Summary Would the House-passed health care bill make a tough economy worse and wipe out more jobs, as claimed in a TV ad from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? Or would it help small business and encourage economic growth, as claimed in an ad sponsored by a big labor union and other supporters of federal efforts to expand health insurance coverage? Who’s right? Will jobs be lost as businesses are required to cover their employees? Or will the economy, and jobs picture, brighten as almost all Americans... Click to Read the Full Post
Q: Did Michelle Obama and her daughters use taxpayer money to take a European vacation? A: The first lady, her mother and her children did stay in Europe for a private vacation after the president completed an overseas trip on official business. However, no taxpayer money was used for the first family’s personal expenses. Click to Read the Full Post Read More →
In our article "Virginia Myths and More," we wrote that some of the federal stimulus money available to Virginia came with a requirement to change the state’s unemployment eligibility rules to give "benefits to part-time workers for the first time." However, an alert reader who works at the Virginia Employment Commission told us that the state has always extended unemployment benefits to part-time workers. We checked in with the VEC, and our article could use some clarification. It’s... Click to Read the Full Post
If you’re the glass-half-full type, you might think it’s good news that the nation’s unemployment rate was largely unchanged from May to June. It crept up just 0.1 percentage points to 9.5 percent. But that also means that the original projections from President Obama’s economic advisers on what would happen with and without the stimulus plan are still off — and significantly so. In mid-June, we wrote about the large discrepancy between the jobs that actually have been... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary Two new Republican ads targeting New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine contain a few misleading claims. One ad suggests that Corzine is responsible for New Jersey’s business climate being "among the worst in the nation." But the survey cited as the source of the claim shows that the perception of New Jersey’s business climate has improved under Corzine. The same ad also suggests that it’s Corzine’s fault that "unemployment is up 73 percent" in the state.... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary With the economy continuing to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs per month, Republicans are stepping up attacks on President Obama. They claim that the massive "stimulus" spending isn’t working very well. A Republican Party Web site classifies as "fiction" the president’s repeated claim that the spending already has "saved or created" a total of 150,000 jobs, and accuses him of "fuzzy math." The GOP has a point here. The fact is the economy... Click to Read the Full Post
Q: Would Senate bill 2099 put a yearly $50 tax on each privately owned firearm? A: There is no such bill. A chain e-mail containing bogus claims refers to a bill that died more than eight years ago. Click to Read the Full Post Read More →
Ever since Chrysler announced that it wanted to shed 789 of its 3,188 nationwide dealerships, speculation and outright accusations have circulated to the effect that Republican donors were being singled out. The list of dealers slated for closing contained some who had given to Republican candidates, and far fewer who had given to Democrats. One blogger’s early tabulation, based on the first five pages of the 40-page list of closed dealers, showed $120,000 had been given to GOP candidates... Click to Read the Full Post
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced on June 1 a radio ad and robo-call campaign against several congressional Republicans for voting against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. the stimulus bill). However, the attacks don’t tell the whole story. For instance, the ad aimed at Republican Rep. Peter King claim that he "opposed an $800 tax cut and opposed creating or saving 215,000 New York jobs." But King, like many Republicans, never said that. Rather,... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary Leading Republicans are claiming that President Obama’s proposal to curb greenhouse gas emissions would cost households as much as $3,100 per year. The Republican National Committee calls it a "massive national energy tax." But the $3,100 figure is a misrepresentation of both Obama’s proposal and the study from which the number is derived. Republicans say they base their figure on a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But one of the authors says that... Click to Read the Full Post
