Tag: Rep. Paulsen

Phillips Calls for New “Truth in Political Advertising” Effort, Challenges False Ads

Phillips offers mechanism to protect voters in similar way to how we protect consumers

Excelsior, MN – Congressman Erik Paulsen and the special interest groups supporting his campaign are spending at least $8 million on a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting voters in Minnesota’s 3rd District. Paulsen for Congress, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) have all been called out by local news organizations for spreading false and misleading claims. Today, Politifact confirmed that the ads are distorted, out of context, and mostly false. Still, Paulsen for Congress, NRCC and CLF continue to fill the airwaves with little regard for the truth.

In response, Dean Phillips’s campaign for Congress today formally challenged the false NRCC and CLF ads, issued a letter to Congressman Paulsen correcting his false claims so that he can correct his ads accordingly, and offered a new idea to protect voters from the kind of lies and political distortions that are pervasive on the airwaves right now.

Because the Supreme Court has determined that First Amendment protections of free speech extend to political speech regardless of whether it is true or not, Phillips announced his proposal to establish a national Truth in Political Advertising program whereby political campaigns could voluntarily submit advertisements to an independent, nonpartisan fact-checking organization for verification of claims made. If verified, the advertisement would receive a Truth in Political Advertising Seal of Approval, which could be displayed in the ad. Continue reading “Phillips Calls for New “Truth in Political Advertising” Effort, Challenges False Ads”

Big Pharma has hand in election

Erik Paulsen has repeatedly maintained, “I do what’s right for my constituents regardless of who donates to me.”

And, receive donations, he does: Paulsen ranks sixth of 435 U.S. representatives for the amount of money he receives from PACs: over $2 million. Is it really possible that Paulsen is unaffected by this money?

As a nurse practitioner who prescribes drugs, Minnesota law prohibits me from taking more than $50 annually from any pharmaceutical or other such company. Why? Because research consistently shows that I would likely be influenced by any gift provided me. A 2017 study found that professionals who received gifts from pharmaceutical companies not only prescribe more drugs, but more costly ones, compared to those who did not receive gifts. A big difference in my case: Any company who might gift me with a meal, an education credit, a book a pen or other, is not able to track if I am actually prescribing the drug they are promoting. Continue reading “Big Pharma has hand in election”

Erik Paulsen Doubles Down on False Claims in MPR Debate

Paulsen repeats already-debunked lies and comes up with new ones, too

EXCELSIOR, MN – Throughout the course of today’s Third District Congressional debate between businessman Dean Phillips and Congressman Erik Paulsen, Paulsen doubled-down on claims that are verifiably false, repeatedly standing by the negativity and dishonest attacks that have defined his campaign – and even adding new false claims to the mix.

Phillips, by contrast, offered voters a new way forward, pointing to his more than 65,000 individual contributors, 1,500 volunteers and supporters from across the political spectrum, all working together to end the culture of corruption in Washington and restore decency and truth to our political discourse.

Here are just some of the falsehoods uttered by Erik Paulsen in the hour-long debate:

Q. What difference does it make whether or not Phillips provided healthcare to his employees?

PAULSEN: “It’s an area where Dean has been a hypocrite. It’s been fact-checked by WCCO and Kare 11. He said healthcare is a moral right but didn’t provide it. It was a lie. That was fact checked. We’re pointing that out.”

THE TRUTH: KARE11 and WCCO did fact-check Paulsen’s claims that Phillips doesn’t provide healthcare to his full-time employees. And both networks said those claims were FALSE.

Continue reading “Erik Paulsen Doubles Down on False Claims in MPR Debate”

Ironically, Paulsen Lies About Fact Checks During Debate

WCCO TV and KARE 11 both called Paulsen claims on healthcare FALSE

Credit: Pedro J. Perez via Morguefile.com

Excelsior, MN – In the third debate of the campaign for Congress in Minnesota’s third district, Congressman Erik Paulsen continued to promote claims called false and misleading by local independent fact checkers, saying instead that those fact checks backed up his claims.

