Issues: Financial Crisis

Americans for Tax Reform: “Charlie Wilson – Boxer”

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Grover Norquist’s anti-tax organization, Americans for Tax Reform, released an ad blaming Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-OH) for the country’s spending and debt. The ad derides the bipartisan bank bailout, which helped avoid an economic depression, and the Recovery Act without mentioning the conditions that made both actions necessary. The ad’s emphasis on the debt is disingenuous given Norquist’s rigid “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” which commits signers to oppose tax increases and undermines any balanced solution to the nation’s fiscal troubles.

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Crossroads GPS: “Stamp”

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An ad from Crossroads GPS complains that Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is a “rubber stamp” for spending, citing the Wall Street bailout, the Recovery Act, and the Affordable Care Act. The ad doesn’t acknowledge, however that the bipartisan bank bailout and the stimulus both rescued the economy from an even more severe downturn, while the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit.

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Crossroads GPS: “When”

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Crossroads GPS mimics a DirecTV ad campaign with a stern narrator following a progression of cause and effect starting with the decision to elect Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). But where the original ads are zany and played for laughs, GPS uses the familiar format to sell voters on misinformation. Brown’s vote for the Affordable Care Act isn’t preventing Ohio manufacturers from hiring, as the ad suggests. Indeed, that sector has been the cornerstone of Ohio’s recovery, showing steady job gains since the recession brought on by the financial crisis.

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Martin Heinrich Has Gone Washington”

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A U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad attacks Senate candidate Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) over his votes against the Regulatory Accountability Act, against the Keystone Pipeline, for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, for Wall Street reform, and for the health care law. The Chamber implies that Heinrich’s votes killed jobs, created red tape, or harmed Medicare, misleading voters about the bills.

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Center for Individual Freedom: “Busy”

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The Center for Individual Freedom attacks Kentucky Rep. Ben Chandler (D) for supporting the Recovery Act, bailouts, cap-and-trade, and “keeping the death tax.” The ad wrongly demonizes legislation that helped strengthen the economy (or, in the case of cap-and-trade, could have if it had passed). However, the ad’s most egregious distortion is that it ignores that Chandler recently voted with House Republicans to keep the estate tax limited.

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American Crossroads: “Next”

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Even though the small business owners featured in American Crossroads’ latest presidential ad have benefitted from over $300,000 in government defense contracts during the Obama administration, they complain that President Obama’s “bad decisions” and regulations are harming job growth. But the ad cites a study that doesn’t address Obama’s proposals, and small business owners routinely say that regulations aren’t what’s keeping them from hiring.

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Club For Growth Action: “Typical”

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An ad from Club for Growth Action portrays Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) as a “typical Washington liberal,” citing his support for President Bush’s bank bailout, the “failed” stimulus, and the “government takeover of health care.” However, the financial rescue and the Recovery Act both helped the nation avert a more severe economic collapse, while the Affordable Care Act relies on private insurance companies to extend coverage. Despite the ad’s attempt to cast him as a hardcore partisan, Donnelly has the eighth most independent voting record among representatives in the current Congress.

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National Federation Of Independent Businesses: “Government Regulations Hinder My Business”

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An ad from the National Federation of Independent Business follows Florida business owner Dean Mixon around as he blames government for hindering his businesses’ growth, then calls on Florida Sen. Bill Nelson to “start supporting Florida’s small businesses, not Washington bureaucrats.” In the process, NFIB flashes a series of “facts” on screen to give the impression that regulations are doing significant harm to the economy. Whatever Mixon’s personal experience has been with regulations, business owners and economists generally blame a lack of demand, not the current regulatory environment, for holding back growth.

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Divorced From Reality: The Right’s Alternate History Of The Financial Crisis

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From its intellectuals to its political leaders, the American conservative movement has fully endorsed an interpretation of the Bush-era housing bubble and Wall Street collapse that cannot be reconciled with reality. The political right insists that government policy encouraging homeownership among low-to-moderate-income families is the primary – or even the only – cause of the crisis. But data on the home loan industry shows this argument is false. In fact, the subprime boom was driven by private firms who were exempt from the much-vilified Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, not by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government’s contribution to the crisis was its failure to regulate Wall Street, not its efforts to expand homeownership.

Right-Wing Rationale: It Was The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) And Government Lenders

GOP Presidential Candidates Blamed Government Policy For Housing Crisis. From Bloomberg: “The Republicans say the federal government pressed banks to make risky housing loans under a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act, helping inflate home prices and ultimately sparking the crash. ‘The reason we have the housing crises we have is that the federal government played too heavy a role in our markets,’ Romney said in a Nov. 9 Republican debate. ‘The federal government came in with Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac, and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd told banks they had to give loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back.’ Gingrich has suggested jailing Frank, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Dodd, who headed the Senate Banking Committee until his retirement this year.” [Bloomberg, 12/21/11]

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Crossroads GPS: “Ants”

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Crossroads GPS labels Virginia Senate candidate and former governor Tim Kaine “a cheerleader for massive spending” based on his support for the Recovery Act and time as DNC chairman. The ad relies on tired misinformation about the stimulus package, which created millions of jobs, and the cherry-picked projects Crossroads holds up as evidence the bill was wasteful are misrepresentations of the law’s allocation of funds.

Read more after the jump.