Issues: Economy

American Future Fund: “Justice For Sale”

adcheck •

The American Future Fund (AFF) is deviating from the conservative line that President Obama wants to punish the rich with an ad accusing Obama of “protecting his Wall Street donors.” However, despite the ad’s suggestion that Obama is a tool of the big banks, Wall Street donors have flocked to the Republican Party in the wake of Democratic reform efforts. In this election cycle, no politician has benefitted from Wall Street’s largesse more than Mitt Romney, who has collected more than twice as much as the president from the financial sector.

Read more after the jump.

American Future Fund: “Better Off”

adcheck •

An ad from the secretive American Future Fund (AFF) makes a series of claims about the economy to argue that Americans are not “better off” under President Obama. But the ad the ignores the impact of the calamitous recession Obama inherited – as well as more than 4.5 million private-sector jobs over the last 29 months of growth – and cites misleading statistics to paint an inaccurate picture of Obama’s record.

Read more after the jump.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Congressman BIll Owens Supports Higher Taxes, More Job-Killing Regulations, And Obamacare”

adcheck •

In an ad attacking Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce takes a 2010 quote by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) out of context in order to suggest that Democrats hid the law’s contents from the American people. In fact, Pelosi said she was eager for Americans to learn more about the Affordable Care Act “away from the fog of the controversy” created in large part by Republican misinformation – such as the other false claims in the ad about Medicare “cuts” and “lost jobs.”

Read more after the jump.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Instead Of Voting For Free Enterprise, Kathy Hochul Supported Obamacare”

adcheck •

An ad from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticizes Rep. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, listing a series of negative things “we know about Obamacare.” Those bits of supposed knowledge, however, are badly misinformed. Despite the ad’s allegations, the health care law does not “kill jobs,” does not “cut” Medicare benefits, and lowers deficits by more than $200 billion over a decade. Unfortunately, such dishonest attacks have become standard for the Chamber, which took mountains of money from health insurers to fight against reform.

Read more after the jump.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “When Ohio Needs Jobs, Senator Brown Turns His Back On The Interests Of Small Business”

adcheck •

In an ad attacking Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for his support of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alleges that “Obamacare will cost taxpayers nearly $2 trillion, kill jobs, and could disrupt coverage for millions.” Those claims significantly distort the facts, and repealing the law, as the Chamber advocates, would cause millions of Americans to lose coverage. The Chamber’s dishonesty is predictable, however, given that the group has received massive donations from the insurance industry to fight against reform.

Read more after the jump.

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Michigan Needs Jobs And Fred Upton Has Been A Consistent Advocate For Policies That Create Jobs”

adcheck •

An ad from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce relies on a set of unfounded suppositions about American energy in order to bolster Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Gas prices were high at the time of the ad, as the Chamber insinuates with images of a gas pump counting upward, but they’ve come down – and with oil prices set on the world market, there’s not much that increased domestic production could do to provide relief anyway. Upton does, as the ad claims, say that building the Keystone pipeline will create jobs and lower our dependence on foreign oil, but studies indicate that that’s not true. Claiming that Upton is “fighting the bureaucracy that is standing in the way of new American energy development,” the Chamber glosses over the fact that American crude oil production and exports are up under the Obama administration.

Read more after the jump.

American Crossroads: “Backward”

adcheck •

President Obama’s opponents have spent more than three years blaming him for the economic mess the Bush administration left behind, but an ad from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads is particularly disingenuous. Taking aim at the Obama campaign’s slogan “Forward,” Crossroads cherry-picks several statistics to claim the country has moved “backward” under the president. However, the economic picture they paint only reflects the magnitude of the recession that started in late 2007, almost a year before Obama was elected. In addition to whitewashing the dismal Bush record, Crossroads conveniently ignores significant evidence of progress, such as the 4.5 million private-sector jobs added over 29 consecutive months of growth.

Read more after the jump.

Americans For Prosperity: “Wasteful Spending”

adcheck •

Cherry-picking details from news reports, Americans For Prosperity bills the Recovery Act as a wasteful boondoggle funneling money to foreign projects instead of creating American jobs. In reality, Recovery Act sustained millions of American jobs and boosted the economy, while a closer look reveals that AFP’s stories about stimulus money going to Mexico, Finland, and China quickly fall apart

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Hole”

adcheck •

Accusing Berkley of “voting for tax hikes” that will worsen Nevada’s high unemployment rate and struggling housing market, Crossroads GPS offers no evidence stronger than a pre-recession vote from 2007 on a never-enacted budget that proposed to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire. The ad also hits Berkley on a vote for a clean energy bill — the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also never enacted – which it claims would cost American families $1,600 a year. But that figure (as the very article Crossroads cites kindly explains) isn’t an estimate of ACES; it’s for a generic cap-and-trade program. CBO’s estimate for the actual legislation Berkley voted on was closer to $175 per household per year, and it found that the bill could actually save low-income households money. Finally, the ad blames Berkley for supporting a 2009 budget that supposedly “pushed deficits sky high,” a nonsensical accusation given that the deficit was already projected to skyrocket before President Obama took office thanks to a variety of Bush-era policies.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Quote Leadership”

adcheck •

Crossroads GPS’ attacks Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for supporting the “failed stimulus,” citing “19,000 jobs lost in Missouri since 2009.” However, a previous 2010 ad decrying “almost 100,000 Missouri jobs lost” undermines Crossroads’ case that Democratic policies are destroying jobs. In fact, the Recovery Act is responsible for millions of jobs nationwide, and Missouri’s unemployment rate has fallen by over 2 percentage points since the recession officially ended in June 2009. The ad’s other claims about “costly Obamacare,” prescription drug expenses, and federal deficits are similarly misleading.

Read more after the jump.