During the Oct. 9 Republican debate, moderator Chris Matthews unleashed a mini-brawl between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani over their respective fiscal records. Both men spewed statistics that sometimes seemed to contradict each other. We find that each man was cherry-picking his numbers, sometimes in misleading ways.
Issues: Taxes
Giuliani’s Tax Puffery
A new radio ad boasts that Rudy Giuliani “cut or eliminated 23 taxes” while mayor of New York City. We find that to be an overstatement.
More Mitt Missteps
Mitt Romney has been boasting of accomplishments as governor, while also outlining foreign policy proposals. But Romney sometimes alters the past, exaggerates his record and traffics in ambiguous language.
Supply-side Spin
John McCain has said that the major tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 have “increased revenues.” He also said that tax cuts in general increase revenues. That’s highly misleading.
Unspinning the FairTax
Summary
In our recent article on the second GOP debate, we called out Gov. Mike Huckabee as well as Reps. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter for their support of the FairTax. We wrote that the bipartisan Advisory Panel on Tax Reform had “calculated that a sales tax would have to be set at 34 percent of retail sales prices to bring in the same revenue as the taxes it would replace, meaning that an automobile with a retail price of $10,000 would cost $13,400 including the new sales tax.”
Counter-rotating Tax Spin
Summary
The Democrats’ proposed 2008 budget is being spun by both sides. Democrats claim it will not raise taxes by even a penny, while Republicans say it will impose the largest or second-largest tax increase in history.
Obviously, the budget can’t be the largest tax increase in history and zero tax increase simultaneously. So which is it? The answer depends on a couple of questions: What constitutes an increase? And an increase compared with what?
GOP Candidates Debate, Round 2
Summary
Claims, facts and figures flew at the second GOP presidential debate of 2008. Not all were true. For example:
Mitt Romney claimed he didn’t raise taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts, failing to note that he increased government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars and shifted some of the state tax burden to the local level.
Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado claimed scientific reports on whether humans are responsible for global warming are split 50-50,
Taxing Times in Ohio Battleground
The National Republican Congressional Committee is going after Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy for violating a “no new taxes stand” that – in fact –she never took.
Volleys of Tax Votes: A September Blizzard in Ohio
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) accuses GOP incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Sherrod Brown, of voting for higher taxes – over 35 times, according to a TV ad. Brown, in a response ad, defends himself, saying he “voted to cut taxes for the middle class 33 times,” and charges DeWine with voting for “the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy,” for “taxes on Social Security,” and with wanting to put Social Security into “risky stock market investments.”
Fake News, Nebraska Style
In his most recent ad, we find that Republican Senate candidate Pete Ricketts inaccurately uses citations from news reports to draw his own, more incendiary conclusions.