Think Progess has a post up today on a recent townhall event held by Congressman Dan Lungren and what they think is a scathing indictment from a hostile audience member - click here for the post.

As it would happen, what the folks at Think Progress find to be so damning is nothing more than an incorrect assumption, if not outright lie. During question time at the town hall, the aforementioned audience member incorrectly portrays the Pledge as a promise to Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. The spending interests on the Left repeatedly try to misinform the public with this tired and patently false claim. ATR noted the following earlier this year when similar lies were lobbed at Republican state legislators in California:

Critics wrongly contend that California legislators who signed the Pledge have vowed allegiance to some single person or organization. A quick read of the simple language of the Pledge proves such allegations to be false.

The same goes for Congressman Lungren; Taxpayer Protection Pledge that he signed is to his constituents. A pledge to one person or organization would be just plain silly and meaningless. Our previous response to such allegations at the state-level goes on to explain that the problem with such baseless attacks that we frequently see from opponents of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, like our friends at Think Progress, is due to an error in the way that, well, they think.

In fact, those who deride Pledge signers have a chicken-and-egg problem. Pledge signers are not opposed to raising taxes or referring higher taxes to the ballot simply because they signed the Pledge; the fact is that they signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge because they recognize that imposing more job-killing tax increases in one of the most onerously taxed jurisdictions on the planet is not a solution to California’s overspending problem.

Posted by Patrick Gleason on Monday, August 29, 2011 6:24 PM EDT

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