AdWatch: Claims About Ose's Increased Wealth Misleading

An an ad piad for by Democratic Congressman Ami Bera claims Bera's challenger, former Republican Congressman Doug Ose, voted for Wall Street tax breaks and increased his own fortune whil in office.

"Doug Ose voted for tax breaks for Wall Street, where he invested millions. Now Ose wants to privatize Social Security, risking our life savings," the ad says. "And while Doug Ose was in Congress he made up to $100 million, 100 million."

We asked our panel of experts at Sacramento State to fact-check the ad. Journalism Professor Molly Dugan says it’s true Ose’s wealth increased while he was in office, but says it wasn’t related.

"Doug Ose had substantial stock market investments during a period of unprecedented growth in the stock market," she says. "So he did make a lot of money in the stock market at that time, but it had nothing to do with his work in Congress."

But Government Professor Danielle Joesten says the claims related to tax breaks are somewhat true.

"I don’t think there were any specific votes that would directly give tax breaks to Wall Street or banking for example," she says. "But he does have a few votes on record where he does deregulate some banks, which are potentially beneficial to banks and to Wall Street."

Joesten says in 2001, Ose voted for a bill with a provision that would have allowed people to put some of their social security contributions into private accounts. But it would not have privatized the entire system.