Congratulations

Congratulations to incumbent Claire McCaskill for her victor over Representative Todd Akin, we at MO Truths, MO Lies had an enjoyable time fact checking the ads of this race. Please be sure to check out our post-blog writing analysis!

Post Analysis

Lizzie and I greatly enjoyed being able to write about this race. Being a US Senator is a huge responsibility, and the constituents should know the truth behind what the candidates say. Political advertisements plague TV, internet and radio in order to try and influence the undecideds and reaffirm the ones already in their camp. Our blog studied TV ads released by Senator Claire McCaskill and Representative Todd Akin as they race to Washington, D.C.

We did our best to find the truth and falsities behind what was said on the post, ranging from third parties to the campaigns themselves. Hopefully we were able to help you, the electorate, out! We found that Representative Akin and Senator McCaskill were extremely negative through their advertising almost always attacking the other candidate. In the end, however, Senator McCaskill won on our report card with 5 Truthful ads and 2 in the Middle of the Road. She beat Representative Akin who had 2 Truthful, 4 Middle of the Road and 1 Liar.

We believe that this will end up reflected in the end result of who wins the election, but time will tell!

Real Words-Student Loads: McCaskill Ad

Today's fact check is rather short, but as students we felt as though this issue is rather important to be sure to point out to the electorate. Be sure to enjoy!

Senator McCaskill released this advertisement just under a week ago as an attack on Representative Akin and his stance with student loans. But did she get the attack correct? She claims that Todd Akin is against Pell Grants and Federal Direct Loans.

Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans are two of the more popular federally funded education financial programs. Pell Grants are grants given to students coming out of low income families who might be in financial need to pay their way through college, while Federal Direct Student Loans (or FDSLP) are low interest loans given to students or parents looking for extra assistance in paying the college bill.

Representative Akin has no problem with being known he is against federally supported education programs. He boast about being against No Child Left Behind on his website, saying that the local communities are the ones that need to take care of the curriculum. When it comes to student loans, he said in a republican primary debate that they are the equivalent of stage 3 cancer. He is a major advocate of privatizing student loans, and relying on banks to be the ones to help kids get through school.

Short and sweet. There is no denying that Representative Akin is against anything relating the federal government to education. Now we ask you, how do you feel about that? Are you for or against federal involvement in education?

Jobs & Paychecks: Todd Akin Ad

Representative Akin's campaign uploaded the video "Jobs and Paychecks" just three days ago, and is one of his few non-negative ads that we will be able to look at here on MO Truth, MO Lies. In this ad, Representative Akin talked about having a plan to create jobs, by cutting taxes, reducing regulations and empowering small business. But has he done these things? We are here to find out.

From the Representative's website, he list a number of bills that the Republican controlled House has passed as an attempt to lessen regulation and empower small business with tax cuts. All of the bills listed have passed the House, some even had a glimmer of bi-partisanship. He does make a point to state that none have yet passed the Senate, which he fully blames Harry Reid and the democrats who control it. As far as we are concerned, he has made attempts at helping out small businesses by cutting taxes and regulation on them, we just leave that up to you to decided if his methods are correct!

As far as taxes as a whole go, Representative Akin was given a 100% record for his work in the 110th Congress by Americans for Tax Reform and is known as an advocator for Fair Tax. Therefore, we judge him as truthful on his saying he works to cut taxes.

So folks, Representative Akin gets his second notch in the truthful slot today as he has attempted to help small business and cut taxes in our eyes. Just remember, we don't tell you what will do America the best, we just make sure the candidates we vote for aren't lying to your faces.

P.S. Todd Akin made a mention about family in this ad, but we have a fun little tidbit for you. Representative Akin has two twitter accounts...both of them verified. The first he has used mostly for campaigning, while the second seems to be only about his voting in the house and work in D.C...but if you look, you can see that twitter number 1 says he has 7 grandchildren, while twitter number 2 says he has 4! WHOOOOOPS Representative Akin, that doesn't look to hot. 

