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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Month: May 2012

‘Obama’s Promise,’ Part II

‘Obama’s Promise,’ Part II
May 18, 2012

And now, the rest of the story on that misleading “Obama’s Promise” ad from Crossroads GPS.
Besides the almost totally false claim that we covered earlier, the ad also:

Claims the president broke a promise to help homeowners facing foreclosure, when in fact 5.9 million have received assistance.
Gives a somewhat darker picture of the mortgage foreclosure situation than the facts warrant.
Exaggerates the number of persons likely to lose employer-sponsored health coverage under the new health care law.

A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama

A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama
May 17, 2012

The latest multimillion-dollar attack ad from Crossroads GPS claims President Obama  broke a promise to not increase taxes for families making less than $250,000 a year. That’s almost entirely false.
The truth is that Obama repeatedly cut taxes for such families, first through a tax credit in effect for 2009 and 2010, and beginning in 2011, through a reduction in the payroll tax that is worth $1,000 this year to workers earning $50,000 a year.

Peddling Innuendo, Exaggerations on ‘Obama’s Wall Street’

Peddling Innuendo, Exaggerations on ‘Obama’s Wall Street’
May 16, 2012

American Future Fund continues to exaggerate the facts in a new round of TV ads attacking President Obama’s ties to Wall Street. We do give the group partial credit, however, for correcting a misstatement from one ad it has re-released. It gets “partial credit” because the group corrected the error once in the revised ad, but then repeated the error elsewhere in the same ad. And the group didn’t make any revisions to address other gross misstatements in the ad.

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of May 8-14

May 16, 2012

This week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce responded to our analysis of three of its recently released television ads.
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.

Bachmann’s Fundraising Whopper

Bachmann’s Fundraising Whopper
May 14, 2012

In several urgent fundraising appeals, Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claims that biased “liberal judges” redrew her congressional district “in retaliation for repeatedly standing up to President Obama.” The truth is that only two of the five judges were Democratic appointees, and Bachmann’s Minnesota district has become even more Republican than it was before.
It’s true that a bipartisan panel of judges redrew district lines and placed the town where Bachmann lives in an abutting district represented by a Democrat.

Do ‘Most Americans’ Agree with Romney on Gay Marriage?

Do ‘Most Americans’ Agree with Romney on Gay Marriage?
May 14, 2012

The Republican party chairman claims “most Americans” agree with Mitt Romney “that marriage ought to be defined between one man and one woman.” Americans are closely divided on the issue. Various polls show either a slight plurality or majority of Americans support same-sex marriages, although sometimes within the margin of error.
This much is clear: American attitudes have been trending in support of gay marriage for the past few years, as this Gallup poll chart shows:
Reince Priebus,

Group Skews Facts on Obama’s ‘Shameless’ Statements

Group Skews Facts on Obama’s ‘Shameless’ Statements
May 11, 2012

A group claiming to be backed by veterans has gone too far in a viral Web video that portrays the president as a glory hog after Osama bin Laden’s death.
We cannot dispute the video’s larger point: That President Obama is using Bin Laden’s killing to score political points. But the video – produced by a former Bush-Cheney campaign operative and boasting more than 1 million hits on YouTube — misleads by:

Claiming the Washington Post criticized Obama for having the “Shameless Gall” to score political points.

Tax Credits for Illegal Immigrants

May 11, 2012

Q: Does the IRS pay billions in tax refunds to workers who are in the U.S. illegally?
A: Yes. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General determined that $4.2 billion was paid in 2010, up from less than $1 billion in 2005. Leading Democrats are resisting a bill that would stop future payments.