On Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Managing Editor Lori Robertson talks about the off-base health care claims in President Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s stump speeches. Obama misleads on Romney’s Medicare plan, and Romney uses a false statistic about insurance premium increases.
For more on the candidates’ stump speeches, see “Romney’s Stump Speech” (Sept. 20) and “Obama’s Stump Speech” (Sept. 19).
Obama’s Numbers
For more than a year, we’ve been pointing out on a regular basis how President Obama, his allies and his critics all misuse or even fabricate statistics to give voters a skewed picture of reality. This time we’ll just offer the accurate numbers. Here — in a graphic …
Oct. 5: Executive Orders, Food Stamps, Taxes
Romney’s Clean Energy Whoppers
Mitt Romney made numerous bogus claims in the Oct. 3 debate about the $90 billion in grants, guaranteed loans and tax breaks for energy projects in the stimulus bill:
Romney falsely claimed “about half” of the clean-energy companies that received U.S.-backed loans “have gone out of business.” But 26 companies received loan guarantees under a loan program cited by Romney, and three of those have filed for bankruptcy. The three firms were approved for about 6 percent of the loan guarantees.
Fact-Checking the Presidential Debate
FactCheck.org Director Brooks Jackson talks to WCBS radio about the false and misleading claims made by President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in their first presidential debate. The candidates got the facts wrong on taxes, deficits, jobs and more.
For our full article on the debate claims, see “Dubious Denver Debate Declarations.”
Dubious Denver Debate Declarations
We found exaggerations and false claims flying thick and fast during the first debate between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. Obama accused Romney of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. Not true. Romney proposes to offset his rate cuts …
Mailer Misleads Ohioans on Job Losses
In a mailer to Ohioans, a conservative group distorts Ohio’s job figures under President Obama and misquotes his administration about the potential for mismanaged stimulus money.
Ironically, the mailing from Americans for Tax Reform, a nonprofit group led by Grover Norquist, proclaims that it’s “important for Ohio to get the whole picture.”
We couldn’t agree more.
The mailer displays a 2012 newspaper headline, “Ohio second-worst for job losses.” But the article was about job losses over the last 10 years —
NRCC Reaching with Robocall
A Republican campaign in Pennsylvania attacks a Democratic House candidate for things that weren’t her doing in a strained attempt to tie her to a convicted cop murderer.
Social Security Scare
Seniors beware: The Obama and Romney campaigns are making false claims about taxing Social Security benefits:
Vice President Joe Biden told seniors in Florida that Romney’s tax plan “would raise taxes on your Social Security.” But that’s not part of Romney’s tax plan. It’s the Obama-Biden campaign’s latest misrepresentation of a nonpartisan study. The group that did the analysis disputes the campaign’s interpretation of its work.
The Romney campaign and the National Republican Committee falsely claim that Biden “repeatedly voted for higher taxes on Social Security benefits.”
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Sept. 25-Oct. 1
This week, readers sent us comments about the percentage of Americans not paying federal income taxes and “inadvertent bias” in our articles on the presidential candidates’ stump speeches.
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.