Balance: McCaskill Ad

Exactly a month ago Senator McCaskill released the ad called "Balance" where she talks about cutting federal spending and balancing the budget. Her way of helping with this, according to the ad, are to reform defense contracting, ban earmarks, and put a cap on federal spending. Has the Senator done these acts though? We are here to find out.

Senator McCaskill currently sits is the Senate sub-committee chairman for contract oversight, so she is in a perfect position to do reform to defense contracting. She has attempted to pass legislation on the issue of reform, which is currently waiting a vote in the committee. The bill is intended to increase oversight authority of inspector generals to help combat any potential fraud and abuse by these defense contractors.

Senator McCaskill has also come out against earmarks. This is shown by her attempts at bi-partisanship to work with Senator Toomey (R-Penn) in their attempt to put a temporary moratorium on earmarks. This video (right) shows Senator Toomey and Senator McCaskill in an official capacity introducing that very bill and how they disagree with earmarks.

Lastly, Senator McCaskill has come out publicly for a federal spending cap. In another bi-partisan effort, the Senator, along with Senator Corker (R-Tenn), released a bill called Commitment to American Prosperity Act, or the CAP Act. The act would put a cap on federal spending that would gradual decrease of a 10 year period, forcing the government to be smaller and smaller every year.   

So in conclusion, this ad "Balance" was as true as it can get for the Senator. She did everything she claimed at one point in time, and hasn't seemed to break from that at all. Of course, we leave it up to you readers to decided if what she did was right. 

Don't Be Fooled: Akin Ad

Former Governor Mike Huckabee has given his support to Representative Todd Akin in this ad released by the Representative’s campaign. If you do not recall, Mike Huckabee unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination during the 2008 Presidential election and now has his own show on Fox called “The Huckabee Show” as well as a radio show called “The Huckabee Report."

The ad states that Akin voted for the Balance Budget Amendment, which would force Congress to balance the federal budget without raising taxes and would place a cap on federal spending. Sure enough, Representative Akin has supported it! 

The ad also names Representative Akin as a “taxpayer hero,” a title he was given by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste in 2008. That year, the average rating for a Representatives was 35%, but Representative Akin scored 87%.Mike Huckabee tries to rally support for Representative Akin by saying that the Representative voted against government bailouts. Huckabee is not specific in which bailout, but Representative Akin did vote “nay” for a few. 

In 2008, Representative Akin voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, part of which includes supplying $250 billion into banks to ease and encourage bank-to-bank loans. Then in 2009, he voted against the HR1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The ad states that Representative Akin voted against “wasteful stimulus spending.” While he has voted against several bailouts, we leave it up to the voters to pick if that counts as wasteful spending or not.

Mike Huckabee also refers to Representative Akin voting against “Obamacare” or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is correct once again!  In the House of Representatives, the Act barely passed with a vote of 219-212, and has continuously been repealed by the Republican led House since the Tea Party election in 2010.


So, we have to hand it to former Governor Mike Huckabee and the Representative's camp, for this ad is spot on!

The election is just two weeks away! We hope you are have a better idea of where the candidates for the Missouri Senate stand so you can make an informed decision come November 6!

Them: McCaskill Ad

The Majority PAC was started in 2012 with the intention of keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate. On May 18th they released “Them”, an advertisement on behalf of current Senator Claire McCaskill. The ad talks about Senator McCaskill’s attempts to punish companies that ship jobs overseas, while giving tax breaks to companies in Missouri who hire locally.

Majority PAC cited two sources for their ad from National Journal and something titled “Business”. National Journal was implied as saying McCaskill fights back against companies that ship jobs overseas (:10), but looking at the article...that is just not true in the slightest. National Journal was writing an article about political happenings across the country, with the title of the article being “McCaskill fights back”, yet the only mention of Senator McCaskill in the article is how she is fighting back against a Crossroads, not companies shipping jobs overseas.

We are unable to identify what source “Business” is, and currently have an email out to Majority PAC waiting for a response from them concerning it. If anyone knows though, please comment below! We would love to check this out.


