Unemployment Archives - Page 6 of 8

What’s the ‘Real’ Jobless Rate?

February 10, 2012

As the Obama administration basked in the news that the unemployment rate in January dipped to a three-year low of 8.3 percent, Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich threw a wet blanket on the announcement. Romney said the “real unemployment rate” was actually 15 percent, and Gingrich said that when you include people who have simply given up on trying to find a job, the rate “jumps up to about 12 percent.”
Is the unemployment rate not the real unemployment rate?

Chamber Misuses Report, Misleads Voters

February 10, 2012

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims in a TV ad that the Congressional Budget Office says unemployment “could top 9 percent in 2013.” Maybe so, if Congress doesn’t change current law — specifically if it fails to extend tax cuts, fails to patch the Alternative Minimum Tax that threatens to raise taxes on more than 31 million Americans, and also allows big spending cuts to take effect. But CBO also said that wasn’t a prediction of the future.

South Carolina Smackdown

January 20, 2012

Facts were sometimes used as blunt instruments as the four remaining GOP presidential candidates hammered away at each other in the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Santorum and Romney tangled …

Texas-Size Recovery

August 31, 2011

Presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has boasted of significant job growth in his state in the past few years. And for good reason: It’s true. While Texas clearly hasn’t avoided the recession, the state has done well in terms of …

FactChecking Iowa Debate

August 12, 2011

Republican presidential candidates squared off in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, offering claims, criticism and arguments. We found some false and misleading statements among them …

Romney’s Economic Exaggerations

July 27, 2011

Mitt Romney mistakenly claimed the U.S. is experiencing "the worst recovery … in America's history," citing the Wall Street Journal. But the newspaper article said it was "the worst, or one of the worst, since the government started tracking these trends after World War II." That obviously does not include the recoveries following the Great Depression or 20 other economic downturns that have occurred since 1857.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is running for president,

Dueling Economic Ads

June 30, 2011

A conservative group's ad makes the rise in unemployment under President Obama appear worse than it actually is. And in a counter-attack ad, a liberal group offers its spin on GOP economic plans.
Crossroads GPS, which spent heavily in the midterm elections to defeat Democrats, is spending $5 million to air its latest ad in 10 states and on national cable channels. It says it will spend a total of $20 million on similar messages in the next two months.

Crossroads Jam-Up

October 1, 2010

The latest ads from the American Crossroads “super PAC” attack Democrats running for Senate seats in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Nevada, Missouri and New Hampshire. The ads contain a number of misleading and false claims. …

FactChecking ‘The Pledge’

September 24, 2010

The Republican “Pledge to America,” released Sept. 23, contains some dubious factual claims. It declares that “the only parts of the economy expanding are government and our national debt.” Not true. . . .

Reid, Angle Trade Familiar Charges

August 27, 2010

In Nevada’s Senate race, Republican Sharron Angle and Democrat Harry Reid began airing new commercials Aug. 26. Angle’s attack ad pictures Reid in a "love triangle" with President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and repeats some familiar but misleading claims.
Like Angle’s, Reid’s ad covers familiar ground. All of its claims are rooted in true statements or proposals. But Reid goes too far in one case. Angle did not say that "Medicare and Social Security violate the Ten Commandments."