Democracy Has Prevailed.

May 31, 2012

Factcheck.org fact checks Crossroads GPS

And finds some "dishonest nonsense."

Here's the ad - (I've seen it a few times here in Pennsylvania):


And the part they find dishonestly nonsensical?

This part:
The ad — titled “Obama’s Promise” — lists several pledges that it claims the president has broken. The worst distortion it contains — one we haven’t addressed in this campaign — is an almost entirely groundless assertion that he broke his often-repeated promise not to raise taxes on persons making less than $200,000 a year, or couples making less than $250,000.

The ad shows Obama saying in a 2008 campaign speech, “If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up.” Then, to the sound of shattering glass, the narrator says, “Broken! Obamacare raises 18 different taxes.”
Factcheck:
Only a few of the tax changes in the new health care law will fall on families making under $250,000 a year, or individuals making less than $200,000 for that matter. And they make up only a small part of the $503 billion figure that appears on screen. That 10-year total falls overwhelmingly on individuals who are above those income thresholds — just as Obama promised — or on corporations. Money to be collected from individuals regardless of income would come mostly from taxes (or penalties) that are not yet in effect.

The truth here is that Obama has lowered taxes for all workers through a 2 percentage point reduction in the Social Security payroll tax that started in 2011 and is scheduled to continue through the end of 2012. The cut is equal to $1,000 this year for a worker making $50,000 a year — or as much as $2,202 to any worker earning at least the maximum taxable level of wages or salary ($110,100 for 2012). [empahsis in original.]
And this is factcheck.org we're talking here.

2 comments:

EdHeath said...

You Know, by agreeing to a stimulus that was too small, Obama sort of broke implied or perhaps explicit campaign promises to make things better (at least better faster). And it does seem like there were some other campaign promises Obama made that did not come to pass; tough instead of weak Wall Street reform, getting around to closing Guantanamo's detention facility, getting us out of Afghanistan. But Republicans actually don't want those things done, so they are at best conflicted about mentioning them. And some of Obama's accomplishments - killing bin Laden and getting us largely out of Iraq are also touchy for Republicans.

It is going to be an interesting campaign. It might well be a race to the bottom, with interesting twists and dancing as both sides avoid criticizing the other for things for things they either haven't done (Obama's side) or would never do (Romney's side). Like some weird Kabuki campaign.

I. Emma Skeptic said...

Rove's "New Majority" ad is a doozie--Obama is adding 4B to the debt every day. Sounds like a bald-faced lie. Fact check please.