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Attack Ad on Obamacare Misleading

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A TV commercial running in the Tampa Bay area on the Congressional special election campaign for David Jolly, the Republican, tries to wound Democrat Alex Sink by saying she supports "Obamacare" and mentions several negative things about the health law.

Trouble is, as PolitiFact reports, the claims made in the ad are either misleading or wholly out of context. Of three claims made in the ad, two were ruled only "half true" and the other "mostly false."

The one ruled mostly false comes from the Congressional Budget Office report that forecast a slight shrinking in the workforce over time, as "job lock" disappears and workers in jobs they hate can leave to start their own business, take care of a family member or retire. The claim in the ad was that the health law was costing the economy "up to 2.5 million jobs," but the CBO report doesn't say that at all.

The two claims ruled half true were: "Three hundred thousand Floridians will lose their current health plans," and "$700 billion cut from Medicare for seniors. To see why those were ruled half true, go to PolitiFact.com.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.