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Democratic Disinformation from Charlotte

Democratic Disinformation from Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We heard a number of dubious or misleading claims on the first night of the Democratic National Convention:

The keynote speaker and others claimed the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, would raise taxes on the “middle class.” He has promised he won’t. Democrats base their claim on a study that doesn’t necessarily lead to that conclusion.
The keynote speaker, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, also said there have been 4.5 million “new jobs”

Ryan’s VP Spin

Ryan’s VP Spin

TAMPA, Fla. — Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention contained several false claims and misleading statements. Delegates cheered as the vice presidential nominee:

Accused President Obama’s health care law of funneling money away from Medicare “at the expense of the elderly.” In fact, Medicare’s chief actuary says the law “substantially improves” the system’s finances, and Ryan himself has embraced the same savings.
Accused Obama of doing “exactly nothing” about recommendations of a bipartisan deficit commission — which Ryan himself helped scuttle.

Republican Retreads from Tampa

Republican Retreads from Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. — On the first day of the Republican convention — marked by a delegate vote making former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the party’s official nominee for president — we’re already hearing a lot of exaggerated, misleading or downright false claims that we’ve heard before.
The theme of the day centered on repeated misrepresentations of a quote from President Obama. From the various speakers we also heard:

A misleading statistic about women’s job losses that has grown so stale it is now wholly false.

Medicare’s Finances

The Romney campaign has claimed that reductions in Medicare spending that are part of the Affordable Care Act hurt Medicare’s finances. But as Managing Editor Lori Robertson explains on Connecticut Public Broadcasting, the opposite is true. And such claims falsely imply that Medicare is losing this money and won’t get it back.
For a full explanation on how Medicare Part A’s trust fund works, see our Aug. 24 article “Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank.’ “

Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank’

Medicare’s ‘Piggy Bank’

Republicans claim the president’s $716 billion “cuts” to Medicare hurt the program’s finances. But the opposite is true. These cuts in the future growth of spending prolong the life of the Medicare trust fund, stretching the program’s finances out longer than they would last otherwise.
Mitt Romney has claimed that President Barack Obama has “robbed” Medicare. Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, said Obama “turned Medicare into a piggy bank to fund Obamacare,” promising to “stop the raid on Medicare.” And the Republican National Committee is promoting on its website a feature it calls “Obama’s Countdown to Medicare’s Bankruptcy,”

Cutting Medicare?

The Romney campaign says that President Obama’s health care law has cut $716 billion out of Medicare. But that’s a reduction in the future growth of spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget. And the reduction extends the life of the Medicare trust fund.
Read more about Medicare’s woes and both campaigns’ plans to reduce spending in our Aug. 22 article, “A Campaign Full of Mediscare.”

A Campaign Full of Mediscare

A Campaign Full of Mediscare

The presidential campaign is overflowing with claims from both sides designed to scare seniors into thinking Medicare is being gutted or about to end altogether. Lost in the flurry of attack ads and political messaging is a policy debate on how best to reduce the growth of Medicare spending, a common goal of both campaigns. If all voters know …

Distorting Obama’s Economic Plan, Ryan’s Medicare Plan

Both sides are playing loose with the facts in a couple of new TV ads. As FactCheck.org Deputy Director Eugene Kiely explains on WCBS radio, a pro-Romney super PAC takes President Obama’s comment about his second-term economic plan out of context, and an Obama TV ad provides false information about Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan.
Read more about both ads in our Aug. 13 item “Pro-Romney Super PAC Twists Obama’s Words” and our Aug. 14 item,

Ryan’s Medicare Plan

Now that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is Mitt Romney’s running mate, the claims about Ryan’s Medicare plan are flying. We give the details on what the plan will do, and debunk Democratic claims that it would raise seniors’ costs by $6,000. That pertains to an outdated plan.
See “Outdated Attacks on Ryan” (Aug. 14) for more on misleading claims about his past proposals.

Outdated Attacks on Ryan

Outdated Attacks on Ryan

The Obama campaign points to old proposals by Rep. Paul Ryan in saying that Mitt Romney would pay “less than 1 percent in taxes” under Ryan’s plan and that seniors would pay $6,000 more for Medicare. Ryan’s 2010 budget proposal would have eliminated capital gains and dividend taxes — which were indeed the bulk of Romney’s tax burden for 2010 — but Ryan dropped that specific measure from subsequent budgets. The Medicare claim, too, pertains to a less generous plan Ryan released last year,