Indiana voters should expect Rep. Baron Hill and his allies to ramp up their desperate attacks on Todd Young and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge as Election Day looms near. It appears that Hill will do whatever it takes to smear Todd Young and the Pledge, all-the-while distracting Indiana voters from his dismal record on job growth and the economy. By signing the Pledge, Young has promised to voters that he will never raise income taxes on individuals and/or businesses. Hill’s misleading attacks are merely a ploy to confuse voters in a desperate attempt to hold on to his congressional seat.
The attacks claim that Young, by signing the Pledge, intends to “protect companies that ship jobs overseas.” Unfortunately for Hill, his dishonest claims have been refuted by a number of news sources and even the non-partisan voter advocate, FactCheck.org called the claims against the Pledge “blatantly false.” John Ralston, host of the Nevada television program Face to Face, said similar claims made in Nevada were “thoroughly misleading.” To cut through the false claims and dishonest statements being made, voters should ask Rep. Hill why he thinks tax hikes create jobs. Even the Associated Press has weighed in, again exposing the Democrats’ claims as false.
Voters should also demand to know why Rep. Hill left Washington before putting a stop to one of the largest tax hikes in history.
Baron Hill Campaign Caught Telling Lies about the “No New Taxes” Pledge
Hill campaign desperate to distort Young’s “no new taxes” promise
WASHINGTON, DC—The Baron Hill Campaign recently launched a new line of attack on Todd Young 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 Hill 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, Young has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Indiana- something Baron Hill 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.”
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 “totally misleading.” King 5 TV in Washington called the accusations against the Pledge and senate candidate Dino Rossi a “stretch.”
“Why is Baron Hill going out of his way to shamelessly distort Todd Young’s position on taxes? The Pledge signed by Young is a promise to constituents and businesses to never raise taxes. Hill has yet to make the same promise and should explain to voters how tax hikes revive a struggling economy and promote job growth in Indiana,” said ATR President Grover Norquist.
“Todd Young has committed to never raising taxes on his constituents while his Democrat opponent has left the door for tax hikes wide open,” continued Norquist.
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