Bush Inventing Numbers to Distort Kerry's Tax Record

BUSH FICTION: John Kerry has voted to raise taxes 350 times.

FACT: FactCheck.org looked into the "350" claim and said this: "The President misled voters and reporters in a March 20 speech when he claimed that Kerry “voted over 350 times for higher taxes on the American people” during his 20-year Senate career."

"Kerry has not voted 350 times for tax increases, something Bush campaign officials have falsely accused Kerry of on several occasions. On close examination, the Bush campaign’s list of Kerry’s votes for “higher taxes” is padded. It includes votes Kerry cast to leave taxes unchanged (when Republicans proposed cuts), and even votes in favor of alternative Democratic tax cuts that Bush aides characterized as “watered down.” [Emphasis added]

The "350" claim is part of a pattern of deceptive statistics used by the Bush team to paint John Kerry as a tax-raiser. It's a transparent tactic: make a false or misleading allegation and force your opponent to spend time and resources rebutting it.

This is not the first time that Republicans have used phony tax numbers to attack Democrats. Time and again, their numbers have been rejected by independent analyses:

Arkansas: “Throw that out”
Republicans accused Sen. Mark Pryor of voting for higher taxes a dozen times. In fact, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that “[Pryor Campaign manager] said the [Arkansas] House unanimously passed six of the 12 tax increases cited in supporting material issued late Friday by the GOP, meaning "all the Republicans voted for them, too, so throw that out." [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 5/12/02]

Georgia: Republican ad flunked truth test
Republicans accused Sen. Max Cleland of voting “in favor of higher taxes 116 times.” WMAZ TV analyzed the ad and said: “After seeing the ad, we asked the Republican party to back up its accusations,” reported Savage. “We got this, five and a half pages listing Cleland’s congressional votes. But it doesn’t say what any of the votes were for…At best, the facts we found just don’t support the charges against Cleland in the ad, so this ad FLUNKS the truth test.” [WMAZ-13 9/19/2002]

Louisiana: “Voters might be a little annoyed” by false ads
Republicans accused Sen. Mary Landrieu of voting “in favor of higher taxes over 120 times.” When a nearly identical ad ran in Louisiana against Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Shreveport Times wrote, “Before accepting this alleged voting record as fact, voters ought to ask where these numbers came from - said voters might be a little annoyed to discover just how gullible the ad generators believe state citizens to be.” After finally obtaining the list of the 128 votes, WWL-TV in New Orleans found that 119 of the votes were either votes for lower taxes or procedural votes.

Oregon: Republican ads “Tried to mislead you”
In Oregon, Republicans accused Secretary of State Bill Bradbury of voting “in favor of sales tax legislation 8 times. And as Senate President, Bradbury pushed for the “biggest tax increase in Oregon history.” [NRSC TV Ad, 4/13/02] An NBC political analyst said the ad “stretches (the truth) almost to the point of tearing it … there’s a lot that (the ad) doesn’t tell you and it tries to mislead you,” and “in fact, 5 of those votes happened before Bradbury was even born.” [KGW News (NBC); 6:00 p.m., 4/16/02]

South Dakota: They even attacked a Senator who supported Bush on taxes
In South Dakota Republicans said that “Tim Johnson voted 141 times for higher taxes.” [NRSC TV ad in South Dakota, 7/19/02] In fact, Tim Johnson voted WITH President Bush on his 2001 tax cut.




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