Lies of Limbaugh

THE LIES OF THE DOPE FIEND  

(Thanks to Media Matters)

• On July 21, the Drudge Report, the Heritage Foundation’s blog The Foundry, and Rush Limbaugh all falsely claimed that during a July 20 blogger conference call, President Obama, in Limbaugh’s words, “admitted he doesn’t know” what’s in the House health care bill. A blogger asked Obama to comment on a claim made in a July 15 Investor’s Business Daily editorial — which Media Matters for America has noted is false — that the bill, in the blogger’s words, “will make individual private medical insurance illegal.” Obama responded, “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you’re talking about.” In fact, as even the Heritage Foundation blog post to which Drudge linked made clear, there is no provision in the bill outlawing private health insurance. Nonetheless, Limbaugh again flogged the July 15 IBD editorial and falsely claimed that the House bill “[w]ill make individual private medical insurance illegal. It will. It will.”
• In a July 15 editorial, which Limbaugh has previously highlighted, IBD falsely claimed that the House tri-committee health care reform bill includes “a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.” The editorial later stated that the “provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage.” In fact, the provision to which the editorial referred establishes the conditions under which existing private plans would be exempted from the requirement that they participate in the Health Insurance Exchange. Individual health insurance plans that do not meet the “grandfather” conditions would still be available for purchase, but only through the exchange and subject to those regulations.
• On June 1, several media figures falsely claimed that an April 27 opinion piece attacking President Obama for instigating an “American decent [sic] into Marxism” was the product of the Russian newspaper Pravda. In fact, the piece, written by blogger Stanislav Mishin, was published on the Russian website PRAVDA On-line, a separate media outlet that routinely features sensationalistic stories.  The piece was originally published on April 1 as a post on Mishin’s blog, Mat Rodina.  CNN’s Jack Cafferty claimed that the piece was published by “the online edition of the Russian news agency Pravda,” while Rush Limbaugh stated that it was the product of the “English-language version of Pravda, the state-run media in the old Soviet Union.” In fact, as its website itself makes clear, PRAVDA On-line is not affiliated with either the current newspaper Pravda or the version published “in the old Soviet Union.” Rather, PRAVDA On-line’s “About” page states that the original newspaper Pravda was “a publication of the Communist Party, and, as such, it became a state-owned newspaper” until it was shut down by the government in 1991.
• During the March 18, 2009 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that “[n]ot one Republican voted for this bailout. Remember way back in the fall, not one Republican voted for the TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] bailout?” He later repeated the false claim, saying, “Not one Republican voted for it the first time around.” In fact, many Republicans in both the House and Senate voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which authorized the secretary of the Treasury to create the Troubled Asset Relief Program to provide financial aid to banks and other financial institutions. Indeed, on September 29, 2008, 65 House Republicans voted in favor of H.R. 3997, the original House vehicle for the act. After that legislation failed, on October 1, 2008, 34 Senate Republicans voted for H.R. 1424, the new vehicle for the act, and on October 3, 2008, 91 House Republicans voted for that bill. President Bush, a Republican, subsequently signed it into law.  Additionally, Limbaugh falsely claimed of American International Group’s (AIG) employee retention bonuses that “[i]t’s in the stimulus package that they get the bonuses.” In fact, as Media Matters for America documented, the relevant provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act actually restricted the ability of companies receiving funds under the act to award bonuses in the future; it did not create a right for executives at AIG — or anywhere else — to receive bonuses.
• February 23, 2009 – Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that taxes would increase on “most small businesses” if the Bush tax cuts on Americans making more than $250,000 expire in 2011. In fact, the Tax Policy Center stated that in 2007, about 2 percent of tax returns that reported small-business income are in the top two income tax brackets, which include all filers with taxable incomes of more than $250,000.
• February 10, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that a homeless woman at President Obama’s Fort Myers town hall event asked Obama for a “car” and “a new kitchen.” In fact, Henrietta Hughes was simply saying that she needs housing. She stated: “[W]e need something more than a vehicle and parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.” What a dirtbag he is.
• February 10, 2009 – Rush Limbaugh repeated a falsehood in a Bloomberg “commentary” by Betsy McCaughey that claimed that under a provision in the House-passed economic recovery bill, “[o]ne new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and ‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions.” In fact, the provisions McCaughey referenced address establishing an electronic records system such that doctors would have information about their patients “to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.”
• January 28, 2009 – On his Hate Radio show, Limbaugh allowed Rep. Eric Cantor to falsely claim of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: “Even the Congressional Budget Office … says it is not a stimulative bill.” In fact, the CBO stated in its January 26 report: “CBO anticipates that implementation of H.R. 1 would have a noticeable impact on economic growth and employment in the next few years,” while the CBO director said that the bill would “provide massive fiscal stimulus.”
• January 27, 2009 – Parroting GOP talking points, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed $4.19 billion of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery package “is going to ACORN.” In fact, the bill does not mention ACORN or otherwise single it out for funding. 
• January 23, 2009 – Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity have falsely asserted or suggested that Robert Reich, speaking at a congressional forum, proposed that jobs created by the economic stimulus package should exclude white males. In fact, Reich has repeatedly stated that he favors a stimulus plan that “includ[es] women and minorities, and the long-term unemployed” in addition to skilled professionals and white male construction workers, not one that is solely limited to them. 
• January 21, 2009 – On Hannity, speaking of President Obama’s reported plan to reverse the U.S. government’s Mexico City policy restricting federal funding for international family planning groups, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed “[former President] Clinton imposed it.” In fact, the Mexico City policy prohibiting the federal government from providing funds to international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling, or referrals about abortion services in other nations was imposed by President Reagan, rescinded by Clinton, and revived by George W. Bush.   
  

