The recent attacks by Rep. Phil Hare’s campaign against Bobby Schilling and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge lack credibility. Democrats like Rep. Hare have made these false and misleading claims over and over again across the country. A number of news sources have reviewed the charges and discredited them. Starting in April, FactCheck.org’s Brook Jackson condemned the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for making similar claims calling the attacks “blatantly false.” Jon Ralston, during his television show Face to Face, called similar claims against the Pledge in NV-03 “thoroughly misleading.” Even the DSCC and Democrat Senate candidates have attempted to distort the meaning of the Pledge. Democrat Sen. Patty Murray’s attempts were called “a stretch” by King 5 TV in Washington State.

Rep. Phil Hare has attempted to distract voters from the important issues this election cycle: jobs and economic growth. Voters should demand to know from Rep. Hare just how tax hikes on individuals and/or businesses create jobs. In fact, voters should also ask him why he left Washington before putting a stop to one of the largest tax hikes in U.S. History. By taking the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Schilling has made a clear pledge to the taxpayers in IL-17 that he will oppose and vote against any and all tax increases on working families and employers

To read ATR’s official statement on Rep. Hare’s misleading attacks, click “read more.”

Phil Hare Campaign Caught Telling Lies about the “No New Taxes” Pledge
Hare campaign desperate to distort Schilling’s “no new taxes” promise

WASHINGTON, DC—The Phil Hare Campaign recently launched a new line of attack on Bobby Schilling by attempting to mislead voters about the actual meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The goal of the Pledge is to protect taxpayers and businesses from tax increases. The Hare campaign’s charges follow the patently false claims 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, Schilling has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Illinois- something Phil Hare 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 condemningthe DCCC and agreeing that the ads were “blatantly false.”

Similar claims about the Pledge were made recently in Michigan, Nevada, and Washington. In Michigan, the Jackson Citizen-Patriot, a Jackson, Michigan newspaper, deemed Rep. Mark Schauer’s claims about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and Tim Walberg to be “not true.”  In Nevada, Jon Ralston of Face to Face “reality checked” the Dina Titus campaign ad and found the claims made against the “no new taxes” Pledge to be “thoroughly misleading.”King 5 TV in Washington called the accusations against the Pledge and senate candidate Dino Rossi to be a “stretch.”

“Why is Phil Hare going out of his way to shamelessly distort Bobby Schilling’s position on taxes? The Pledge signed by Schilling is a promise to constituents and businesses to never raise taxes. Hare has yet to make the same promise and should explain to voters how tax hikes revive a struggling economy and promote job growth in Illinois,” said ATR President Grover Norquist.

“Bobby Schilling has committed to never raising taxes on his constituents while his Democrat opponent has left the door for tax hikes wide open,” continued Norquist.

Click here for a printable pdf of the release

Posted by Adam Radman on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 9:00 AM EDT

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