Here’s the truth:

KARE 11 News fact checked the Paulsen claim and declared “Attacks on Phillips Fail Truth Test.”

WCCO TV noted that Congressman Paulsen’s campaign took their own assessment out of context in an effort to mislead voters. Pat Kessler: “Paulsen is trying to make it seem like Phillips doesn’t give his workers healthcare. That’s FALSE.”

WCCO TV included the following facts to clear up Congressman Paulsen’s lie:

 

“Here are the facts about Dean Phillips:

Continue reading “Ironically, Paulsen Lies About Fact Checks During Debate”

Erik Paulsen voted to keep Trump’s tax returns a secret

Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen is paddling toward reclaiming his seat as quickly as he can, in part by promising to “stand up to” his party “and President [Donald] Trump” if push comes to shove.

Well, last month, he had his chance. He did not take it.

At issue were Trump’s tax returns, which have remained secret and are now back in the limelight. After 18 months of trawling through the Trump family’s financial dirty laundry, The New York Times published a scathing report accusing the sitting president of “dubious tax schemes” and “outright fraud,” helping his parents sidestep taxes, and undervaluing that money so he could siphon as much as possible to himself and his siblings.

A Trump lawyer has called these allegations “100 percent false.” Trump himself described the story as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

View the complete October 5 article by Hannah Jones on the CityPages website here.

Messages are dividing the country

The upcoming election is again subjecting voters to inflammatory and deceptive advertisements by candidates and special interest to artificial divide our country.

Recognizing that these divisive advertisements have some success in creating harmful divisions, I have faith we can still agree on something: Congress isn’t working as confirmed by Gallup Inc.’s 40 years of polling America’s approval of Congress. Since 2010 approval of Congress has hovered between 10 percent and 20 percent. The institution is broken. Why?

Listening to eulogies for Sen. John McCain, I was struck by one speaker’s words of the senator: “He did understand that some principals transcend politics, that some values transcend party. … he understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work.” Continue reading “Messages are dividing the country”

Voters consistently rank health care as their top political concern. What does that mean for Minnesota’s House races?

Ask any candidate for Congress in Minnesota this year about health care, and they’re almost certain to tell you it’s one of the most important issues in their districts — if not the single most important issue.

Opinion polling backs that up: a recent CBS News poll found that 70 percent of Americans think health care is a very important issue, a larger share than any other top issue. A similar conclusion has been reached by plenty of other polls conducted over the last few months, which also find that health care is foremost in voters’ minds, even above the economy and headline-grabbing topics like immigration.

Just because seemingly everyone agrees health care should be a top focus, though, doesn’t mean they agree on what parts of the issue to focus on: for the most part, Democratic and Republican candidates are telling voters very different stories when it comes to the politics of health care.

View the complete September 28 article by Sam Brodey on the MinnPost website here.

The Grand Old Puppet Party

If you’re looking for something to take your mind off all those mudslinging attack commercials Erik Paulsen and his PACs are running, check out this site for a musical look at Rep. Paulsen and GOP’s voting record::

The Grand Old Puppet Party

 

These representatives voted to keep Trump’s sketchy tax practices hidden from the public

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and is one of the representatives who voted to keep Trump’s taxes private — more than once.

21 House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee blocked disclosure of Donald Trump’s tax returns last month.

The New York Times published a lengthy investigative report on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump of participating in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.” Despite his many 2016 campaign promises to eventually release his tax returns, he refuses to do so, and the public is still in the dark about his personal finances. Now, thanks to a vote last month by the 21 Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, those tax returns are unlikely to come to light in the foreseeable future. Those Republicans voted to keep the president’s tax returns hidden.

Relying on a “vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records,” the Times determined that Trump “helped his parents dodge taxes,” established with his siblings a “sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents,” assisted their father in taking “improper tax deductions worth millions more,” and formulated a “strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”

A Trump lawyer claimed these “allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” but the president didn’t deny them. In a tweet, he repeated his standard and false claim that the paper is “failing” and described their story as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

View the complete October 3 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.