OPINION

Habitual Liar for Congress

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I used to like Mike McIntyre. For a Democrat, he really wasn’t that bad – at least not for the first few terms of office. Not only was he consistently pro-life but he also put a copy of the Ten Commandments on his office wall – this is a big deal for a Democrat, mind you. But, recently, McIntyre has forgotten the meaning of the Ninth Commandment.

His most egregious lie has been his repeated mischaracterization of the Fair Tax – a tax reform measure I support fully. In the first of three debates with his Republican opponent Ilario Pantano, McIntyre falsely accused Pantano of wanting to raise everyone’s taxes by 23% - an allusion to Pantano’s support of the Fair Tax. Note that McIntyre mentions the addition of the 23% consumption tax without mentioning the fact that one’s federal income tax obligation would disappear with the abolition of the IRS. The Fair Tax does not raise your taxes - it instead reforms the way your taxes are collected. It also gives you - the consumer, not the IRS agent - control over how much you pay in taxes.

Note (also in the YouTube clip) that McIntyre boasts of moving forward “progressively.” Mike McIntyre is no longer a conservative. He is a progressive as evidenced by his support of a progressive income tax, which Ilario Pantano would like to eliminate (via either the Fair Tax or a flat tax). You heard that right. I said that if you support a progressive income tax system you are a progressive – unless you hold some other combination of positions that offsets your desire to punish people for their success.

In all fairness, Mike McIntyre later claimed that he misspoke in his first debate with Pantano during which he misrepresented the nature of the Fair Tax. But now he’s at it again with an ad campaign that shows he must have misspoken (read: lied) when he said he had misspoken.Mike McIntyre has now decided to run a series of new ads claiming Ilario Pantano wants to raise our taxes by 23%. But there is no further explanation of the Fair Tax in those ads. We obviously know McIntyre is referring to the Fair Tax and spreading inaccurate and false statements whenever he uses the very specific 23% figure. But those ads, which are mostly geared towards those paying 28% in federal income taxes, say nothing about the abolition of the IRS.

Ilario Pantano is a supporter of the Fair Tax and he needs our help. Please call Congressman McIntyre (910.815.4959) and ask him to stop lying about the Fair Tax. Please also write to WWAY TV3 and email WECT asking them to pull the ads due to factual inaccuracies. They are under no obligation to run ads that misrepresent pending legislation. Those ads are not an example of political opinion. They are an example of political malpractice. Besides, privately-owned news stations are not bound by the First Amendment, which is designed to regulate governments.

Tweet about it, change your Facebook status, do everything you can to help derail this career politician’s efforts to win re-election through factual distortion. This is an important issue and we can't let Mike McIntyre distort the Fair Tax for his own political gain.

Mike McIntyre used to be an honorable man. Now he is a political whore. We don’t need any more of his kind occupying that domed brothel on the Hill.