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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Stories by Eugene Kiely

Former Director, FactCheck.org

Romney Ad on China Mangles Facts

Romney Ad on China Mangles Facts
September 25, 2012

A Romney ad strains the facts when it suggests the Obama administration’s refusal to “stand up to China” and label it a currency manipulator has cost the U.S. 2 million jobs. The jobs figure is unrelated to currency manipulation. It is an International Trade Commission estimate of jobs that could be created if China enforced U.S. intellectual property rights.
Actually, intellectual property rights are a high priority of the Obama administration, and in 2010 it won what it called “significant intellectual property rights enforcement initiatives”

Romney, Obama Court Moms, Distort Facts

Romney, Obama Court Moms, Distort Facts
September 20, 2012

Mitt Romney and President Obama each distort the facts in TV ads aimed at young mothers:

Romney’s ad falsely attributes the nation’s $16 trillion debt all to Obama when it says “your share of Obama’s debt is over $50,000.” The total public debt was $10.6 trillion when Obama took office, and he inherited a $1 trillion-plus deficit in his first year.
Obama’s ad claims Romney’s tax plan “could take away middle-class deductions for child care, home mortgages and college tuition,”

NRCC Attack Ad Misleads Iowa Voters

NRCC Attack Ad Misleads Iowa Voters
September 18, 2012

A Republican TV ad falsely claims that businesses “are forced to drop health care coverage” and families are “losing health care benefits” under the new federal health care law. “That’s what’s happening,” the ad says. But that’s not happening now. The claim is based on a July survey of corporate executives and human-resource officers who were asked if they expect their companies to drop insurance coverage in the next one to five years.
The survey found that “9% of companies representing 3% of the workforce anticipate dropping coverage in the next 1-3 years.”

Romney’s Bogus ‘Apology’ Claim

September 14, 2012

FactCheck.org Director Brooks Jackson talks to WCBS radio about a false claim that Mitt Romney repeatedly made after the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt.
Romney said the Obama administration issued an “apology for American values” after the attacks. That’s not true. Romney was referring to a statement issued before mobs attacked either in Egypt or Libya. Furthermore, the word “sorry” or “apologize” doesn’t appear in the statement.

Santorum’s Distorted ‘Dependency’ Claims

Santorum’s Distorted ‘Dependency’ Claims
August 29, 2012

Rick Santorum blames President Barack Obama for “a nightmare of dependency with almost half of America receiving some sort of government assistance.” But the same could have been said of George W. Bush. In fact, the Census Bureau reported that in the third quarter of 2008, under Bush, “nearly half of U.S. residents live in households receiving government benefits.”
Back then, Census reported that 44.4 percent of Americans received some sort of government benefits. That has risen to 49 percent under Obama as of the most recent figures available,

Christie’s Fact-Free Keynote

Christie’s Fact-Free Keynote
August 29, 2012

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie largely avoided factual claims in a Republican convention keynote address that was heavy on generalities, opinion and platitudes. The pugnacious former prosecutor exaggerated a bit, though, when he bragged about his accomplishments as governor, and he repeated the common but false claim that the president’s health care law interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.

Christie said he delivered “three balanced budgets with lower taxes.” Actually, he cut the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income residents and the popular property-tax rebate program for renters and homeowners.