Organizations: Crossroads GPS

Crossroads GPS: “Your Vote”

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Crossroads GPS attacks Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) over her support for the Affordable Care Act, claiming the law “raises taxes on the middle class” and cuts over $700 billion out of Medicare spending. But the health care law won’t raise taxes on most Americans, and finds Medicare savings without cutting current benefits. What’s more, the House Ryan budget passed by the House GOP contained those same savings – and Heitkamp’s GOP opponent, Rick Berg, voted for that bill.

Read more after the jump.

The Week In Conservative Attack Ads

We added eight ad checks this week, with conservative outside groups focusing their fire on the Nevada, Virginia and Ohio Senate races. Only two of them didn’t come from Crossroads GPS: an obscure group called the Treasure Coast Jobs Coalition lobbed tired Recovery Act claims at Rep. Allen West’s (R-FL) opponent, and the American Future Fund turned Paul Ryan’s Republican National Convention lie about a Wisconsin auto plant into a 60-second spot.

Crossroads GPS hit Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) with the standard misleading Medicare attacks (“Laughable” in Nevada and “Football” in Ohio), but got a bit more creative in Virginia. The group released two versions of an ad called “Teeth” that attacks Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) over education funding, and alleged in another that his support for the congressional debt ceiling deal meant he “supports cutting what matters: our jobs.” Karl Rove’s behemoth also launched two presidential ads, taking an Obama quote out of context in Nevada and scrambling to defend Mitt Romney’s tax plans in “Broke.”

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Broke”

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Crossroads GPS calls President Obama “dishonest on taxes,” claiming that the Affordable Care Act imposed a “huge tax increase” on the middle class while Mitt Romney’s tax plan will cut middle-class taxes by 20 percent. But the health care law does not raise taxes on most Americans, and it actually provides tax relief for millions. Moreover, despite Romney’s rhetoric, his plan would require significant middle-class tax increases in order to remain deficit-neutral, which he insists it will.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Bunch of Cash”

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Crossroads GPS is up with an ad in Nevada that features President Obama saying, “don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas,” a phrase taken completely out of context to suggest that the president is dismissive of Nevada’s tourism-driven economy. But the president wasn’t denigrating Las Vegas or advising people not to go there, he was speaking about the choices families must make about how to prioritize their spending in a recession. In addition, the ad blames Obama for a lackluster recovery, even though the last 30 months of private-sector job growth have been dragged down by GOP-favored public-sector downsizing.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Teeth”

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A nearly identical pair of ads from Crossroads GPS attack Senate hopeful Tim Kaine (D) over education cuts during Kaine’s tenure as Governor of Virginia. The first “cuts” mentioned, however, were really a proposal to avoid redistributing public school funding from the poorest Virginia districts to wealthier ones. The second were part of Kaine’s outgoing budget proposal, which required deep cuts to close shortfalls caused by the recession, and which was revised by incoming Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) to include even deeper cuts to school spending.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Football”

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Crossroads GPS targets Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) support for the Affordable Care Act, which it describes as the “$1 trillion health care law that cuts $700 billion from Medicare spending.” However, the ACA actually reduces the deficit, and the reductions in the future growth of Medicare spending do not cut seniors’ benefits.

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Questionable”

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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.

Crossroads GPS: “Laughable”

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Crossroads GPS attacks Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) for supporting the Affordable Care Act, claiming she voted to “slash $700 from Medicare spending.” In reality, the health care law’s Medicare savings do not cut seniors’ benefits, and Berkley’s opponent, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) voted to keep those savings when he supported Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan. The Affordable Care Act also benefits seniors by closing the prescription drug “donut hole,” providing free preventive care, and extending the life of the Medicare trust fund.

Read more after the jump.

The Week In Conservative Attack Ads

As the nation turned its attention to the Democratic National Convention, conservative groups were again relatively quiet on the airwaves. We fact checked six television ads, including two extremely misleading attacks on Democratic candidates from the Adelson-funded YG Action Fund. In addition, Americans for Prosperity released an ad falsely comparing the Affordable Care Act to Canada’s single-payer health care system, Crossroads GPS continued its assault on North Dakota Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp, and the Club for Growth shifted its focus from Republican primaries to the general election.

30 Months, 4.6 Million Private-Sector Jobs

American Crossroads countered the convention with an ad blasting President Obama’s economic record and suggesting that he has taken the country “backward.” In fact, the economy now has gained 4.6 million private-sector jobs in the last 30 months, but government employment continues to shrink, restraining the overall recovery. The following chart shows the accumulation of private-sector job gains and public-sector job losses since the recession officially ended in June 2009:

pub-priv-jobs-jul2

Read more after the jump.

Crossroads GPS: “Big Difference”

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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.