ATR Comes Back Swinging at Dina “Tax-Us”

(Adam Radman) – It appears that Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to campaigning against the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Yesterday, the Dina Titus for Congress campaign attacked Joe Heck for signing the “no new taxes” Pledge with deliberately misleading information. The Pledge is used as a tool to protect against tax increases and to promote revenue-neutral tax reform. The lower taxes supported by the Pledge protect jobs. Tax increases don’t give anyone, anywhere a job.

It began with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee running ads in HI-01. Then the Mark Schauer campaign tried to malign the Pledge in MI-07 and the Democrat Party of WI took aim at the Pledge in WI-07. Now Dina “Taxus” Titus is misleading voters in NV-03 about the Pledge. It’s becoming something of a bad habit for liberals.

FactCheck.org’s Director Brooks Jackson wrote the following about Democrats’ attempt to distort the intention of the Pledge:

We find the ad to be false. The pledge only protects corporations from an increase in taxation overall. It explicitly allows elimination of any specific tax deduction or credit if matched dollar-for-dollar by an overall cut in rates. And it says nothing about jobs…This attack ad is false.

The Citizen-Patriot Journal in Michigan also deemed the attacks by Democrats on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to be “not true.”

Here’s ATR’s official statement on Titus’ attempts to mislead voters on the meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

Titus Campaign Launches “Blatantly False” Attack Ad on Joe Heck
Democrats try to distort Heck’s “no new taxes” promise

WASHINGTON, DC–The Dina Titus for Congress campaign recently issued a deliberately false attack ad on Republican Joe Heck for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Their claims mirror the misleading charges made by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) earlier in the year – claims that the non-partisan FactCheck.org agrees are “blatantly false.”

The “No New Taxes” Pledge commits a signer to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.” By making this promise, Heck has taken tax hikes off the table — something Dina Titus has not done.

This is not the first time Democrats have tried to misrepresent the meaning of the Pledge. During the special election in HI-01, the DCCC ran misleading attack ads against the Pledge. FactCheck.org, a non-partisan “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, responded by condemning the DCCC and agreeing that the ads were “blatantly false.”

Two weeks ago in Michigan, Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) made similarly incorrect claims about Tim Walberg and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The Jackson Citizen-Patriot, a Jackson, MI newspaper, deemed Schauer’s claims “not true.”

“Democrats are desperate to take voters’ eyes off of their dismal performance as stewards of our economy. That’s why they continue to roll out this disturbingly false claim about candidates and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Quite simply, there has been no improvement in the economy or in job growth since Democrats took over. They have nothing to show for themselves in the run up to November,” said ATR President Grover Norquist.

The idea behind the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is to protect against tax increases and to promote revenue-neutral tax reform. This is a concept that Democrats fail to understand as they continue to betray voters trust on the issue of taxes.

“Joe Heck has committed to never raising taxes on his constituents while liberal Dina Titus has left the door for tax hikes wide open,” continued Norquist.