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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Our Annual Year-end Appeal

Our Annual Year-end Appeal
December 17, 2012

During the presidential campaign, the Obama campaign emailed fundraising appeals with subject lines such as “This is critical” and “Absolutely urgent” to lament how the Democrats were being outraised and outspent by Republicans.
But here’s something to consider: The Obama and Romney campaigns combined raised a record amount of more than $2 billion. Super PACs spent another $600 million. That paid for a lot of advertising and created a lot of work for us. Our cash budget,

Fiscal Cliff Air Wars

Fiscal Cliff Air Wars
December 13, 2012

The presidential election ended last month, but the partisan air wars continue with competing fiscal cliff ads from the conservative Crossroads GPS and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Most of what is in the ads falls into the realm of opinion, but we found a couple points to quibble with in each.

The DCCC ad claims “tea party House Republicans are holding the middle class hostage to get more tax cuts for millionaires,” but nearly six out of seven who would face tax increases under President Obama’s plan do not earn $1 million a year.

Chained Explained

Chained Explained
December 11, 2012

Using a more accurate cost-of-living adjustment for federal benefit payments and tax brackets would cut the federal deficit by perhaps $300 billion over the next 10 years. But it faces opposition from both right and left. Economists generally agree …

No Government 401(k) Takeover

No Government 401(k) Takeover
December 11, 2012

Q: Is the Obama administration attempting to eliminate private 401(k)s and IRAs and create a “national retirement system”?
A: No. Obama endorses a proposal that would require businesses without retirement plans to establish private IRAs for their employees and deposit a percentage of wages into the accounts. Employees could opt out.

Dueling Fiscal Cliff Deceptions

Dueling Fiscal Cliff Deceptions
December 5, 2012

A fog of misinformation has settled on the fiscal cliff, as both House Speaker John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have traded conflicting, misleading and false statements in recent days on the president’s deficit-reduction plan:

Geithner falsely claimed on “Fox News Sunday” that the president’s proposals to slow Medicare growth are “not shifting costs to seniors.” There are four proposals that would increase costs to some seniors by $32.9 billion over 10 years, beginning in 2017,

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Nov. 27-Dec. 4

December 5, 2012

This week, readers sent us comments about the “cost” of cutting taxes and the difference between the largest entitlement programs.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.

Facing Facts on Fiscal Cliff

Facing Facts on Fiscal Cliff
November 30, 2012

The U.S. faces the possibility of another recession — the third in 11 years — if President Obama and Congress cannot find a way to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. The one-two combination of massive tax increases and spending cuts …