In 2010, Senator McCaskill created a new tax credit to help small business expand and add employees. One detail of the HIRE Act Tax Credit gives a business a payroll tax break for the year of 2010 if the business hired an employee who had been unemployed for at least 60 days. In addition, if the new employee stayed with the business for a year, the business would receive a tax credit of $1000.

Senator McCaskill also worked with Maine Senator Susan Collins to produce the Bipartisan Jobs Creation Act. The act strived to create more jobs by cutting taxes for small businesses. The bipartisan bill would be paid for by cutting tax subsidies for for big oil companies.

Most recently, Senator McCaskill also voted for the Bipartisan Highway Jobs Bill. The bill would put millions of dollars into Missouri transportation projects for the next two years, thus creating jobs to work on Missouri’s transportation infrastructure.

This will be the first third party ad we have checked that benefits Senator McCaskill. While they are pretty factual on the subject of helping Missouri out with tax credits, they quote a big ol' fat pants on fire lie, taking the National Journal quote so far out of context they waved to the Curiosity rover on their way out of this universe. We hope to have an update from Majority PAC about who "Business" is before we can pass 100% judgement on this ad. For now though: This barely qualifies as middle of the road.

Cash and Carry Claire: Akin Ad

In this ad released by Todd Akin’s camp on October 9th, the representative claims that Senator Claire McCaskill has received nearly $40 million as a result of the federal stimulus money. That amount seems incredibly high, so we are looking into whether or not there is any truth in Representative Akin’s ad.

The ad states that Claire McCaskill has voted to cut federal spending for education and veterans. As for education, Senator McCaskill actually supports federal spending for schools. She has said she she wants the middleman to be eliminated to make it easier for students to receive loans. Representative Akin, in turn, has said that he wants to eliminate the entire Department of Education. So, it seems a little incredulous that Representative Akin accuses Senator McCaskill of wanting to cut spending for education, when he has stated that he would like to do the same thing if elected.

Representative Akin gives another false statement in claiming that Senator McCaskill has voted to cut federal spending for veterans. In 2008, she supported the widely popular Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act. The act gave an additional $200 monthly increase in the college aid, resulting in around $1300 for veterans who had served on active duty. The act would also support veterans with cost-of-living fees. It passed in the U.S. Senate with a vote of 92-6, and Claire McCaskill was one who voted for it.


Representative Akin has continuously attacked Senator McCaskill on appropriations she has voted on in office. He did it in an ad we talked about on October 2nd and has released statements to the press about this. For your reading benefit, we will give a quick and dirty explanation about how subsidized housing works in the federal government. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (commonly referred to as HUD) grants subsidies to some housing as a means to provide lower rent for less fortunate families. This housing, known as Section 8, is a pretty serious issue for HUD and is a major focus of their existence. HUD will examine blocks of housing and approve it for Section 8 use, then grant the owners of the buildings X-amount of federal money in order to make rent cheaper for the individuals living there. It is beneficial to both the landlords and resident, as the resident pays less to live in decent housing, while the landlords receive a guaranteed amount of money from HUD. 

Senator McCaskill’s husband, Joseph Shepard, is involved in companies that deal in Section 8 housing. AP reports that Shepard drew a salary of between $400,000 and $2.6 million in his time at these companies that deal in housing. Some of these housing units, they do point out, are non-subsidized housing, and others are parts of the Section 8 program. In a financial disclosure report given to the secretary of the US Senate, Senator McCaskill does report 306 entries in the “non-publicly traded assets” section. Most of them had the description “limited partnership — real estate affordable housing.”

So there is no denying that bills Senator McCaskill voted for have, in some form, given money to her husband BUT the News Press Now article cited above says it is not clear how she would have voted for these bills (the Senator doesn’t sit on any committee’s directly involved in oversight of these) AND most of the contracts that Shepard benefitted from were initiated before Senator McCaskill was in office and would have passed renewal regardless of her vote.



