Newt Gingrich wrongly claimed the Dred Scott decision “ruled that slavery extended to the whole country.” It did not. The ruling stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in new territories, but it stopped short of applying the ruling to all states. Gingrich also claimed that President Lincoln “explicitly instructed his administration to not enforce Dred Scott.” But the research historian at the Lincoln presidential library knows of no such directive or any reason to issue one.
Stories by Eugene Kiely
Dec. 16: Jobs, TARP, McCain’s Economic Adviser
Crossroads GPS Twists Facts in Senate Ads
Bachmann’s Bad Economics
Michele Bachmann wrongly claims there is “not one shred of evidence that lowering the payroll tax rate created jobs.” Actually, the economy has gained more than 1.4 million jobs in the 11 months since the payroll tax holiday began.
That’s 84 percent more jobs than were added in the same period a year earlier. The unemployment rate has fallen from 9.4 percent in December 2010, just before the payroll tax was reduced temporarily, to 8.6 percent in November.
Dec. 2: Stimulus, Keystone XL Pipeline, Gingrich
Flipping Through DNC Playbook on Romney
The Democratic National Committee casts Mitt Romney as an untrustworthy flip-flopper in a lengthy Web video, but pads a long list of examples with some falsehoods and distortions. It’s true that Romney has changed or modified his position on some major issues — including abortion, a federal assault weapons ban and Reaganomics, as the DNC says. But the video strains the truth …
GOP’s Phantom Job Losses
Ooops!
Republicans — eager to show that President Obama’s oil and gas drilling policies “cost jobs” — have been using a number they now admit was more than three times too high. Even after they corrected their error (after we pointed it out), they started using a figure that is based on industry-sponsored studies, uses dubious assumptions and doesn’t apply to any jobs that currently exist.
It’s just the latest example of how both sides tend to use grossly exaggerated claims about jobs when debating their pet policies.
Nov. 18: White House Christmas, Deficit, Medicare
Super PAC Polishes Huntsman’s Resume
A super PAC backing Jon Huntsman for president makes three misleading or false claims in a TV ad now running in New Hampshire:
The group, which calls itself Our Destiny, suggests President Obama is to blame for a volatile stock market — saying “the stock market is a wreck,” even though the Dow Jones is up more than 50 percent since Obama took office in January 2009.
The ad boasts that Huntsman is “consistently conservative,” citing an op-ed in the Boston Globe.