PoliGraph: Ad against Cravaack misleads
A union and a liberal organization have teamed up to run a TV ad against 8th District Republican Congressman Chip Cravaack.
The spot targets the first-term lawmaker for voting in favor of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal.
Cravaack voted to give "big oil companies more tax breaks," a woman's voice in the ad states. Her criticism is set to a shot of Cravaack next to the following quote: "Cravaack/Ryan budget '[gives] oil tax breaks worth $40 billion [to] companies such as Exxon."
The ad, which is being paid for by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Americans United for Change, gets its number right but its description of what Cravaack voted for is misleading.
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The Evidence
Like most of his Republican colleagues, Cravaack voted in favor of Ryan's $3.5 trillion fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which passed the U.S. House largely on party lines. The document is meant to be a blueprint for Congress's spending plans.
Budgets are also used to frame election-year politics, and this one is no exception. There are a lot of things Democrats don't like about Ryan's proposal, including its changes to Medicare and its cuts in domestic spending.
The Cravaack ad highlights another aspect of Ryan's budget that's already become campaign ammunition: gas prices and oil tax breaks.
According to White House Office of Management and Budget, the typical tax perks oil and gas companies take advantage of are worth nearly $40 billion over ten years.
But the ad says Cravaack voted to give oil companies more tax breaks.
To support their claim, Americans United for Change points to a post written by Daniel J. Weiss who is the director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C.
Weiss wrote that even though oil companies are enjoying a profit, "it appears that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposed FY 2013 budget resolution would retain a decade's worth of oil tax breaks worth $40 billion."
The Ryan proposal doesn't extend oil tax breaks that are set to expire or give oil companies more tax benefits, as the ad implies. Rather, it leaves those tax breaks untouched, while Democrats, including President Barack Obama, have called for their repeal.
Preserving oil and gas tax breaks illustrates a level of hypocrisy on Ryan's part, Weiss said.
"They're cutting billions of dollars for other needs in Medicare, in education, in other programs that are vital to middle class Americans," he said.
Americans United for Change spokesman Jeremy Funk also pointed out that the Ryan proposal would trim the corporate tax rate. But that change would benefit all firms, not just oil and gas companies.
The Verdict
It's just one word, but there's a big difference between "more" and "retain." It's true that current oil and gas tax breaks are worth about $40 billion. And oil and gas companies would likely benefit from cutting the corporate tax rate.
But to say that Cravaack voted to give oil and gas companies more tax breaks is misleading. The Ryan budget simply assumes that those tax benefits remain unchanged.
SOURCES
YouTube, Does Chip Cravaack Think We Were Born Yesterday? Hands Off My Medicare!, accessed April 2, 2012
The Center for American Progress, Ryan Budget Pads Big Oil's Pockets with Senseless Subsidies: Spending Plan Keeps $40 Billion in Tax Breaks for Wealthiest Companies, by Daniel Weiss, March 20, 2012
The Washington Post, House approves $3.5 trillion budget plan proposed by Paul Ryan, By Rosalind S. Helderman and Paul Kane, March 29, 2012
THOMAS, H. Con. Res. 34, accessed April 3, 2012
House Budget Committee, Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal, accessed April 3, 2012
Report: Concurrent Resolution on the Budget - Fiscal Year 2013, March 23, 2012
The Center for American Progress, Big Oil's Banner Year, by Daniel J. Weiss, Jackie Weidman, Rebecca Leber, February 7, 2012
Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2013: Cuts, Consolidations, and Savings, accessed April 3, 2012
Interview, Dan Weiss, Center for American Progress, April 3, 2012
Interview, Isabelle Sawhill, The Brookings Institution, April 3, 2012
E-mail exchange, Ben Golnick, adviser, Cravaack campaign, April 3, 2012
E-mail exchange, Jeremy Funk, spokesman, Americans United for Change, April 3, 2012