After reviewing this ad, we are going to have to say that Representative Akin is pretty much lying here. There is not evidence given by Representative Akin of Senator McCaskill has voted to cut spending for education and for veterans, and while the senator has voted for bills that would in some way or another give money to her husband, these bills were initiated before she took office, so her vote didn’t really contribute much.



Also something fun to note: The AP article that Akin cites on his website and his ad was titled “Akin chides gov't money tied to McCaskill's spouse” in the AP release but somehow got changed magically to “AP: Feds paid $40M to firms tied to McCaskill's spouse“ on Akins website.

Promised Kept: McCaskill Ad

We are reaching back for this one. On February 23rd, the McCaskill camp released this ad while the GOP was still in its fight for a nominee. The ad talks about Senator McCaskill's support for veterans while she has been in office, citing support for the Rural Veterans Healthcare Improvement Act of 2009 and Hiring Heroes Act of 2011. She was a co-sponsor on the Rural Veterans Healthcare Improvement Act, but it died at introduction and never became a law, while the Hiring Heroes Act was sent from a Senate committee to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Sadly neither of those bills passed, with one even dying right off the bat. But Senator McCaskill has found a lot of veteran support in her time up in Washington. She helped pass the Post 9/11 GI Bill, and gained multiple endorsements from veteran interest groups, including Vietnam Veterans for America and Disabled American Veterans.

It would then, appear, that Senator McCaskill has been truthful about how much she has tried to help veterans.

Todd Akin for U.S. Senate: Akin Ad

Bust out the wine and crackers, because this ad is full of cheese!

In this ad released by the Todd Akin camp, the "American dream" is depicted. The ad states that the dream is at risk due to the current President and his administration, but Representative Todd Akin is still fighting for that typical American dream.

The ad describes President Obama’s presidency as “the tyranny that has ransacked the economy” showing an animation displaying the national debt. According to the United States Treasury, the national debt stood at $10,626,877,048,913.08. As of October 4, 2012, the national debt stood at $16,161,879,857,156.66, meaning that a whopping $5.4 trillion has been added to the national debt since President Obama assumed office. While this is the first time in U.S. history that the national debt has surpassed the $16 trillion mark, blaming the Obama administration would be akin to blaming the ocean for getting you wet as you ran into it. During the Bush administration, the national debt grew from $5.6 trillion to $10.6 trillion. The debt has risen for years now, and the increasing partisanship that has been displayed by many candidates of many parties nationally are certainly not helping it...not just a democratic President. Many factors play into how the economy is shaped, from private industry to governmental regulation.

The National Rifle Association did indeed endorse Representative Akin. In a statement, the NRA gave their reasoning because Representative Akin has continually defended 2nd Amendment rights during his time in office. The NRA did indeed give Representative Akin an “A rating.” Senator Claire McCaskill, on the other hand, received a “F rating” from the National Rifle Association.

As for Representative Akin receiving the “Friend of the Taxpayer” Award, that is true. The National Taxpayers Union gives the reward by “measuring the strength of support for reducing spending and regulation and opposing higher taxes." Members of Congress can receive the award for achieving an “A” in this measure. Representative Akin received an “A” rating from 2001-2009, but has since scored a “B” in his ratings.

The ad calls Representative Akin a “guardian of small businesses” but does not leave an attribution. The representative may have been called that before, but without an attribution, we cannot give credit to Representative Akin for this statement. However, the National Federation of Independent Business does give an award called the “Guardian of Small Business Award.” The NFIB lists members of Congress that the federation endorses, but Representative Akin is not on that list. So, we’re not going to give this one to Representative Akin as there is no attribution to give credit to Representative Akin.

Putting the dramatics aside, the ad was moderately accurate.Yes, the national debt is a major problem, but all the blame cannot be placed on President Obama. Some points were correct, but leaving out the attribution for Representative Akin being called "guardian of small businesses" is a big no-no.

Three of a kind, one and the same: McCaskill Ad

Unfortunately, Senator Claire McCaskill has not released a video in response to Representative Todd Akin’s “Line-by-Line” ad. We’ll continue to be on the lookout for a response!

