Tag: GOP lies

Latest stats on federal mooching blow up GOP lies about ‘Democrat-run states’

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States run by Republicans are far more dependent upon the help of the federal government than their Democratic-run counterparts, based on the latest annual study from Wallethub.com.

In ranking the 50 states, the financial website listed 11 red states among the 12 most dependent upon Washington D.C. No fewer than 19 of the 25 of the most-dependent states were Republican dominated. Conversely, 12 of the 14 states least dependent on the federal government were run by Democrats.

“Blue states are less dependent on federal government than red states,” the site observed, noting that in its 50-state ranking, red states ranked 20.68 in dependency to Washington DC, versus a much lower average ranking of 30.32 for blue states. Continue reading.

Murderers, undocumented immigrants: Hyped-up claims about who’s getting stimulus checks

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“Dylann Roof murdered nine people. He’s on federal death row. He’ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats’ ‘COVID relief’ bill.”

— Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), in a tweet, March 6

“With this bill, they’re going to people in prison, they’re going to people who are illegal immigrants.”

— Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” March 7

Every Senate bill that proceeds on a fast-track process known as reconciliation features a strange ritual called “vote-a-rama,” as lawmakers race through a number of votes on amendments. If you are in the minority, as Republicans are now, it’s a moment when you can offer finely tuned amendments that are destined to fail but will serve up red meat for voters in later elections.

These quotes are an example of this process in action, with Cotton tweeting a talking point just hours after the coronavirus stimulus bill was approved. Cotton isn’t shy about his intentions either. On March 8, he tweeted that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston bomber, would also get benefits and declared, “Get ready for campaign ads.”

But for all the hype, there’s less to these claims than one might imagine — particularly because the previous stimulus bills passed last year under GOP control also did not bar payments to prisoners and the small subset of undocumented immigrants referenced by Barrasso. Continue reading.

Texas governor tries to blame Democrats after GOP mistakes cause of fatal power outages

Texas Republicans have received stinging criticism for their policies after power outages killed Texans during this week’s brutal snowstorms.

Even though coal and natural gas — plus the unusual situation of The Lone Star State having its own power grid — are largely responsible for the fatal power outages, Republicans have sought to blame wind and solar power.

Hours after saying energy producers have told him natural gas pipes are frozen, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) went on Fox News to praise fossil fuels to Sean Hannity. Continue reading.

Fox News fights coronavirus misinformation lawsuit: First Amendment protects ‘false’ speech

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F ox News has moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Washington state group accusing the network of “deceptive” coronavirus coverage by arguing that the First Amendment protects “false” and “outrageous” speech.

The network’s lawyers said in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit that the “First Amendment does not permit censoring this type of speech based on the theory that it is ‘false’ or ‘outrageous.’ Nor does the law of the State of Washington.”

The Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) filed a lawsuit in King County earlier this month seeking a court order barring the network from “interfering with reasonable and necessary measures to contain the virus by publishing further false and deceptive content.” Continue reading.

Fact-checking the opening day of the Trump impeachment hearings

Washington Post logoHere’s a roundup of misleading claims made during the opening day of House impeachment hearings.

“President [Volodymyr] Zelensky didn’t announce he was going to investigate [Ukrainian gas company] Burisma or the Bidens. He didn’t do a press conference and say: ‘I’m going to investigate the Bidens. We’re going to investigate Burisma.’ He didn’t tweet about it … and yet you said you have a clear understanding that those two things were going to happen — the money was going to get released but not until there was an investigation. And that in fact didn’t happen.”

“You have to ask yourself: What did President Zelensky actually do to get the aid? The answer is nothing. He did nothing. He didn’t open any investigations. He didn’t call Attorney General Bill Barr. He didn’t do any of the things that House Democrats say that he was being forced and coerced and threatened to do. He didn’t do anything because he didn’t have to.”

“For the millions of Americans viewing today, the two most important facts are the following. Number one, Ukraine received the aid. Number two, there was in fact no investigation into Biden.”

The “nothing to see here” defense was a recurring theme in the hearing. Republicans argued that Ukrainian officials never opened the investigations President Trump requested into the Bidens or supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, yet Trump released the nearly $400 million aid package for Ukraine anyway.

