Issues: Bush Tax Cuts

Restore Our Future: “New Normal”

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An ad from Restore Our Future dredges up an out-of-context quote from President Obama to suggest he believes 8 percent unemployment is “doing fine.” In reality, Obama was explaining that the private sector is steadily creating new jobs, while declining public-sector employment – a trend favored by conservatives – has slowed the recovery. The private sector has now added 4.6 million jobs over the last 30 consecutive months of growth. The ad also blames the president for America’s “crushing debt,” which exploded as a consequence of Bush administration policies and the recession, but fails to acknowledge that Republicans have rejected Obama’s debt-reduction proposals.

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Club For Growth Action: “Know”

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Club for Growth Action claims that former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who is running for the Senate in Arizona, “has no problem with raising taxes.” But the conservative group’s claim relies on an out-of-context quote, in which Carmona explained that he would support repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans as long as “you protect the middle and lower class.” According to nonpartisan analysts, ending tax breaks for top earners would reduce the deficit without harming the economy.

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Club For Growth Action: “Jobs”

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Club for Growth Action accuses Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) of supporting “higher taxes, government health care, and trillions in new debt,” but the conservative group provides no evidence for its allegations. That may be because the charges against Donnelly don’t match his record. Donnelly recently voted to extend tax cuts for all Americans, while the Affordable Care Act expands private-sector health coverage and reduces deficits. Furthermore, Donnelly has supported conservative proposals for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

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American Crossroads: “Actually Happened”

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American Crossroads attacks President Obama’s economic record by grossly misrepresenting a “preliminary analysis” of a theoretical stimulus bill, which the president’s economic advisers conducted before his inauguration – and before the unexpected rise in unemployment soon thereafter. The analysis included disclaimers about the possibility of an unusually severe recession, which unfortunately came to fruition. Nonetheless, it’s clear that the devastating conditions Obama inherited would have become even worse without the Recovery Act, which created jobs and cut taxes for millions of working Americans. Since the recession officially ended, the private sector has steadily added jobs, including 4.7 million new jobs in the last 31 consecutive months of growth.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “CA-41: Mark Takano”

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s attack on California congressional candidate Mark Takano is premised on two parallel deceptions about taxes. The first is the common Republican claim that ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will hurt small businesses, an argument that only makes sense if you define some of the biggest corporations and richest athletes in America as “small businesses.” The second is more specific, relying on a misrepresentation of an already-dishonest study of President Obama’s tax proposals.

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “IL-10: Brad Schneider”

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticizes U.S. House candidate Brad Schneider (D-IL) for supporting “government-mandated health care” and accuses him of wanting “to hit our small businesses with higher taxes.” However, the Chamber relies on the false argument that ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would have a significant impact on small businesses, when in fact it would reduce the deficit without harming the economy. The Chamber’s broader argument that taxes and regulations are holding back the economy is misleading, as the real key to job creation is increasing consumer demand.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “CA-26: Julia Brownley”

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims that Julia Brownley cast three votes to raise energy costs for California businesses. But those three bills were about how to spend money that will be raised by a cap-and-trade system that’s already law in the California. The deception doesn’t end there, as the ad falsely suggests Brownley’s support for the Affordable Care Act and Democratic efforts to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest will harm job creation.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “IL-13: David Gill”

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The U.S Chamber of Commerce attacks David Gill over taxes and health care, using graphics and audio to suggest that the Illinois congressional candidate’s positions would cause the American economy to flat-line. But they repeat the distortion that the Affordable Care Act cuts Medicare, and mischievously cite their own, ill-conceived study as proof that ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will kill job growth. And leaving aside the fact that the Chamber-commissioned study fail to analyze actual Democratic proposals, the failure of those tax cuts is plain to see in economic data on the past decade.

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Restore Our Future: “Kindergarten”

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An ad from pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future complains about high federal debt and the slow economic recovery, asking if America is going “forward” or “backward.” Restore Our Future fails to note, however, that 4.6 million new jobs have been created over 30 consecutive months of private-sector growth, or that GOP-favored public-sector downsizing is dragging down the recovery. In addition, it’s Bush-era policies plus the global recession that set the U.S. on a path towards an explosion of the federal debt.

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Americans For Job Security: “Running”

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Americans for Job Security portrays the economy as still mired in recession, using a woman’s voiceover to suggest that President Obama has failed “to turn the economy around.” But while the economy has yet to dig out of the massive, nearly unprecedented hole created by the 2007-08 financial crisis, it has certainly turned around. The economy was hemorrhaging nearly a million jobs each month when President Bush handed over to Obama, and today the economy has been adding jobs for 30 months – two and a half years straight. Just as the ad’s depiction of the recent past is inaccurate, its insinuations about our immediate future are not supported by the evidence.

Read more after the jump.