
August 30, 2010 10:02 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - August 29, 2010
August 30, 2010 9:59 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - August 29, 2010
Sunday on Face The Nation, Republican Senate hopeful Joe Miller (AK) stoked fears about Social Security's finances and Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) wrapped his sugary drawl around a variety of sour attacks on Democrats' economic policies. Miller claimed "the trust fund is empty," but in reality Social Security holds assets of $2.5 trillion and is solvent through the Baby Boomers' golden years. Later, Gov. Barbour dissembled about the cost-cutting Affordable Care Act — the bill actually reigns in health care spending while expanding coverage dramatically and cutting the deficit — and suggested Democrats aren't creating jobs despite the expert consensus that the Recovery Act and other measures saved millions of jobs and turned the economy around.
August 25, 2010 6:23 pm ET filed under Video
GOP Candidate Star Parker: Deregulate, Cut Taxes And Privatize Social Security
August 25, 2010 10:59 am ET filed under Blog
Gov. Bob McDonnell Continues To Mislead On Virginia's Budget Surplus
August 24, 2010 5:43 pm ET filed under Blog
CBO Smacks Down Rep. Boehner's Talking Points
August 24, 2010 5:26 pm ET filed under Fact Check
The Would-Be Speaker Has No Clothes: Rep. Boehner's Dishonest Economic Speech
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave a speech to the City Club of Cleveland in which he blasted President Obama and Democrats over the economy, and argued that businesses aren't hiring because they're afraid of Democrats' policies. In reality, Rep. Boehner's speech was full of dishonest claims about taxes and spending, the most egregious of which are collected below.
August 23, 2010 9:15 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - August 22, 2010
Congress is still on recess as the summer comes to a close, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) isn't taking a vacation from spreading misinformation. On Sunday's Meet the Press, Sen. McConnell unleashed a torrent of false claims. After blaming President Obama for the uproar over the proposed Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, McConnell turned his attention to the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of this year. McConnell argued that the public opposes higher taxes for the wealthy, that higher tax rates for the top two income brackets would affect 50 percent of small businesses, and that the Bush tax cuts are not to blame for soaring deficits; all of those claims are patently false. Later in the program, New York gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio (R) smeared Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as "not peace-loving," implying that he sympathizes with terrorists.
August 19, 2010 1:43 pm ET filed under Blog
Kelly Ayotte: Deficit Is "The Biggest Threat," So Let's Increase It!
August 16, 2010 5:11 pm ET filed under Blog
Americans For Prosperity Continues Misguided Attack On Recovery Act
August 16, 2010 3:16 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Americans For Prosperity Continues Misguided Attack On Recovery Act
A new ad by the conservative advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, attacks the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, claiming that the "$862 billion stimulus paid for pork barrel projects across the country." The ad further alleges that the spending occurred while millions lost their jobs. True to form, the ad is replete with misinformation and ignores the millions of jobs that have been created or saved as a result of the stimulus. The ad further neglects to note the hundreds of billions in tax cuts, especially for middle-class and working-class Americans. Of course, the group's failure to report the many successes of the Recovery Act should come as no surprise. While billing itself as a grass-roots organization working to "engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels," the group is in fact a corporate-funded front-group looking out only for the interests of the very wealthy.
August 12, 2010 11:55 am ET filed under Blog
Newt Gingrich's Statistics: All Sizzle, No Steak
August 12, 2010 11:54 am ET filed under Fact Check
Gingrich: Dems Teach The Unemployed To Prefer Government-Funded Poverty Over Honest Work
In an email to supporters yesterday, Newt Gingrich blamed Democrats for high unemployment and argued that "the extension of unemployment benefits has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment rather than accept a job." Gingrich cynically warns that Democrats are making jobless Americans "get so used to being unproductive that they are willing to accept welfare indefinitely instead of taking a job." Gingrich is just the latest in a long line of Republicans to attack the unemployed for political gain. In reality, unemployment checks average about $300 per week, and cherry-picked anecdotes about "indefinite welfare" ignore the real source of high unemployment: a severe economic crisis brought about by Republican mismanagement.
August 10, 2010 4:22 pm ET filed under Video
House Republicans Dishonestly Attack State Aid Bill
August 10, 2010 4:10 pm ET filed under Blog
House Republicans Dishonestly Attack State Aid Bill
August 09, 2010 12:41 pm ET filed under Blog
Midwest Two-Step: Heartland GOPers Dance Around Bush Tax Cut Questions
August 09, 2010 12:41 pm ET filed under Video
(FULL VIDEO) Heartland GOPers Dance Around Bush Tax Cut Questions
August 09, 2010 10:04 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - August 8, 2010
August 09, 2010 10:02 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - August 8, 2010
On Sunday's Meet the Press, Reps. John Boehner (R-OH) and Mike Pence (R-IN) dodged repeated questions about the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts. Both indirectly suggested that government doesn't need to pay for tax cuts. There is a clear consensus among economists across the political spectrum that tax cuts don't pay for themselves, and that letting tax cuts swell deficits is, in a Bush adviser's words, "just future taxes." Rep. Boehner also suggested Social Security is unsustainable, and Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) agreed on Fox News Sunday. In fact, Social Security is solvent through 2037, and the shortfall thereafter is fairly small. Elsewhere, Tony Perkins told Face the Nation viewers that the Prop. 8 decision ignored the impact of no-fault divorce laws on marriage, when in fact the ruling specifically addressed the subject.
August 06, 2010 11:33 am ET filed under Blog
Rep. Pence Blasts State Aid Package As A "Bailout" AND "Takeover"
August 05, 2010 4:40 pm ET filed under Blog
Rep. Bachmann Decries "Bailout" For Teachers
August 05, 2010 1:08 pm ET filed under Blog
Palin Doubles Down On "Pants On Fire" Tax Lie
