Fact Check Friday: Denying Reality And Seniors' Costs
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - It's Fact Check Friday, when we put the Presidential campaign ads under the scrutiny of factcheck.org, a nonpartisan non-profit part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
LISTEN: WCBS 880's Wayne Cabot Checks The Facts
Podcast
Today, we start with a pro-Mitt Romney ad that is now running. It's from the Super PAC Restore Our Future.
"Another month, even more Americans jobless. If you had President Obama's record, what would you do? Would you joke?" says the narrator.
"Shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected," says President Barack Obama in a soundbite.
"Deny reality?" continues the narrator.
"We've tried our plan and it worked," says the President in another soundbite.
WCBS 880's Wayne Cabot asked factchek.org's Eugene Kiely if Obama's words were used in context in that ad.
"No, they are not," Kiely told Cabot. "This is an attempt by the pro-Romney Super PAC to make the President seem like he's out of touch with economic reality. This accusation that Obama is trying to deny reality when he said 'We tried our plan it worked' is just false, making it seem like that Obama is talking about his past economic plan - the stimulus - but actually what he's talking about is what [President] Bill Clinton did in the 1990s when he had this balanced approach to the economic recovery by raising taxes, slowing spending, and creating a budget surplus. Obama is saying 'That's what I'm going to do in the second term.'"
"Shouldn't it be illegal for candidates to do this, if I may jump out... and ask you a very difficult question?" asked Cabot.
"It's free speech. They can't take that away from them," answered Kiely.
Then there is an ad direct from the Obama campaign, which also can play a little loose with the facts.
"Experts say [Rep. Paul] Ryan's voucher plan could raise future retirees' costs more than $6,000. Get the facts," says the narrator.
"Are these the facts?" Cabot asked Kiely.
"No. What the Obama campaign keeps doing is using this figure of $6,400. It's just out of date. That number refers to a CBO report... of the 2011 plan Congressman Ryan put out. Since then, he put our a revised plan that CBO says it might cost seniors, but it doesn't say how much more and it was unable to make that calculation," Kiely said.
