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.