Senator Claire McCaskill attacks Representative Todd Akin in this ad over various things, stating that he wants to eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy, privatize social security, and that he supports the Personhood Act, which would outlaw many forms of contraception.

Senator McCaskill starts the ad out by saying the Kansas City Star called Representative Akin the most conservative congressman in Missouri. Initially we could not find the article, but thanks to a quick response from the Kansas City Star, we got it! In a profile done by David Goldstein about Todd Akin we quote:

"Akin represents Missouri's 2nd Congressional District. Several
legislative scorecards have labeled Akin the most conservative member
of the state's congressional delegation, which he said 'came at a
price. It's easy when you're running for office to talk conservative
and promise to be conservative. It's a different thing to deliver. You
may be stuck with a very squishy senator for years."

We do see here that the KC Star did indeed report that he was called the most conservative, but they certainly don't seem to endorse that position.

We have discussed Representative Akin’s issue on the Department of Education, but in case you missed it, you can see his views on his own website--where he says he does in fact wish to eliminate the Department of Education. As for the Department of Energy, Todd Akin has advocated for its elimination. Claiming that the EPA has stifled the U.S. economy, Rep. Akin believes we’d be better off without it.

We’ve discussed Social Security before, and to see what we have to say, check out one of our older posts!

Concerning the Personhood Act, Representative Akin was indeed a co-sponsor of the act. However, McCaskill does stretch the truth a little bit here. In the Personhood Act, life is defined as beginning at fertilization. It does not state that the law would outlaw forms of contraception. So, Senator McCaskill, your track record has been pretty good, but we got you this time!

From what we have observed from Representative Akin so far, it is pretty obvious that he is anti-Obama. We are not going to regurgitate those facts.

In conclusion, Senator McCaskill broke her streak of truthful ads. It is true that Representative Akin wants the Departments of Education and Energy gone, as well as privatization of Social Security and his dislike of the President. But she extended the truth of the Personhood Act to the point where we have to call her out. Also massive props to the Kansas City Star! We appreciate your quick response!

Line by Line: Todd Akin Ad

Yesterday Representative Todd Akin released this new attack ad concerned specifically with the infamous stimulus bill based a few years back. Senator McCaskill voted for it, no arguing that. What we want to focus on in this ad is the Representative's claim that Senator McCaskill actually made millions because of the bill.

It is true that Senator McCaskill's husband, Joseph Shepard, had holdings in government subsidized housing, they even include that information in their financial disclosure forms. Representative Akin claims that he benefited to the tune of a million dollars. This, however, is false. Joseph Shepard was involved with a group that got government stimulus money, but two things prevent him from being right. The first being that Joseph Shepard's shares in the company was less than 5%, profiting about $10,000. The second is that the majority of the contracts held by this company were government contracts signed BEFORE the stimulus. That means that no matter what, if the stimulus passed or not, Joseph Shepard would still have made money.

Representative Akin, your previous ads may have had some truths in them, but this one is a BIG, FAT PANTS ON FIRE LIE.

'Calendar': McCaskill Ad

Tuesday was the last day that Representative Todd Akin could have dropped out of the Missouri Senate Race. However, he did not. In a response, Senator Claire McCaskill released this ad to just remind voters of what Todd Akin has said over critical issues in the past. We are going to investigate these claims to see if in fact the representative did say them! In her ad titled “Calendar” published on September 25th, Senator McCaskill notes many issues that Representative Akin has spoken on in the past year, Social Security, Medicare, Minimum Wage, Student Loans and Abortion. We have already addressed the Representative's stance on Minimum Wage and Student Loans in our previous post, and his legitimate rape gaffe is well known on the internet, so we are going to discuss Representative Akin’s stance on Social Security and Medicare here:

When Todd Akin talked with Central Missouri tea partiers last year in September, he railed against Medicare, liking his struggle against federal health care to that of struggle against a tyrannical government. He stated during that speech that he voted against Medicare expansion because he is against expanding an entitlement program, and lastly said that he finds it nowhere in the Constitution that the government has to provide medical care for its people...but this is all very interesting considering Todd Akin himself has released an ad saying he fights to protect and strengthen Medicare while Senator McCaskill tries to destroy it.


