Summary
Claims, facts and figures flew at the second GOP presidential debate of 2008. Not all were true. For example:
Mitt Romney claimed he didn’t raise taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts, failing to note that he increased government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars and shifted some of the state tax burden to the local level.
Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado claimed scientific reports on whether humans are responsible for global warming are split 50-50,
The National Republican Congressional Committee is going after Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy for violating a “no new taxes stand” that – in fact –she never took.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) accuses GOP incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Sherrod Brown, of voting for higher taxes – over 35 times, according to a TV ad. Brown, in a response ad, defends himself, saying he “voted to cut taxes for the middle class 33 times,” and charges DeWine with voting for “the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy,” for “taxes on Social Security,” and with wanting to put Social Security into “risky stock market investments.”
In his most recent ad, we find that Republican Senate candidate Pete Ricketts inaccurately uses citations from news reports to draw his own, more incendiary conclusions.
We find that Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker’s current ad misleads by falsely implying that he lowered taxes in Chattanooga when he was mayor.
Senate candidate Bob Corker accuses two rivals of voting to raise their own pay while in the House, but in fact Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant repeatedly voted against raises.
We find Ralph Reed’s TV ads false and misleading, and his opponent’s are on target.
The Free Enterprise Fund continues a campaign of misinformation against the estate tax.
Forrester says 15 votes were for “higher taxes.” Corzine says the same 15 votes were “to lower taxes.”
The Republican party attacks Sen. Byrd and he responds. Both use misleading material.