Scaring Seniors: Obama Ad Fails Fact Check

Annenberg's FactCheck.org, hardly a right-wing organization has this to say about Obama's new ad, in what they call Scaring Seniors:

A new Obama ad characterizes the "Bush-McCain privatization plan" as "cutting Social Security Benefits in half." This is a falsehood sure to frighten seniors who rely on their Social Security checks. In truth, McCain does not propose to cut those checks at all.

Who was that guy that talked about "Lying liars"? Here's the ad in question:



The ad refers to a Bush proposal from 2005 to hold down the growth of benefits for future retirees. Compared to the buying power of benefits paid to today's retirees, that would not have been a "cut" for anybody. It would have been a "cut" of half only in relation to benefits now promised to retirees who have yet to be born. And for average workers, that "cut" in 2075 was projected by one of Obama's own economic advisers to be 28 percent, not "half."

Fact Check continues:

The ad also says McCain voted "in favor of privatizing Social Security." The term "privatizing" could give the wrong impression. McCain does support creating government-managed accounts that would allow individuals to invest some portion of their Social Security payroll taxes in widely diversified stock or bond funds.

Note the words "small portion". Typically, they're talking about two percent. Hardly enough to break the bank.

...The ad implies that Bush's plan bets the whole lot of Social Security funds on unstable stocks. In fact, it would have "privatized" only a small portion of Social Security taxes that Americans could have invested in private accounts, if they chose to do so.

Note the words "if they chose". Now who is the party that's always beating their chest about choice, except when it actually comes to giving a choice to somebody? If you choose not to, then none of your funds are at risk and you get the same crappy return on all of them!

FactCheck concludes the article with this:

Ads like this, however, misinform the public and make the job of fixing the system more difficult.

Where's the Hopey/Change in all of that? Sounds like the same old lying political horse hockey we've been getting from Washington politicians for years!

Hat tip The Corner
Cross Posted at Say Anything