As for Social Security, Representative Todd Akin did in fact say he did not like it. In this interview, Akin calls Social Security “a bad investment for many, many people,” following that statement, Representative Akin calls Social Security “a tax.” Representative Akin states that more money comes in through the program than goes out. He claims that the government spends the money that goes into the system, calling the national government irresponsible when it comes to Social Security.


So in our second post on the Claire McCaskill side of this race, she has told the truth! We know from earlier post that Akin believes student loans are cancer, as well as his opposition to increase the federal minimum wage. In addition to those two, he is also against Medicare and Social Security, as they are entitlement programs, which Rep Todd Akin says he is totally against.

Congratulations to Senator McCaskill for another home run on truth for her advertisements!

Six Seconds-Six Years: Akin Ad

Todd Akin's camp released this video on August 29th talking about how he made a mistake for 6 seconds (in reference to the legitimate rape interview), but having Claire McCaskill in office the past 6 years is much worse. But how true is this ad? We are here to find out!


We start out by discussing how she voted. To be perfectly clear we are leaving the comment about "cutting medicare by over $700 billion" totally out of this blog, as it is a predicted result of ObamaCare and not concrete fact or fiction just yet. The ad says that she was the deciding vote on ObamaCare, and that she voted for the "budget busting stimulus."

On the subject of ObamaCare, she did in fact vote in favor of it. Though calling it the "deciding vote" is slightly misleading, since they needed 50 other votes to even get to the point where she could make a "deciding vote". We at MO Truth, MO Lies count this as a Truth with a Grain of Salt...

With all the stimulus plans that have been passed the last couple of administrations, it is really hard to determine just which one Representative Akin is discussing...but smart money would say that Rep. Akin is talking about this one. And its true, she voted for it.

Now those were the easy ones...


The theme of Senator McCaskill's voting record has started to become common, with CrossRoads actually releasing an ad saying "ObamaClaire". We have found out that in 2011, CQ rated McCaskill as voting in support of the president 92% of the time. That means its a big fat FALSE on Todd Akin for saying 98% of the time. CrossRoads even disagrees with this, saying that she only has voted with him 90% of the time (between 2009 and 2011). Of course, Representative Akin did not cite his source so who knows where he got his information from!

Representative Akin also claims that Senator Claire McCaskill raised taxes, while not paying her own. This claim has plagued Claire McCaskill for years. As a senator, McCaskill has spent approximately $76,000 in public funds to fly on a charter plane belonging to her and her husband and numerous investors. The flights were paid for using McCaskill’s Senate office budget, causing concern on whether she and her husband are using public funds to subsidize their airplane. An aide from Senator McCaskill’s office said that the flights were paid for legally, but the Senator will be sending a check estimated at $88,000 to the U.S. Treasury Department to cover the costs of the 89 flights.

Courtesy of Gateway Pundit

Unfortunately for Senator McCaskill, the plot thickens. In March, it was revealed that she and her husband failed to pay nearly $290,000 in Missouri property taxes for the plane. In a response, McCaskill said she would sell back her plane and pay back the money she owed. Including her check to the U.S. Department of Treasury, it would amount to nearly $375,000 for the cost of the flights and back taxes.

After reviewing the facts about this ad from Representative Todd Akin, we would like to say that this ad is half truthful. Senator Claire McCaskill did vote for ObamaCare and the President's stimulus, but, the claim that she voted with President Obama 98% of the time was an exaggeration. Akin also claims she failed to pay her taxes, which is partially true--but we do not know how true as she has not released all of her tax records.

Is Todd Akin Mainstream? McCaskill Ad

On August 10th, Senator Claire McCaskill released this ad against opponent Representative Todd Akin. The ad addresses three issues on which McCaskill feels Akin's position is against the grain of the common Missourian. Her ad quotes Todd as saying that he wants to privatize social security, abolish minimum wage, and calls student loans the equivalent of stage 3 cancer. But does Todd Akin really believe in these statements?

