Senate Candidate Tries to Pull a Fast One on Michigan Voters

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has kept a close eye on elected officials at every level all across the nation since 1986. We\’ve gratefully applauded valiant efforts to defend citizens from the ravages of taxation and wasteful spending.  We\’ve also never hesitated to condemn all myopic endeavors to allegedly "improve" the lives of people through brutal tax increases and outrageous government largesse. But every once in a while, we\’re completely taken aback by an officeholder\’s words and deeds. Case in point: Debbie Stabenow.
Rep. Stabenow, who hopes to become Senator Stabenow, is offering a host of tax credits for small businesses, as well as individuals with certain educational, childcare, and health care expenses. Furthermore, she wants to eradicate the infamous and inimitably unfair marriage penalty. All well and good-but a noticeable departure from her lengthy and consistently pro-tax, anti-taxpayer voting record.
"Watching Debbie Stabenow talk about cutting taxes is like watching one of your vegetarian friends eating a bacon cheeseburger," chuckled Damon Ansell, Vice President of Policy at ATR."It confounds any seasoned Stabenow observer who has seen her try to push taxes through the stratosphere in the Michigan Legislature and the US Congress."
Stabenow has a long history of opposing tax relief for individuals, couples, and businesses small, medium, and large. For instance:
  • As a Member of the Michigan Legislature, she supported a 38% hike in the personal income tax in 1983.
  • And a jaw-dropping 50% hike in the income tax in 1993-a far cry from the tax credits she now advocates.
  • And her modus operandi didn\’t change when she came to DC. As a Member of the US House of Representatives, Stabenow voted against proposals that would have lifted the patently unfair burden of the marriage penalty three times. Now she favors eliminating the very same tax she voted to preserve not once, nor twice, but thrice.
Candidates often have "a change of heart" on the issue of taxation, however Debbie Stabenow claims to have had a transplant, but we don\’t believe her.