Organizations: American Unity PAC

The Week In Conservative Attack Ads

Including a stray late-Friday-afternoon spot that didn’t make it into our roundup from last week, Bridge Project fact-checked 10 conservative ads this week. Eight of those were from the usual players – the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which focused on House races, Crossroads GPS, which took on its usual Senate targets, and American Crossroads, with a presidential ad. The remaining two came from the National Rifle Association and American Unity PAC, more minor players on the electioneering ad scene.

Rhetorically, this week saw a heavy focus on supposed threats to small business jobs, with six of the ads mentioning small businesses specifically. But most of the conservative claims about “small business” rely on distortions – for example, the conservative definition of a small business often includes large corporations and wealthy individuals rather than the mom-and-pop businesses the term conjures for most people. And the health care law, often cited as a source of crippling new taxes on small business, actually offers tax credits that will help those small businesses provide their employees with health insurance.

Read more after the jump.

American Unity PAC: “Wrong Prescription”

adcheck •

The American Unity PAC attacks Democratic congressional candidate Raul Ruiz (CA) for supporting the Affordable Care Act in an ad that claims the legislation raises taxes on “millions of middle- and lower-income families” by forcing them to buy health insurance. In reality, the health care law provides more tax relief than tax burden for the middle class, and lower- and middle-income families are eligible for tax credits that will help them afford premium payments. The ad also claims the ACA cuts $700 billion from Medicare and will kill jobs, both conservative attack lines that have been debunked.

Read more after the jump.