1) Representative Akin has multiple times come out against the governmental program of Social Security. The ad quoted Todd Akin from a C-SPAN interview in March of last year, here is the full text: "Now, Social Security through the years, for many, many people, has been a terrible investment. It's really a tax, that's all it is. Social Security is a tax. The government has taken the tax. There's been more money coming in than going out. And we spend it. That's not been responsible. I don't like it. I didn't design Social Security. It actually came from Bismarck, FDR put it in place."

 No doubt that Akin wants to privatize social security for youth, and eventually move it away from a government program. But we are going to leave it up to you to decide if that is a good thing or not.

2) In 2007, Congress enacted the FairMinimum Wage Act, an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The act would gradually increase the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour. The federal minimum wage was increased in three increments, with the final increment taking effect in 2009.
The act was passed with 315 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives. One hundred sixteen representatives voted against the measure, including Representative Todd Akin. Akin joined Representatives Sam Graves and Roy Blunt, of the 6^th and 7^th Missouri districts, respectively, in rejecting the act. 

Representative Akin has not explicitly stated that he wants to abolish minimum wage, but he has voted against raising it in multiple measures, indicating his opposition to the federal minimum wage.

MO College Republican Debates in April, Akin is on the left

3) There is no denying that Todd Akin is not a fan of the Department of Education. He has actually advocated its dissolution. During the Missouri College Republican Senate Candidate Debate in April of this year, Akin was quoted (truthfully) as saying "we have the stage 3 of socialism in this country", on the subject of student loans. He has the cure for this cancer too, he said in an interview in Sedalia, MO: Get the Government out of loans, and make it a private issue. He wants banks and financial institutions to be competitive in the market of student loans instead of having the government involved.

So, Claire McCaskill had a great batting average here, getting both social security and student loans 100% right. There is a little wiggle room with how truthful she is about Todd Akin's stance on minimum wage, but we don't see her as being so far off base that we got to smack her down for it. So with the tiniest grain of salt, you can take this ad to be 100% truthful.

Welcome to MO Truth, MO Lies

Welcome! 

Welcome to a brand new fact-checking blog focused on the events of the Missouri 2012 US Senate race!

We are Billy and Lizzie, students at Truman State University studying communication. As a part of our political communication class, we are writing this nonpartisan blog to inform voters so that they can make an educated decision this November in the election.

Our intention is to update twice a week on advertisements that Senator Claire McCaskill and Representative Todd Akin use in their attempt to win the Missouri US Senate seat, and how accurate and truthful these medias during the campaign. Be sure to not only follow this blog, but check out our Facebook page and Twitter account.

An example of what we will be doing throughout the semester:

 In June 2011, conservative group CrossroadsGPS released a series of ads focused on attacking President Obama, 5 U.S. Democratic Senators and 10 representatives about high government spending, and general economic concerns.

After analyzing the ad, there are a couple of things to point out that are misleading towards viewers.

1)  The ads accuse lawmakers for "billions in new taxes." But that ignores the many tax cuts that the Senators supported, including $326.4 billion in net tax savings in the 2009 stimulus legislation and $857.8 billion in last year's tax deal that extended the Bush tax cuts and reduced payroll taxes.

2)  The ads also refer to the economic stimulus as a failure, with the national ad attacking the President says that the Obama promised the "stimulus would create more jobs" but "more people are out of work." According to the Bureau of LaborStatistics, there was more unemployment after the stimulus had been passed, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the rate would be higher yet if not for the stimulus, which did create jobs.

In the end, this ad was a half-truth. It is true that she voted for new taxes, as well as voting for the Obama economic stimulus. But, Sen. McCaskill also supported numerous tax cuts. While it is true that unemployment did not drop after the stimulus, the CBO did report that unemployment would have been much worse without the passing up the stimulus.

Be sure to check our updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays for more fun facts about this year's Senate race!

Lizzie & Billy