  Billo the Clown

• January 14, 2009 – On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely suggested that Planned Parenthood mainly provides abortions, saying, “You go into Planned Parenthood for an abortion, all right?” In fact, according to the Planned Parenthood website, 3 percent of its health services are abortion services.
• January 7, 2009 – Rush Limbaugh falsely asserted that Rep. Barney Frank “created the problem” of the subprime mortgage crisis, claiming that Frank’s “definition of affordable housing was to make sure that people who couldn’t pay the loans back got the loans, the mortgages. He forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do this.” In fact, Frank has advocated for policies that emphasize low-income home rentals as opposed to homeownership and supported legislation to strengthen oversight over Fannie and Freddie.
• December 9, 2008 – On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that in his first term, President George W. Bush “left a lot of Clinton U.S. attorneys in office, did not sweep them. Only in his second term did he start replacing some.” In fact, Bush reportedly replaced 88 of the 93 U.S. attorneys with his own appointees during the first two years of his presidency.  
  

  MIchelle Malkin

• October 27, 2008 -  Rush Limbaugh distorted comments by Sen. Barack Obama in a 2001 radio interview and falsely characterized Obama as “an anti-constitutional professor” who has “flatly rejected” the U.S. Constitution. Obama made the comments in a panel discussion of how the Founders addressed the issue of slavery in the Constitution; he did not reject it, as Limbaugh falsely claimed, but called it “a remarkable political document.”
• October 23, 2008 – Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Jerome Corsi suggested or asserted that the true purpose of Sen. Barack Obama’s current trip to Hawaii is not to visit his ailing grandmother, as Obama claims, but rather to address rumors — widely debunked — that Obama has failed to produce a valid U.S. birth certificate. However, in addition to FactCheck.org and a Hawaiian Health Department official, even Corsi’s employer, the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, has reportedly determined that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign is authentic.
• October 10, 2008 – On his radio show, discussing Sen. Barack Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that “[t]here’s no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to this except a poem.” In fact, Obama reportedly authored an article for the Harvard Law Review in 1990. Limbaugh also baselessly suggested Obama did not write Dreams because “[h]e doesn’t talk this way,” and repeated the baseless allegation that there is a connection between Bill Ayers’ written work and Obama’s, because Ayers “does write very well.”
• March 27, 2008 – Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama has “never reached across the aisle as a senator in legislation.” In fact, Obama was a key co-sponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. In a press release upon Senate passage of the bill, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn himself referred to the legislation as the “Coburn-Obama Bill.” Obama has also worked with Republicans on other bills.

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