9News conducted a “truth test” on the RadiCalifornia ad paid for by the Republican Governor’s Association, but got a little off track and kind of smashed their whole premise into the side of a mountain.
The ad illustrates Polis’s support for single-payer health care, but the truth test criticizes it for comparing what Polis supported in Congress by citing it as an example of something Polis actually believes in.
Then they went down the rabbit hole questioning whether this is a congressional or gubernatorial campaign.
That’s the crazy thing about a candidate’s record, it’s actually examined in campaigns. And as a congressman for nearly a decade, Polis’s record is fair game.
This truth test was all over the board, picking on small citations it claims are just opinion — like single payer health care is a “radical ideas” or “crazy regulations.”
Do you hear that politicians? Keep your opinions out of your campaign ads. No one cares what you actually think.
But we busted a gut laughing over the examination of the ad’s claim that single payer health care would double an individual’s taxes.
CLAIM: And would more than double what you pay in federal income taxes each year.
VERDICT: False.
And why is it false? Because the study they reference says doubling taxes IS NOT ENOUGH MONEY to cover the costs!
There’s a lot more we could quibble with, like their statement the cost study was done on the Senate bill version, which Polis supported, and is actually called a “companion bill” for a reason. The result is the same.
Campaign ad truth tests should be used for blatant and sneaky whoppers, not based on the opinions of journalists.