Crossroads GPS: “Hand Picked”

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Crossroads GPS attacks Indiana House candidate Brendan Mullen (D) over the Affordable Care Act, overlooking Mullen’s stated commitment to ‘fixing’ certain elements of the law that he does not support. The ad ridiculously suggests the law is “the largest tax increase in history on the middle class,” misleads on the impact of future Medicare spending reductions that do not cut seniors’ benefits, and fearmongers about the impact of the Medicare board responsible finding additional savings – an element of the ACA that Mullen actually wants to change.

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Americans for Tax Reform: “Al Lawson – Wrong Prescription For Florida”

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Americans for Tax Reform attacks congressional candidate Al Lawson (D-FL) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, relying on a series of distortions about the law’s impact. In reality, the ACA does not raise taxes on most Americans, and it actually decreases the overall burden on the middle class. Moreover, the law reduces future Medicare spending without cutting seniors’ benefits – in fact, Lawson’s opponent, Rep. Steve Southerland (R), voted to preserve the “cuts” as part of the House GOP budget – and the Senate-confirmed board responsible for finding additional savings is forbidden from cutting benefits or rationing care.

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American Action Network: “Spending”

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Accusing former New Hampshire Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D) of “reckless” spending, an ad from American Action Network points to two earmarks. But attempts to thwart the local projects – one of which was requested by a Republican – were shot down by large bipartisan majorities that included Shea-Porter. The ad also blasts Shea-Porter for supporting a budget plan that would have raised $683 billion in taxes without noting that that entire amount would have come from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and that the budget would have eliminated the federal deficit.

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American Action Network: “Rail”

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The American Action Network dishonestly attacks congressional candidate Jose Hernandez (D-CA-10) for living in Texas, branding him as a cowboy and a carpetbagger even though the California native only lived outside the state while working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center as an astronaut. The group also criticizes Hernandez for supporting high-speed rail as a way to create jobs, as well as the Recovery Act, which helped save the economy from an even deeper recession.

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Rep. Foxx Invokes Holocaust In Talk On ‘Eroding’ Religious Freedom

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During an October 20, 2012, Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said:

FOXX: We are allowing our freedoms to be eroded a little at a time. We now have very clearly a position that wants to take our most basic freedom away from us. If we allow that to happen we are literally cooked, because the rest of the freedoms will go away also. So we’ve got to stand up for it, we have got to make sure that we do the right things. I have often made this little speech on the floor of the house because I feel so strongly about this and I have for a long time. There’s another way to consider the significance of the time we’re in, and you might be able to convince some unbelievers by using the words of German pastor Martin Niemoller, and again, many of you will know this. “First they came for the socialists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Folks, that’s where we are. That is where we are. So we have to speak up for our fellow Americans, those who may not understand the significance of the situation that we’re in. We want our children and grandchildren to enjoy a free America that continues to protect the rights of conscience. And it is up to us to make sure that that is the country that we leave to our posterity. If we allow the freedom of religion to be undermined then all the rest of our freedoms are gone.

American Action Network: “Tax And Spend”

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American Action Network goes after congressional candidate Val Demings (D-FL) over her support for the Recovery Act and for ending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, saying she supports wasting Floridians’ money. But the stimulus, which passed without any involvement from first-time candidate Demings, helped save the economy from an even worse recession, and ending the Bush tax cuts for top-tier earners would impact few real small businesses.

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American Crossroads: “At Stake”

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Clint Eastwood may not speak to an empty chair in the ad he filmed for American Crossroads, but he’s no less confused about President Obama’s record than he was during his infamous performance at the Republican National Convention. The octogenarian actor says, “In the last few years, America’s been knocked down,” ignoring nearly five million new private-sector jobs created in the last two-and-a-half years of growth. He also wrongly blames Obama for high deficits driven mainly by Bush policies, such as tax breaks for the wealthy, and the recession the president inherited.

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Americans for Tax Reform: “B is for Barrow”

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Grover Norquist’s anti-tax organization, Americans for Tax Reform, released an ad attacking John Barrow (D-GA). The group, which pushes Norquist’s rigid “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” cites Barrow’s votes for the banking and automotive bailouts as reasons against Barrow’s re-election. However, the ad never mentions the economic context that made both bailouts necessary, or that the bailouts worked. The automaker bailout, for example, saved over a million American jobs in 2009-2010 and one of America’s largest industries.

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American Action Network: “Again”

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The American Action Network wants you to know that Rick Nolan stands “for raising taxes and killing jobs” – 700,000 jobs, to be precise. But that number comes from a study that explicitly did not analyze the actual White House proposal for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. The on-screen claim that Nolan would tax 894,000 small businesses is similarly bogus, as that definition of “small business” includes multi-billion-dollar corporations and both candidates for president. The ad is correct about Nolan’s 1975 votes on gas taxes, but they somehow fail to mention the same bill included tax credits to offset the increase in pump prices.

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Hardworking Americans Committee

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A Michigan super PAC called the Hardworking Americans Committee dishonestly alleges that Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) is “failing to pay her own taxes,” referring to small property tax penalties the senator paid more than five years ago. The ad also accuses Stabenow of “raising your taxes 21 times,” citing her support for the Affordable Care Act, which does not raise taxes on most Americans and reduces the burden on the middle class.

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