Treasure Coast Jobs Coalition, a murky super PAC, attacks first-time congressional candidate Patrick Murphy (D-FL) over his assertion that he would have voted for the Recovery Act in order to help “keep us from going into a deep recession.” Ignoring that the Recovery Act did, indeed, help prevent an even deeper recession, Treasure Coast distorts elements of the bill, and tries to pin the blame on Murphy.
Read more after the jump.Following a July 2012 Health and Human Services memo offering states a chance to apply for waivers that would allow them more flexibility in complying with welfare’s work requirements, conservatives began claiming that President Obama had ‘gutted’ the 1996 welfare reform law and waived all work requirements associated with receiving assistance. This is false. Currently, activities that fulfill work requirements are narrowly defined by changes made during the law’s 2005 reauthorization, and the waivers would let states try out new approaches to moving welfare beneficiaries towards stable employment while maintaining the principle that recipients must be progressing towards work.
Yet the allegation remains popular among conservatives, thanks largely to the efforts of the Heritage Foundation’s in-house welfare expert, Robert Rector. In the past two months, Rector has published at least 16 items on the subject of welfare reform, including the July 12 blog post cited in Mitt Romney’s now-infamous television ad that provoked a storm of fact checks. Given his role in promoting the attack on the administration, Rector’s record deserves a closer look.
Rector was involved in crafting the 1996 welfare reform law and has spent more than two decades arguing that Americans who live in poverty are not truly “poor” because they own “modern amenities,” such as vehicles and household electronics. To bolster his position, Rector has cited statistics showing that impoverished Americans are “more likely to be overweight” than better-off Americans and outright denied that poverty is “harmful” to children. The clear intent of these claims is to undermine the logic behind the safety net. In fact, Rector has stated explicitly that welfare is based on the “idiot premise” that more resources will cause poor Americans to “behave more like middle-class people.”
Read more after the jump.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.On the September 10 edition of his radio program, Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney said:
Read more after the jump.The Obama administration is, of course, as we’ve been talking about throughout the program, seeking reelection in part on a platform of its success in national security and foreign affairs. Looking at the piece of the puzzle that you’ve just described, and perhaps more generally your assessment of the conduct of this president as commander-in-chief, is that platform or is that claim to popular support warranted in your judgment? Or is it, this is my word not yours, but is it really reminiscent of kind of a Hitlerian Big Lie?
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 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 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 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.From the September 10, 2012, edition of The 700 Club, via Right Wing Watch:
Read more after the jump.TERRY MEEUWSEN (COHOST): This first one comes from Michael who says, “My wife has become a real problem. She has no respect for me as the head of the house. She insults me and she even went as far as stretching her hand to beat me. I’ve lost my self confidence. Her words hurt so much and she refuses to talk through our problems. Please tell me what I can do.”
PAT ROBERTSON (HOST): Well, you could become a Muslim and you could beat her.
MEEUWSEN: But in lieu of that.
ROBERTSON: You don’t want to go to Saudi Arabia?
MEEUWSEN: No, no.
American Future Fund is regurgitating Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) claim that the closure of a General Motors factory in his hometown proves President Obama’s economic policies failed. The timeline of events does not support AFF and Ryan’s claim, as the plant’s closure came under President Bush. More importantly, AFF and Ryan both omit some of then-candidate Obama’s 2008 comments to Janesville auto workers: Obama stressed the plant would have to retool its assembly line to make fuel-efficient cars rather than SUVs and trucks, because GM and the larger auto market were all shifting sharply in that direction. Indeed, Ryan lobbied GM throughout 2008 to retool the Janesville plant, while also claiming that government action could lower gas prices and help save truck assembly plants. Market forces and chronology render AFF’s ad highly dishonest.
Read more after the jump.
