Fact Check: Romney Ad Attacks Obama on Stimulus Spending - 8 News NOW

Claim: An advertisement endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that is airing on KLAS-TV Channel 8 states: "Where did all the Obama stimulus money go? Friends, donors, campaign supporters, special interest groups. Where did the Obama stimulus money go? Solyndra, 500 million taxpayer dollars. Bankrupt. So where did the Obama stimulus money go? Windmills from China, electric cars from Finland."

Verdict: Partially true but mostly false. The biggest problem with the ad is the flawed argument that the economic stimulus package pushed by congressional Democrats and signed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama simply lined the pockets of Democrat Obama's supporters. Of the $840 billion set aside, $763 billion has been spent. The spending has included nearly $136 billion for individual tax credits, including those for first-time homebuyers and for education benefits, $104.6 billion in separate tax credits for working Americans, $90.5 billion for education and $35 billion for transportation. Since the donors and special interest groups aren't named in the ad, it's impossible to prove that even a small portion of stimulus money went to any of them. As for Solyndra, the failed solar panel manufacturer from Fremont, Calif., was initially invited under the administration of President George W. Bush to apply for a government-guaranteed loan. The Obama administration approved the $535 million loan in 2009, leaving taxpayers on the hook. The Washington Times reported in 2010 that a portion of the stimulus package went toward manufacturing tax credits for foreign companies involved in green energy. The newspaper reported that those companies employed workers in places such as China, South Korea and Spain, and quoted a University of Maryland professor as complaining that the tax credits for windmills and solar panels created lots of jobs in China but few in the U.S. But no stimulus money went to Fisker Automotive of Finland. Fisker did land a U.S. government loan under the Obama administration but it was from an Energy Department program that was launched by the Bush administration.