The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) bought a whole bunch of air time to play the above ad on local TV. Unfortunately, they’re actually attacking Glenn Nye in the ad too.
The National Republican Campaign Committee picks apart the video and shows how it actually attacks the incumbent too:
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Among the charges: Rigell supports “tax cuts for millionaires.”
“Rigell still supports the same policies that help millionaires like him and hurt the rest of us…tax cuts for millionaires.” (DCCC TV ad, 9/21/10)
Cited is a May 23 Virginian-Pilot article in which Rigell expresses support for extending the GOP tax cuts of 2001 and 2003:
“Rigell…favors making permanent the Bush administration tax cuts on larger incomes, inheritances and businesses that expire at the end of this year.” (Bill Bartel, “GOP primary to pick from six eager to vie with Nye,” Virginian-Pilot, 5/23/10)
What the ad doesn’t say is that when it comes to extending the tax cuts, Nye’s position is the exact same as Rigell’s:
“Then the moderator asked about the soon-to-expire tax cuts put in place by President George W. Bush. The tax breaks went a long way toward relieving the burden on the wealthy, and Democrats are toying with the idea of extending them to middle-income Americans, but allowing the cuts for the rich to expire. Nye said he favors extending all the tax cuts. ‘Now is not the right time to raise taxes on anybody,’ he said.” (Kimball Payne, “Nye is avoiding the ‘D’ word,” Daily Press, 8/21/10)
But that’s not the only thing Nye’s Washington allies got wrong. The ad also claims Rigell supports “tax breaks for companies sending jobs overseas.”
“Rigell still supports the same policies that help millionaires like him and hurt the rest of us. Tax breaks for companies sending jobs overseas.” (DCCC TV ad, 9/21/10)
The problem? FactCheck.org has already labeled “false” an identical claim the DCCC made against a GOP candidate in Hawaii earlier this year:
“A new Democratic attack ad accuses a Republican House candidate in Hawaii of signing a pledge protecting tax breaks for sending jobs overseas. It could be a prototype of future attack ads against any number of other Republican House members and candidates, most of whom have signed the anti-tax pledge in question. But we find the ad to be false. The pledge only protects corporations from an increase in taxation overall. It explicitly allows elimination of any specific tax deduction or credit if matched dollar-for-dollar by an overall cut in rates. And it says nothing about jobs.” (Brooks Jackson, “A false tax attack,” FactCheck.org, 4/9/10)
Further, it was Nye’s vote for the stimulus that helped foreign companies score tax breaks for creating jobs in China, South Korea and Spain:
“About $92 billion – more than 11 percent – of Mr. Obama’s original $814 billion of stimulus funds were targeted for renewable energy projects when the measure was pushed through Congress in early 2009…The Department of Energy estimated that 82,000 jobs have been created and has acknowledged that as much as 80 percent of some green programs, including $2.3 billion of manufacturing tax credits, went to foreign firms that employed workers primarily in countries including China, South Korea and Spain, rather than in the United States.” (Patrice Hill, “‘Green’ jobs no longer golden in stimulus,” Washington Times, 9/9/10)
Finally, the ad attacks Rigell for supporting “giveaways that put Wall Street before main street Virginia.”
“Rigell still supports the same policies that help millionaires like him and hurt the rest of us…giveaways that put Wall Street before main street Virginia.” (DCCC TV ad, 9/21/10)
The DCCC again cites the May 23 Virginian-Pilot article, in which Rigell expresses his support for cuts to the capital gains tax…
“Rigell supports deep cuts in the tax on capital gains…” (Bill Bartel, “GOP primary to pick from six eager to vie with Nye,” Virginian-Pilot, 5/23/10)
…As well as a liberal think tank’s policy paper alleging that the 2003 reduction in the capital gains tax disproportionately helps Wall Street.
Oops. Nye co-sponsored H.R. 498 last year, which makes permanent the very capital gains tax cuts attacked in the ad:
“The following summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress…Capital Gains and Estate Tax Relief Act of 2009 – Makes permanent the reduction in capital gains tax rates (from 20 to 15%) enacted by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003.” (Congressional Research Service, H.R. 498 [111th Congress] summary)
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It’s going to be a long fall for the DCCC if in order to attack Scott Rigell, they’re also attacking their own candidate.
