Tall Tax Tales

In the Nevada Senate race, Angle makes the inflated claim that Reid raised taxes 300 times.

October 22, 2010
FactCheck.org
Summary

Republican Sharron Angle says in a TV ad that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid "voted to raise taxes" 300 times. A "staggering 300 times." He didn’t.

We reviewed the 304 votes provided by the Angle campaign and found its final tally was padded:

• 86 votes were against proposed tax cuts, not votes to raise taxes. That includes a few votes to cut taxes — just not as much as the Republicans wanted or the kind of taxes that the Republicans were seeking to cut.
• 153 votes were on concurrent budget resolutions, which are votes on non-binding resolutions that do not go to the president and do not have the force of law. By themselves, they could have not raised taxes.
• 19 votes were duplicates. This includes procedural votes on the same provisions — such as three votes in 1998 to raise the cigarette tax by $1.10 a pack. It also includes votes for or against a Senate bill and the House-Senate conference report on the same bill.

So, how many times did Reid vote to raise taxes? We found 51 of the 300 votes could fairly be labeled as such. And that’s being generous. That number includes, for example, votes on bills that raised taxes for some and lowered taxes for others. And it includes six votes on GOP amendments to the stimulus bill — which overall contained $280 billion in tax relief.

More here.)