60 Plus Association: “Senator Tester, Promises”

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Unmoved by independent fact checkers’ incredulity over the blatant falsehoods in their previous ads, 60 Plus Association has once again deployed 60s singer Pat Boone in an ad that relies the same misinformation about the Affordable Care Act’s effect on Medicare. The ad focuses on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a panel created by the health care law to find savings in Medicare, which 60 Plus describes as “a Medicare IRS with the power to cut Medicare.” In reality, IPAB’s members must be confirmed by the Senate, and it is explicitly forbidden from cutting benefits or ‘rationing’ care.

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60 Plus Association: “Senator Brown, Promises”

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Unmoved by independent fact checkers’ incredulity over the blatant falsehoods in their previous ads, 60 Plus Association has once again deployed 60s singer Pat Boone in an ad that relies the same misinformation about the Affordable Care Act’s effect on Medicare. The ad focuses on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a panel created by the health care law to find savings in Medicare, which 60 Plus describes as “a Medicare IRS with the power to cut Medicare.” In reality, IPAB’s members must be confirmed by the Senate, and it is explicitly forbidden from cutting benefits or ‘rationing’ care.

Read more after the jump.

60 Plus Association: “Senator Nelson, Promises”

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Unmoved by independent fact checkers’ incredulity over the blatant falsehoods in their previous ads, 60 Plus Association has once again deployed 60s singer Pat Boone in an ad that relies the same misinformation about the Affordable Care Act’s effect on Medicare. The ad focuses on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a panel created by the health care law to find savings in Medicare, which 60 Plus describes as “a Medicare IRS with the power to cut Medicare.” In reality, IPAB’s members must be confirmed by the Senate, and it is explicitly forbidden from cutting benefits or ‘rationing’ care.

Read more after the jump.

Restore Our Future: “Another Month”

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In an ad titled “Another Month,” Restore Our Future mashes up news headlines and video clips of President Obama to paint a misleading picture of the economy. In reality, the private sector has gained 4.5 million jobs over the last 29 consecutive months of growth, including 172,000 in July. While the continuing decline in government employment has slowed the recovery, the economic situation has improved significantly since Obama inherited an economy that was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs per month in early 2009. That turnaround was aided by the Recovery Act, which helped stave off a deeper collapse, created jobs, and cut taxes for millions of working Americans.

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Crossroads GPS: “Hiding Taxes”/”Pay Raises”

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A reissued ad from Crossroads GPS abandons the plainly false claim that former Heidi Heitkamp “spent taxpayer dollars on private planes” as North Dakota’s Attorney General, replacing it with the equally disingenuous phrase “allowed staff to fly a taxpayer-funded plane.” But the very article cited in the ad explains that the planes were used for drug enforcement – not the stylish travel GPS implies even after admitting the initial lie about Heitkamp spending money on the aircraft. In addition, the ad misleads on pay raises given underpaid attorneys in Heitkamp’s office, positions she took on car insurance and coal taxes in the ’90s, and her 2012 position on taxes.

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Newt Gingrich Claims You’re Better Off Being Uninsured Than On Medicaid

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From Newt Gingrich’s August 9, 2012, appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal:

NEWT GINGRICH: The key difference is no corporation, including federal employees, is big enough to control medicine in America. You have a very wide range of choices. And if you look at the Federal Employee Health Benefit Act, it’s actually a good model for thinking about how to have a large number of choices. What worries those of us who have looked at various national health systems is putting power in the hands of bureaucrats so that they start making decisions. For example, should—There’s a recent argument about whether or not you should have a particular test for men that relates to prostate cancer. One of the leading experts on prostate cancer in America said this government bureaucratic decision made by a committee that had no cancer expert on it, had no prostate expert on it, this decision sounded good in theory but in fact would lead to the premature death of 10 to 15 percent of the men who get prostate cancer. So I want to stick with you having the right, and your doctor having the right, to practice appropriate medicine for you, and then I want to find ways to maximize the number of people who have health insurance. But if you look at Medicaid, which has been a government-run program, there aren’t many people who will voluntarily get on Medicaid and there have been studies that indicate that the uninsured have better health outcomes than the people on Medicaid because Medicaid tends to be so badly run.

Newt Gingrich: CBO “Is An Engine Of Socialism”

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From Newt Gingrich’s August 9, 2012, appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal:

NEWT GINGRICH: This baseline thing is crazy. Basically what— Imagine your children convinced you that they had a baseline of getting a two-dollar-a-week increase in their allowance, and they deserve, therefore, in a normal month of four weeks, they deserve an eight-dollar increase to be even. And you say to them, “Well, you know, I haven’t gotten a pay raise, how about if I give you two dollars?” And they say, “Why are you cutting me six?” So you’re saying, “I’m giving you a two-dollar increase,” say “No you’re not, because my baseline is to get eight.” And I hope that I’m not– I’m doing this without a blackboard, so I hope all of our viewers can follow me. This is why I want a complete reform of the Congressional Budget Office, which is an engine of socialism and big government. The Congressional Budget Office has these models of what they call baseline budgeting which basically says if you don’t increase it by this amount, it’s a cut, even if it’s an increase. Now if you think about it, there’s no family in America, there’s no small business in America, that has a baseline budget like that. Normally if you spent a hundred dollars last you and you spend a hundred and five this year, it’s an increase. The Congressional Budget Office could score that as a fifteen-dollar cut if they have a baseline that’s bigger. So you put your finger on a very sophisticated point about why Washington is so hard to govern, and reforming the Congressional Budget Office is a significant step towards getting it governed, and if Republicans control the Senate in January, I hope that they will sit down with the House Republicans and insist on a director dedicated to fundamentally overhauling and changing the Congressional Budget Office.

American Future Fund: “Frustrating”

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American Future Fund (AFF) is trying to convince New Mexico voters that Rep. Martin Heinrich is responsible for the effects of the Great Recession, which started wreaking havoc on the economy well before Heinrich took office in January 2009. In the process, AFF throws out a misleading statistic on New Mexico’s unemployment and criticizes Heinrich over his support for the stimulus, which prevented an even greater economic catastrophe, created American jobs, and cut taxes for millions.

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Crossroads GPS: “Sense”

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Crossroads GPS uses Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s vote in favor of the Middle Class Tax Cut Act to accuse him of supporting tax hikes on Montana families and small businesses. In reality, Tester’s vote supported an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all income up to $200,000. Those earning more than that – approximately the top 1.4 percent of households – are, contrary to Crossroads’ suggestion, very rarely actual small businesses. Crossroads’ other evidence for Tester’s supposed habit of hiking taxes is the health care law, which won’t increase taxes for the majority of Americans.

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Crossroads GPS: “Holes”

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Crossroads GPS attempts to take Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine to task for both ‘soaring spending’ and ‘devastating’ cuts to spending on higher education during Kaine’s tenure as the state’s governor. But the budgetary reality of Kaine’s tenure was largely determined by the foibles of the global economy, which saw Kaine into office during a period of strength before enduring a massive recession that devastated state revenues and forced the governor and the legislature to make tough decisions about cuts. Ultimately, Kaine balanced every budget during his tenure.

Read more after the jump.