FactCheck.org

Crist, Rubio Ad War

March 29, 2010

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist once looked like he’d surely get the GOP nomination in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mel Martinez. But it’s the former Florida state House speaker, Republican Marco Rubio, who’s currently positioned as the front-runner.
With several months to go before the August primary, Crist released his first TV ad last week hitting his chief opponent for having been a "registered lobbyist" and using "Republican political donations on his lavish lifestyle."

It’s true that Rubio was a registered lobbyist in Florida’s Miami-Dade County for several years —

Student Lenders’ Slippery Jobs Numbers

March 25, 2010

Would overhauling the student loan program really "jeopardize more than 30,000 private sector jobs," as claimed by those who oppose it? We find that figure to be a stretch. A widely quoted, independent expert says any job loss is likely to be much less, and that it’s possible no jobs will be lost at all.
The student-loan overhaul — under which the federal government would become the sole lender, ending the role of banks and other private sector lenders in this government program —

And Here We Go: Attack Ad Cites Health Care Vote

March 23, 2010

Republican businessman Scott Sipprelle, who is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey this fall, has launched one of the first TV ads attacking an incumbent on the recent health care vote.

In the 30-second spot, which is also the first TV ad of his campaign, Sipprelle says, "Rush Holt and Nancy Pelosi ignored you" and supported a "trillion dollar health care bill [that] creates a massive new federal bureaucracy that will hurt the quality of care and saddle us with more debt and higher taxes."

Enter the Lawyers

March 22, 2010

You knew they were coming, didn’t you?
Back in October, we were getting lots of e-mail asking if the health care overhaul bill was constitutional or not, particularly the part that requires each individual to have insurance. Our conclusion? We couldn’t really give one, of course, but we talked through some of the issues that could arise. See our post: "Health Care Overhaul: Constitutional?"
Now it looks as though we won’t have to wait very long for the wheels of litigation to start turning.

More Health Care Ads?

March 22, 2010

So now that President Obama is set to sign this health care bill into law, you won’t have to hear all kinds of claims about it, right? Well, not so fast. The end of the health care ad wars isn’t here yet.
Liberals are getting in the first shots — praising Democratic House members who voted their way, and attacking at least one Republican who didn’t. But we suspect there’s much more to come. Republicans are vowing to make the vote a major issue in the midterm elections in November.

Stimulus Saves First Lady’s Brother?

March 22, 2010

We figured that people would recognize this latest chain e-mail for the hoax that it is. It makes a ridiculously false claim about Craig Robinson, who is the head coach of Oregon State University’s men’s basketball team and First Lady Michelle Obama’s older brother. But judging from the number of times we’ve been asked about this since the beginning of March, we were wrong. The author of this bogus e-rumor must be suffering from a different kind of “March Madness”

Burrowing into “Borrowing”

March 19, 2010

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its allies have launched a last-minute TV attack claiming that "Washington wants 600 billion in new borrowing for their health care bill," despite the fact that the Congressional Budget Office projects the bill will reduce the federal deficit over the next 10 years, and for the 10 years after that, as well.

The ad was announced Thursday, March 18 by Employers for a Healthy Economy, a coalition of business groups opposed to the legislation.

Future Fund’s Faulty Fusillade

March 19, 2010

The American Future Fund, a conservative advocacy group, is launching an offensive on multiple fronts against the proposed health care bill. Its television ad mixes bits of recycled images and false claims with new falsehoods, while its print ad sticks closer to the facts but begs some context.
Video Attacks

First off, the ad says that "liberals are crafting a secret health care bill behind closed doors." That’s absurd. The health care overhaul bills were passed months ago (the House version passed in November,

All Those in Favor…

March 17, 2010

Keeping up with ads about the pending health care overhaul legislation, pro and con, is like trying to fill one’s glass from the proverbial fire hose. Today, we bring you three ads from groups that are urging passage of the bill, each of which needs a little context or correction.
First up is one from Americans for Stable Quality Care, which is an agglomeration of pro-overhaul organizations such as the American Medical Association, the Service Employees International Union and the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers Association.

Rove Vs. Brokaw, and Other Sunday Squabbles

March 15, 2010

Republican strategist Karl Rove and NBC’s "Meet the Press" guest host Tom Brokaw got into a tussle on that program Sunday over whether the Bush administration had planned to use oil money to partly fund the Iraq war. Rove also overstated opposition to Democratic health care legislation.
We’ll start with the health care claim. Rove, a former top adviser to President George W. Bush, said:

Rove, March 14: If you step back for a minute, it’s a pretty remarkable year that we’ve had,