Las Vegas Review-Journal - The Political Eye

An ad the campaign of Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., made to attack Republican challenger Joe Heck uses an attack similar to one that's been called false by a non-partisan political watchdog and truncates a quote in a way that changes its meaning.

The ad starts with a clip from a Heck appearance on the the television show Nevada Newsmakers that shows him stating: "The role of Congress is not to create jobs."

The clip stops and a narrator says, "Sen. Heck doesn't get it," a reference to Heck's title as a former state senator.

However, a full viewing of the episode where Titus got the clip shows Heck was actually discussing ways he thinks Congress can contribute to the creation of new jobs.

The full quote, most of which is omitted from the ad, says: "The role of Congress is not to create jobs, it is to set the conditions under which the private sector creates jobs. And you do that through a stable, fair, predictable tax base, you do that by not pursuing onerous regulations on small, medium and large businesses. And that is where we need to get back to, that limited government that sets the conditions for the private sector to thrive."

(See show here, Heck quote starts around 12:30 mark)

The ad also says, "Heck signed a pledge to protect tax loopholes giant corporations use to ship our jobs overseas," and cites Heck's signature on a pledge from Americans for Tax Reform.

Such an attack was used against a Republican congressional candidate in Hawaii who signed the same pledge.

The non-partisan website www.FactCheck.org, called the Hawaii version a "false tax attack."

That's because the pledge in question relates to a broad promise to maintain tax rates at or below current levels, it says nothing about specific tax breaks or credits. Nor does it say anything about jobs or accommodating the outsourcing of jobs overseas.

"To claim that this 'protects' any particular provision of the tax code is simply untrue," the website stated.

It isn't the first factually-challenged attack on Heck. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has spent about $700,000 on ads that recycle a dubious claim that says in the legislature Heck voted against a vaccine for cervical cancer and that he wants to privatize Social Security.

In reality Heck voted against a mandate requiring health insurance providers to cover a specific brand of vaccine against HPV, which can be a precursor to cervical cancer. And his Social Security plan involves a proposal to allow new enrollees to choose how their money is invested, while keeping employer contributions in the current system. The new enrollees could also keep their money in the current system if they wished.

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Ad against Heck