But this is a selective retelling of events. Missing is any mention of key developments between July 18, when the White House told agencies to freeze Ukraine’s aid package, and Sept. 11, when the White House released the funds.

View the complete November 14 article by Glenn Kessler and Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Rep. Louie Gohmert falsely says George Soros helped take property from fellow Jews

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) is coming under criticism for falsely claiming in an interview that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, known for his funding of liberal and pro-democracy groups, “helped take the property” owned by fellow Jews.

Patrick Gaspard, president of Soros’s Open Society Foundations, sent a letter to Gohmert on Thursday afternoon asking him to apologize for the “disturbing and false anti-Semitic slur.”

In an interview Thursday morning with Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney, Gohmert spoke about Google’s plans to build a censored search engine in China. At one point in the interview, Gohmert pivoted from discussing the tech giant to making accusations against Soros, who is frequently the subject of conspiracy theories and in October was among the prominent critics of President Trump to whom a Florida man allegedly mailed pipe bombs.

View the complete December 6 article by Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans Are Full of It About Their Health Care Agenda

The White House and the Republican National Committee are blatantly lying to voters about health care. The truth is that Republicans continue their health care sabotage and have tried to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions — and they’re suing right now to allow insurers to deny those people coverage.  Read more Republicans who are full of it:

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel repeatedly denied that Republicans want to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

McDaniel: “Now, they are using health care as a fear tactic, and they’re going across these states and saying Republicans are going to take away pre-existing conditions. It is just false. The president has said that is not true, and we’re combating that, that lie of Democrats.”

McDaniel: “Well, the Democrats have really tried to fearmonger on health care and tried to tell people that Republicans are going to take pre-existing conditions. It is flat-out false. The president has been on the stump refuting that. We have candidates sharing stories of their family members, of their kids, of their mothers who have pre-existing conditions. Of course we would never take away that right.”

New York Times: “It is Democrats, by passing the Affordable Care Act in 2010, who introduced meaningful protections for Americans with prior illnesses. And Republican officeholders have taken numerous actions that would tend to weaken those protections — in Congress, in states and in courts. The Trump administration introduced a sweeping new policy just last week that would allow states to sidestep Obamacare’s requirement to cover pre-existing conditions.”

Continue reading “Republicans Are Full of It About Their Health Care Agenda”

Karin Housley twists Tina Smith’s finances to allege profits from big pharma

In a recent Minnesota Republican ad for U.S. Senate, a man and woman clink flutes of champagne on the beach as text rolls across the screen: “Tina Smith loves the good life.”

Smith is defending her U.S. Senate seat on Nov. 6. She was appointed to the position earlier this year after fellow Democrat Al Franken stepped down following sexual misconduct allegations.

The “good life” ad comes from Smith’s Republican challenger, state Sen. Karin Housley, and the text on screen quickly departs from the beach scene’s serenity.

View the complete October 31 article by Kyra Haas on the PolitiFact.com website here.

Vote blue

RNCC ads attacking Angie Craig and Dean Phillips, Democrats running for Congress in the 2nd and 3rd districts of Minnesota, are misleading and downright deceitful according to fact check articles in the Saturday, Oct. 13, Minneapolis Star Tribune. Not any different here in the 8th. RNCC ads attacking Joe Radinovich are equally misleading. Republicans cannot run on their record—tax giveaways, raiding Medicare and Social Security, EPA debacle, health care dismantling, fraud and mismanagement by this administration’s officials the list goes on ad infinitum. They must lie about their opponents so they can continue their control of Washington and complete the “job.”

When you see RNCC sponsorship of a political ad, know you’re being scammed. Source check the “information” being offered. These ads represent a political party so desperate to hold on to power they are stooping to the lowest levels imaginable. I have one bit of advice. Vote blue.

Marian Severt, Brainerd
Brainerd Dispatch, October 17, 2018

 

Flier’s attack on Dean Phillips as ‘heartless’ is false

Erik Paulsen attacks again, falsely, might I add.

Recently I received a flier telling me that Dean Phillips is “heartless” because when he was “in charge,” 12,000 nurses went on strike when their health insurance was threatened.

That is false. Here are the actual facts: Continue reading “Flier’s attack on Dean Phillips as ‘heartless’ is false”