Issues: Social Security

Crossroads GPS: “Hole”

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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: “Remember”

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Crossroads GPS links Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to President Obama, alleging that Democratic policies that both supported are responsible for “trillion-dollar deficits.” However, the projected deficit was already over $1 trillion at Obama’s inauguration as a result of Bush administration policies, including expensive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. The only example of a “budget-busting” policy cited in the ad is the Affordable Care Act, which actually reduces deficits over time.

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Crossroads GPS: “Quote Leadership”

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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.

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Crossroads GPS: “From There”

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Crossroads GPS is running a new ad in Missouri accusing Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of supporting Medicare cuts and opposing tax cuts for the middle class. However, the savings in the Affordable Care Act do not ‘cut’ Medicare as Crossroads suggests, and the ad conveniently overlooks the important benefits for seniors in the law. In addition, before the compromise to extend all of the Bush tax cuts in late 2010, McCaskill supported an effort to preserve lower rates for all but the wealthiest Americans, but Republicans refused in order to protect wasteful tax cuts for the rich.

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Crossroads GPS: “Balloon”

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Crossroads GPS attacks President Obama and Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) for supporting policies that inflated the debt. However, the Affordable Care Act will actually lower deficits, while the Recovery Act and auto bailout saved millions of jobs. In reality, the main drivers of our debt are Bush administration policies, including the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and the massive recession that President Obama inherited upon taking office.

Read more after the jump.