President Obama’s unexpected Nobel Peace Prize may end up being the story of the week, but it was the third-party groups that occupied most of our attention here at FactCheck.org. Once again, health care dominated the discussion, though we also saw some new ads on taxes and on climate change.
We’ve seen both sides making false claims about Medicare. This week it was the conservative group Americans for Prosperity leading with the alarming claim that "Medicare will be bankrupt in 8 years."
NY-23: Owens to Raise YOUR Taxes?
Voters in New York’s 23rd congressional district – where a special election has been forced by the appointment of former GOP Rep. John McHugh to be secretary of the Army – may be finding themselves a bit confused. Dede Scozzafava is pro-choice and has supported gay marriage, and has been endorsed by Markos Moulitsas, creator of the liberal Daily Kos blog. But she’s the Republican in the race. The conservative Club for Growth, meanwhile, is backing a third-party candidate,
Targeting Ensign
We’re not ones to doubt that money can influence politics. But uncovering a paying-for-favors scandal takes more than a mere list of campaign contributions and a few committee votes.
That tactic, however, is being used – again – in the health care debate, this time in an ad from the liberal group Health Care for America Now. HCAN’s TV spot, which will run in Reno and Las Vegas for one week on a $110,000 buy, draws a link between Republican Sen.
62%: Conventional Wisdom or “Dubious Research”?
The liberal group Health Care for America Now has come out with another ad attacking the health insurance industry. The ad is running as part of a million dollar ad buy, according to the group. It repeats a claim that is being made repeatedly as the debate over overhauling the health care system heats up.
The ad says "62 percent of personal bankruptcies are caused by medical debt," and the group’s backup points to a study conducted by Harvard researchers,
Grayson’s Iffy Claims
Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson is facing rebuke from House Republicans for saying that "Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick." In a Sept. 29 speech on the House floor, Grayson said that the Republican health care plan is: "Don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly." Grayson later told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, "What I mean is they have got no plan," and that the lack of plan would allow uninsurance-related deaths to continue.
The DNC and Senior Scare
The Democratic National Committee has released a new TV ad about health care legislation, this time on the Senate Finance Committee proposal.
In the ad, the DNC takes on Republicans for "trying to scare seniors about health reform," saying that news outlets had called their claims "dishonest" and "scare-mongering." The ad’s citations for both quotes check out – the first is from an editorial in the Palm Beach Post, the second from an editorial in The New York Times.
Taxing Businesses – and Consumers?
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign for Responsible Health Reform has released a new ad that says politicians in Congress "want new taxes on health care companies, taxes that will get passed on to you."
The TV ad, which began airing Sept. 18 in 13 states, refers to the new Senate Finance Committee bill (aka Sen. Max Baucus’ bill), which proposes a tax on the most expensive health care plans, the type that gave rise to the term "Cadillac plan"
Will Ferrell, Pygmy Horses and Health Insurance
MoveOn.org Political Action’s latest video is a satirical send-up of a public service announcement titled "Protect Insurance Companies." It features a collection of actors – including "Saturday Night Live" alum (and Dodge Stratus driver) Will Ferrell, "Mad Men"’s Jon Hamm and "The State"’s Thomas Lennon – who defend, among other things, the right of insurance CEOs to pursue an American dream that includes a "mini-zoo in your backyard for exotic animals like a white tiger and pygmy horses."
A Zero Pay Raise for Congress, Too
The current Congress is being falsely blamed for the fact that Social Security recipients are not due to get a cost-of-living increase in January. As we noted in an Ask FactCheck item posted Sept. 23, the real reason for the freeze is volatile oil prices and the formula that Congress adopted, and President Richard Nixon signed and claimed credit for, in 1972.
That hasn’t stopped some from claiming that the current Congress is not only to blame,
McDonnell Ad Cites Praise, Leaves Out Criticism
More on that governor’s race in Virginia: Bob McDonnell, the GOP candidate and the former state attorney general, is running an ad that’s meant to bathe his "comprehensive transportation plan" in a warm glow. Ironically, though, the ad’s only reference for its claims is an editorial from the Washington Post in July that devotes far more space to criticizing McDonnell’s plan than to praising it.
Part of the ad – the portion that cites the Post‘s critique of state Sen.