26-year incumbent lies about Social Security – again

Hazleton, PA – Paul Kanjorski is lying about Lou Barletta and Social Security again – despite being caught doing so by an independent fact-checking organization two years ago.

Kanjorski’s latest negative ad makes several false claims about Lou Barletta and Social Security – claims that were long debunked as being false.

During the 2008 campaign, Kanjorski and his Washington, D.C., attack dogs made “privatization” claims against Lou Barletta that FactCheck.org (the nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters operated by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania) called “simply false” and “a whopper.” (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/more_social_security_bunk.html)

In its report, FactCheck.org wrote, “One Republican is being attacked for a position he never held. Republican challenger Lou Barletta, running against Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski in Pennsylvania’s 11th district is accused in a DCCC ad of proposing to put retirement funds at risk in the stock market, which is simply false.” The debunking of the ad continued, “The ad brings in a photo of President Bush and says ‘they’ wanted to ‘privatize’ Social Security, as though Barletta had endorsed Bush’s proposal.

“[T]he record is clear that Barletta didn’t do what this ad claims,” FactCheck.org concluded.

This year and in 2008, Lou Barletta clearly stated he is against privatizing Social Security. (For example, watch this video from 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqST_xQLC90)

“Kanjorski is getting so desperate to cling to power that he will recycle a debunked lie about Lou Barletta from two years ago. We’ve known for a long time that we can’t trust anything that Kanjorski says. Just last week, he lied to groups of senior citizens about his vote to cut $500 billion from Medicare. As FactCheck.org said, Kanjorski’s ad is simply false and a whopper of a lie,” said Shawn Kelly, spokesman for Lou Barletta’s campaign. “Kanjorski can’t stand on his own record of raiding more than $4 trillion from the Social Security trust fund, so he’s making another false attack against Lou Barletta. Every two years, Kanjorski lies to voters, whether it’s about mystery employers, fantasy projects, or the fake threats to Social Security, Medicare, the VA Medical Center, or the Tobyhanna Army Depot. Kanjorski does it to scare voters. Shame on him for lying to his own constituents, especially our senior citizens who rely on Social Security and Medicare.”