Crossroads GPS bolsters North Dakota Senate candidate Rick Berg (R) with an ad attacking his opponent, Heidi Heitkamp (D), over health care reform law and the stimulus, emphasizing their impact on the debt. In reality, the Affordable Care Act does reduce the budget deficit, and the “wasteful” stimulus helped prevent an even deeper recession.
Read more after the jump.American Crossroads is countering the Democratic National Convention with an ad claiming that President Obama has taken the country “backward,” citing what the ad calls “America’s worst economic recovery ever.” However, the ad ignores the severity of the recession President Bush left behind, as well as the decline in government employment (which conservatives favor) that distinguishes the current recovery from previous ones. Indeed, the private sector has grown steadily for the past 30 months, adding 4.6 million jobs during that period. Crossroads also dishonestly calls the Affordable Care Act a “tax on middle-class families” and blames the president for deficits that are fueled by Bush policies and the recession.
Read more after the jump.In an ad deceptively likening health care reform in the U.S. to the Canadian single-payer system, Americans for Prosperity deploys a Canadian woman who sought care for a brain condition in the U.S., claiming that she would have died before she was able to get in to see the necessary specialists in Canada. The comparison is false, however, since health care in the U.S. continues to be based in the private sector.
Read more after the jump.This week, conservative power players descended on Tampa for the Republican National Convention. According to reports, leaders of conservative outside groups spent the week wooing GOP mega-donors, seeking even more cash for their final push to defeat President Obama.
Consequently, it was a slow week for the release of new ads. We fact-checked five conservative ads – four of them targeting separate Senate candidates, along with one unusual spot warning about “mass immigration.” Notably, none of them came from Karl Rove’s Crossroads groups, which sat the week out but made their presence felt in Tampa.
Read more after the jump.60 Plus attacks Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine for supporting the Affordable Care Act, making a series of untruthful assertions about the law’s impact on seniors. In fact, the ACA does not “give bureaucrats the power to deny” care. Moreover, the health care law’s reductions in future Medicare spending do not ‘cut’ benefits for seniors, and they actually prevent the program from “going bankrupt” sooner. Finally, while 60 plus insists that the ACA “makes things worse for seniors,” the group neglects to mention that it closes the prescription drug “donut hole” and provides free preventive care for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.
Read more after the jump.An from Americans for Prosperity accuses Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) of spending future generations into debt, citing his votes in favor of the Recovery Act and the “$2 trillion health care law.” But the stimulus helped drag the economy back from the brink of an even greater recession, while the Affordable Care Act actually reduces the deficit.
Read more after the jump.Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee attacks Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) for voting “to spend trillions we just don’t have,” citing his support for the health care law and the stimulus. But the Affordable Care Act reduces the deficit, while the Recovery Act created jobs, cut taxes, and helped avert an even greater recession.
Read more after the jump.An ad from the 60 Plus Association draws a comparison between Wisconsin, where the ad claims “tough choices” were made to “balance the budget,” and Washington, where Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) supported the Recovery Act and health care reform. But Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) “balanced” budget relied on delayed payments and didn’t conform to the accounting standards he promised he would use, while the Affordable Care Act reduces the federal deficit and the Recovery Act helped avert an even more devastating recession.
Read more after the jump.Americans for Prosperity hits Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, repeating multiple falsehoods in the process. The ad claims that the health care law ‘costs too much,’ but it actually reduces the deficit. AFP complains that the ACA “took over $700 billion from Medicare, which was already going bankrupt,” but without those savings Medicare would become insolvent sooner. Furthermore, the ad misleads on the ACA’s taxes and falsely claims that “bureaucrats” will “make health care decisions for you” under the law.
Read more after the jump.Earlier this week, Crossroads GPS made the unusual decision to pull its support from a competitive Senate race, dropping planned ads attacking Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill after tasteless comments on “legitimate rape” from her Republican opponent, Todd Akin, made headlines. The group’s multi-million-dollar assault on the airwaves continued across other states, however. Of the 13 ads we fact-checked this week, Crossroads GPS was responsible for five of them, attacking Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Bill Nelson in Florida, Martin Heinrich in New Mexico, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Jon Tester in Montana. We also looked at three ads from Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, three from the American Future Fund, one from the National Federation of Independent Business, and one from pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.Most of the spots mentioned the Affordable Care Act, with many misrepresenting the facts to sell support for the law as support for a budget-busting behemoth. All three American Future Fund ads referred to the “$2 trillion health care law,” a willful distortion that counts the law’s costs but none of the savings to obscure the fact that the law reduces the deficit. Five of the ads (three from Crossroads GPS, one from AFP, and one from Restore Our Future) spread misinformation about the “failed” or “wasteful” stimulus, which actually helped save the economy from an even deeper recession.
This week showed particularly heavy interest in the Florida Senate race between Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Connie Mack. Three separate conservative outside groups targeted the Sunshine State, each ad taking a different tack. Crossroads GPS took advantage of public confusion over the Affordable Care Act’s impact on Medicare, dishonestly suggesting to Florida’s seniors that their benefits will be cut and they’ll lose control of their health care decisions. American Future Fund focused on the national debt, though it also mentioned the health care law and threw in a gratuitous line calling for Nelson to “protect seniors.” NFIB, a business group that received $3.7 million from Crossroads GPS in 2010, took a more personal approach, highlighting a Florida business owner who claimed that a “conglomeration” of regulations were impairing his businesses’ ability to grow.
Read more after the jump.
