Issues: Unemployment Insurance

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Louise Slaughter – Wrong Way”

adcheck •

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacks Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) over her vote for the Affordable Care Act and against a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for top earners. What the ad doesn’t mention is that the health care law, which doesn’t raise taxes on most Americans, makes tax credits available to millions of small businesses. Meanwhile, although Slaughter opposed tax giveaways for the top 2 percent of earners, she has since supported extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class.

Read more after the jump.

Restore Our Future: “New Normal”

adcheck •

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.

Read more after the jump.

American Crossroads: “Actually Happened”

adcheck •

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.

Read more after the jump.

Restore Our Future: “Kindergarten”

adcheck •

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.

Read more after the jump.

Americans For Job Security: “Running”

adcheck •

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.

Crossroads GPS: “Questionable”

adcheck •

Crossroads GPS attacks Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D) over his support for last year’s deal to raise the debt ceiling, which created the deficit reduction “super committee” and imposed defense cuts as an incentive for members of the committee to reach a compromise. Now that the super committee has failed and the defense cuts are looming, GPS is accusing Kaine of backing a plan to “devastate America’s defense and Virginia jobs.” But Kaine supported the debt ceiling deal because it was necessary to avoid devastating economic default, and he has laid out a plan to avoid the impending defense cuts.

Read more after the jump.

Club For Growth Action: “Typical”

adcheck •

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.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Big Difference”

adcheck •

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: “Forward?”

adcheck •

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.

American Future Fund: “Tomorrow”

adcheck •

A dramatic ad from the American Future Fund features a woman describing her worries about the economy, her husband’s job, stimulus spending, and debt, but getting a lot of details wrong as she blames New Mexico Senate candidate Martin Heinrich for the her woes. The ad cites an article about a Recovery Act-funded car company building cars in Finland, but all the money loaned to that business supported work done in the U.S. Four-and-a-half million private-sector jobs have been added over the last 29 straight months of unemployment, and it was Bush policies and the recession that drove up the debt.

Read more after the jump.