Mike! McGavick is currently running a
radio ad which attempts to mislead the people of Washington into thinking that the incumbent,
Maria Cantwell, opposes sales tax deductibility on our federal income taxes.
True, Senator Cantwell voted against the so-called Trifecta bill (H.R. 5970) which would have permanently eliminated the estate tax, lowered the minimum wage for tip earners in Washington, and allowed sales taxes to be deducted from federal income taxes for one additional year. This is the basis upon which Mike! makes his claim.
However, Mike!'s assertion that Senator Cantwell opposes the sales tax deduction is off-base, considering that Cantwell herself co-sponsored a bill which would make the sales tax deduction permanent.
According to a
press release issued by the McGavick campaign on August 15, the text of the ad is as follows:
Mike: I'm Mike McGavick and I approved this message.
Anncr [sic]: Last week the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that put our state sales tax deduction in serious jeopardy.
Mike: You know, by deducting their sales taxes from the federal income tax, the average Washington family saves $550 a year. That really helps families get by.
Anncr: Faced with this choice, Maria Cantwell voted with her party, against our deduction and against our families.
Mike: I think that's the most disappointing and surprising thing. I really thought that Senator Cantwell would vote to keep this deduction in place. It's so critical to Washington families.
Anncr: Sen. Cantwell said she voted "no" because she disagreed with parts of the bill, yet when she was offered a compromise, she refused to talk.
Mike: This isn't really about Sen. Cantwell. D.C [sic] is so caught up in this partisan nonsense, that people are called to vote against their own state's interests.
Mike: Look, if the Republican party came to me and said Mike we want you to vote against the families of your state, I'd tell them to go jump. I'll choose the people of our state every time.
Anncr: Mike McGavick, the change we need.
Paid for by Friends for Mike McGavick
The theory behind the "I approved this message" requirement in federal campaign advertisement is that, faced with the prospect of being connected to false advertising, candidates wouldn't do it for fear of being yoked to the falsehood. Well, we do need to be accountable, so let's go through this line by line, shall we?
With the assertion that sales tax deductibility was in jeopardy, McGavick's announcer starts off with a doozy of a lie. Sure, the latest bill which included that provision had failed in the Senate, but the Senate had no need to pass sales tax deductibility this session. It already had a few months earlier, by a vote of 75-25. The bill is currently before the House.
There is no doubt that sales tax deductibility is important to families in states with sales taxes, but no income taxes. That's why Senator Cantwell, according to a recent editorial "might as well be known as Sen. Sales Tax Deductibility." Personally, I'm glad that Mike! is following Maria's lead.
Being faced with a choice is exactly what Senate duty is supposed to be. However, in this decision, there was no choice. The tip credit would have hurt Washington families. The estate tax only affects the richest dead people in America. The sales tax deductibility was already passed earlier. What choice remained?
The flaw in McGavick's thought that Cantwell would fall for such a tactic is, perhaps, the most telling thing. If, in fact, Mike! is being entirely truthful and thought that Cantwell would fall for such a deceitful trick is that, in her place, he certainly would have been fooled. Of course, McGavick does want to be in her place, and does want to play the fool to Bush's minions.
Why would Cantwell talk about it? What compromise could there be? The only part of the bill that wasn't objectionable to a Washington senator was the sales tax deductibility, and even that was a retreat from the strong position (permanent rather than merely one year) she and the rest of the Senate had taken before! The only possible compromise would have been to compromise her principles. Perhaps that's the compromise Mike! would have made?
His track record for compromising my principles (after all, I'm not convinced that Mike!'s principles were violated here) is not good. In 1988, he ran a false advertisement against then-Congressman and Democrat Mike Lowry. The ad didn't reflect Lowry's position on marijuana, and McGavick was told so. Recently, McGavick said he regretted the decision to keep running the ad when confronted with its inaccuracies, yet he stands by this deceptive ad now.
The next two lines are just what you'd expect: Mike! doesn't want to be connected to the Republican party, even though it is clearly his intent to be their lap dog, as evidenced by the announcer's statement that he's "the change we need." If I were Mike!, I'd run away from them, too.
And vote for Maria Cantwell.