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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Year: 2012

Winning? Super PAC Compares Republican to Charlie Sheen

Winning? Super PAC Compares Republican to Charlie Sheen
August 27, 2012

In a new TV spot called “Tiger Blood,” a Democratic super PAC compares a Florida Republican Senate candidate to party boy actor Charlie Sheen. Winning? Not really.
The video ties together a shocking list of allegations against Connie Mack IV, and most are true. But when closely examined, there’s less here than meets the eye.

The ad says Republicans call Mack “the Charlie Sheen of Florida politics.” One Republican said that. And he was one of Mack’s primary opponents and later dropped out of the race.

GOP Platform on Abortion

August 27, 2012

The Republican Party’s 2012 platform calls for a ban on abortion, but is silent on exceptions — leaving that decision up to Congress and the states. However, as FactCheck.org Director Brooks Jackson tells WCBS radio, the Obama campaign falsely claims the GOP platform calls for banning abortions even in cases of rape or incest.
See “Another Abortion Falsehood from Obama’s ‘Truth Team‘” for more information about what the Republican platform says about abortion.

Again with the Wheelchair

Again with the Wheelchair
August 24, 2012

First the Republicans claimed President Obama’s health care law taxes “sick puppies,” and now Mitt Romney’s campaign claims the law taxes “wheelchairs.” Wrong again.
At issue is a new 2.3 percent excise tax on certain medical devices. The tax is set to kick in next year to help offset the cost of expansion of health coverage for the uninsured in the new health care law. According to the Romney ad, the law will mean “taxing wheelchairs and pacemakers.”

GOP Attack on Tim Kaine’s ‘Shortfall’ Falls Short

GOP Attack on Tim Kaine’s ‘Shortfall’ Falls Short
August 24, 2012

A conservative group claims former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine “left us with a $4.2 billion shortfall.” Not exactly. The state did face a $4.2 billion gap in the biennial 2010-2012 budget, but Kaine submitted a balanced budget proposal days before leaving office, as required by law.
And the last budget Kaine signed into law ended with a surplus. In fact, Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell praised Kaine for making “tough cuts” in state spending and relying on “conservative”

Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank’

Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank’
August 24, 2012

Republicans claim the president’s $716 billion “cuts” to Medicare hurt the program’s finances. But the opposite is true. These cuts in the future growth of spending prolong the life of the Medicare trust fund, stretching the program’s finances out longer than they would last otherwise.
Mitt Romney has claimed that President Barack Obama has “robbed” Medicare. Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, said Obama “turned Medicare into a piggy bank to fund Obamacare,” promising to “stop the raid on Medicare.” And the Republican National Committee is promoting on its website a feature it calls “Obama’s Countdown to Medicare’s Bankruptcy,”

Another Abortion Falsehood from Obama’s ‘Truth Team’

Another Abortion Falsehood from Obama’s ‘Truth Team’
August 23, 2012

The Obama campaign is falsely accusing the Republican Party’s platform of calling for banning abortions even in cases of rape or incest. That’s not true. The 2012 platform is silent on exceptions — leaving that decision up to Congress and the states — just as it was in 2008 and in previous presidential election years.
To make matters worse, the latest falsehood comes from the president’s “Truth Team.” An Aug. 20 posting on the “Truth Team’s”

Cutting Medicare?

August 22, 2012

The Romney campaign says that President Obama’s health care law has cut $716 billion out of Medicare. But that’s a reduction in the future growth of spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget. And the reduction extends the life of the Medicare trust fund.
Read more about Medicare’s woes and both campaigns’ plans to reduce spending in our Aug. 22 article, “A Campaign Full of Mediscare.”

NRCC Taxes Logic in North Carolina House Race

NRCC Taxes Logic in North Carolina House Race
August 22, 2012

A Democratic congressman who has reliably supported extending the Bush tax cuts is now being attacked by a GOP TV spot claiming he “voted for higher taxes on Social Security, small businesses, middle-class families, even marriage.” All those claims are false or, in the case of Social Security, misleading.
The target of this deceptive attack from the National Republican Congressional Committee is Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat who bucked his party by voting for every extension of Bush’s cuts,

A Campaign Full of Mediscare

A Campaign Full of Mediscare
August 22, 2012

The presidential campaign is overflowing with claims from both sides designed to scare seniors into thinking Medicare is being gutted or about to end altogether. Lost in the flurry of attack ads and political messaging is a policy debate on how best to reduce the growth of Medicare spending, a common goal of both campaigns. If all voters know …