2012 - Page 16 of 43 - FactCheck.org

Spotlight On: Chris Masoner

August 3, 2012

Chris Masoner went to law school. He’s familiar with the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which states that federal law “shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”
So, a recent campaign mailer failed to fool him. The flier claimed a proposed amendment to Kansas’ Constitution would have allowed residents “to vote to opt-out of Obama’s new health care law.”
“It’s just not true,” Masoner said.
Masoner, 39, of Lenexa, Kan., sent the campaign mailer and a similar one from the same group to Spin Detectors.

Mailers Mislead on ‘Obamacare’ Opt-Out Amendment

August 3, 2012

A conservative group misleads Kansas voters in campaign mailers that claim a failed proposal to amend the state’s Constitution would have allowed residents to opt-out of “Obamacare.”
No state law can do that. The U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause explicitly states that federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land.”
The proposed Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment, like several similar state proposals and laws, declared that no law can compel Kansans to buy health insurance or require them to pay a fine for lacking it.

Romney’s Position on Abortion

August 3, 2012

On WCBS radio, FactCheck.org Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley talks about an Obama campaign ad that falsely claims Mitt Romney “backed a bill that outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.”
See “Falsifying Romney’s Abortion Stance, Again” for more information about this TV ad.

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of July 24-30

August 1, 2012

This week, readers sent us comments about President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” quote and Mitt Romney’s claim that many of the weapons belonging to James Holmes were illegal.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.

Who Pays 75 Percent of Health Care Law’s Taxes?

August 1, 2012

A Republican talking point falsely claims that the Congressional Budget Office found 75 percent of the federal health care law’s taxes would be paid by those earning less than $120,000 a year. CBO didn’t say that. Instead, it found 76 percent of those paying the mandate penalty would earn under that amount.
For more on this claim, see “Twisting Health Care Taxes,” our July 23 item.

Romney’s ‘Racist’ Reference to Palestinian Culture

August 1, 2012

Mitt Romney says he “did not speak about the Palestinian culture” at a fundraiser in Israel, where his remarks were denounced by a Palestinian leader as “racist.” It’s true that Romney didn’t directly disparage the Palestinian culture, but he did say “culture makes all the difference” when explaining why Israel’s per-capita gross domestic product is more than double that of neighboring areas managed by the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians say that ignores the effect of Israel’s economic sanctions.

Falsifying Romney’s Abortion Stance, Again

July 31, 2012

The Obama campaign is out with another ad making the false claim that Mitt Romney “backed a bill that outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.” Romney’s consistent position through this campaign, and the last, and as far back as 2005, is that he opposes abortion except in cases when the life of the mother is in danger, and in cases of rape and incest.
This latest Obama campaign ad begins with a woman named “Jenni,”

Obama’s ‘Sealed’ Records

July 31, 2012

Q: Are Obama’s early records “sealed”?
A: No. Many records that presidential candidates don’t ordinarily release do remain confidential, but they are not “sealed” by a court. The 16 claims in a widely distributed graphic are mostly false or distorted.

Democratic PAC Revisits Old Claims

July 30, 2012

In ads airing in three states, a Democratic PAC repeats familiar, and misleading, attack lines — saying one Republican lawmaker voted to “essentially end Medicare” and another voted for billions in earmarks and turned a surplus “into a massive federal deficit.”
The Majority PAC, a political action committee that aims to “[p]rotect the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate,” launched ads on July 24 criticizing Republican candidates in Senate races in North Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Texas-Size Mudballs in GOP Senate Runoff

July 27, 2012

A bitter GOP primary contest in Texas for a U.S. Senate seat has come to this: an ad featuring a grieving mother who links one of the candidates to her son’s suicide.
A Texas super PAC is airing a TV ad that features a distraught mother who says Ted Cruz, a lawyer, “should be absolutely ashamed of himself” for representing a key figure in Pennsylvania’s infamous “kids for cash” scandal. In that case, two judges were convicted of taking $2.1 million from Cruz’s client in exchange for sending kids to private juvenile detention centers —