TRUTH TEST HEADQUARTERS, Florida -- With less than a year to go until the 2012 Presidential Election, it's not just the political rhetoric flying fast and furiously. Advertising dollars are pouring into Florida and a recent ad attacking President Obama's push for new tax revenue is seeing some serious air time.
The Karl Rove-backed "Crossroads GPS" group, a Super Political Action Committee (PAC), put together the "2 Presidents" ad to contrast the views of President Obama and President Bill Clinton. However, it appears to have taken some liberties with the truth.
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The 10 News Investigators dissect the ad and fact-checked each of the claims made:
CLAIM 1: Bill Clinton said the US should not "raise taxes on anybody right today, rich or poor or middle class."
The ad quotes the former president during an October visit to the Late Show with David Letterman, when he said raising taxes during a flat economy would be a mistake.
"Should you raise taxes on anybody, right today, rich or poor or middle class," Clinton asked. "No - because there's no growth in the economy."
But the Crossroads GPS ad doesn't mention that Clinton followed the comment up with support of the (Warren) "Buffet Rule" - a tax on millionaires:
"Should those of us who make more money and are in a position to contribute to America's public needs and getting this deficit under control, pay a higher tax rate when the economy recovers? Yes."
Clinton also voiced his support for Obama's jobs bill, so while the ad conveys his intention to keep taxes where they are for now, they ignore his support for higher tax rates in the near future.
CLAIM 2: "Obama's scheduled to unveil a new tax on Americans'."
The ad plucks a soundbyte from a local news report, and the president's jobs bill would contain tax increases for the wealthiest Americans. However, those increases would be reserved for 2013. At first, taxes would actually drop as Obama and Clinton both favor lowering the payroll tax as soon as possible.
In fact, some of the proposed tax cuts were already approved by Congress.
CLAIM 3: Clinton said the US should not raise taxes; "it won't solve the problem."
In this claim about Clinton, the ad edits together a pair of sound bites from a September interview with Newsmax.tv. However, the sound bites were more than two minutes apart, and through its editing, Crossroads GPS changes the meaning of the former president's words.
When Clinton said, "it's not going to solve the problem," he was talking about both the Democrats' and Republican's proposed solutions. Clinton said to solve the nation's economic problems, housing debt had to be addressed before the nation's debt.
CLAIM 4: "A political stunt; not a solution. A bill full of tax increases....President Obama - it's time to attack problems, not people."
The Truth Test doesn't rule on opinions - just statements of facts. But despite using actual quotes from the former president, the ad clearly distorts the truth.
Clinton indicated he opposed tax hikes right now, but supported them in the future - just as the president's jobs bill proposes. An argument could be made that the two presidents disagree on the exact timetable of tax increases for the wealthy, but the evidence is circumstantial at best. Clinton has publicly supported Obama's bill while criticizing the Crossroads GPS ad.
It should also be noted that the source of funding for the ad is largely a mystery since Crossroads GPS is a Super PAC, a political group that can avoid most disclosures as long as its messages are in the form of "calls for action." By posting a phone number for viewers of the ad to call and leave messages for the president, Crossroads may violate the spirit of the law, but not the letter of the law.
Because of the liberties taken with the truth, the "2 Presidents" ad from Crossroads GPS' gets poor marks from the Truth Test.
Final Grade: D
Connect with 10 News Investigator Noah Pransky on Facebook at www.facebook.com/noahpransky or Twitter at www.twtter.com/noahpransky. Send your story tips to noah@wtsp.com or call 727-577-8474.