CD1 Candidates Mix It Up in Debate, and Occasionally Exaggerate the Facts

Republican candidate Jeb Bradley speaks at the 1st District debate. (Cheryl Senter, NHPR)

The first strategy for the Congressional candidates in District one is to lay blame for the country’s problems on each other, or each other’s political party.

Former Congressman Jeb Bradley did just that when he talked about the economy.

He says Carol Shea Porter and fellow Democrats drove up the federal deficit and that her votes contributed to the credit crisis.

Bradley says things were better when Republicans controlled Congress.

We reduced the deficit very significantly as the economy grew. Eight million new jobs were created because we stimulated the economy. And as revenues increased, we cut our deficit, and did so significantly, down to about 150 million dollars.

Carol Shea Porter has said Bradley isn’t telling the whole truth about the deficit, since it was growing fast while he was still in office.

Shea Porter also says the credit crisis is the result of GOP policies that loosened the rules governing the banking and mortgage industries.

The party, the republican party did not want regulation, did not want oversight. Then, after they got in trouble they came looking for the sheriffs, and we are the sheriffs.

Congressman’s Shea Porter’s assertion that only her party has called for more regulation may be a bit of an exaggeration, according Roberton Williams.

Williams is with the non-partisan Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

He says says virtually everybody in Congress shares some responsibility for Wall Street’s lack of regulation.

I think its hard to blame any party, solely for the problems we now have. I think the Republicans certainly have pushed for deregulation and the Democrats have gone along, certainly, until recently.

Williams also says former Congressman Bradley is prone to exaggeration.

He says that’s clear when Bradley talks about the number of jobs created while the Republicans controlled Congress.

I don’t think that there have been eight million new jobs formed since 2000. There may be eight thousand new jobs but certainly not a net gain of eight million jobs, ….

With Republican candidate Jeb Bradley (left) and NHPR's Laura Knoy (center) looking on, Democratic congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter speaks at the 1st District debate. (Cheryl Senter, NHPR)

In their most recent debate, Bradley and Shea Porter also argued over tax cuts and alleged tax hikes.

Former Congressman Bradley says Congressman Shea Porter can’t hide from her record of raising taxes.

Carol, you voted numerous times to raise taxes on the middle class, on working Americans, in the budget votes that you’ve cast, in energy bills, in healthcare bills, in the farm bills. I mean, you have brought tax raising to a new height, you and your Democratic colleagues in Congress….

Shea Porter counters that Bradley is making up facts when he talks about how she has voted.

There are not tax increases on the middle class.

She also says Bradley himself voted to let income tax rates go up when he voted for tax cuts while he was in office.

What is true is we’re going to let, as you’ve arranged, and George bush arranged, to let the top one percent of tax cuts expire. But I never voted to let them expire. When they voted for them, they voted to allow them to expire in 2010. I never had a vote on it.

Congressman Shea Porter’s argument makes the case that the middle class is overtaxed because the upper class has been let off the hook in paying their fair share.

But Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center says that’s not clear when looking at government tax receipts.

Its hard to say that a larger share of the tax bill is falling on the middle class.

Williams says what’s actually happening is the richest Americans are paying a bigger share of the nation’s taxes.

The higher income people pay more in taxes now than they did at the beginning of the decade. But mostly that’s because their incomes grew very rapidly. They’re paying a lower tax rate, but because they’ve got so much more income at the top of the distribution, they’re paying a larger share of total taxes.

Despite this fact, it is likely that both Congressman Shea Porter and former Congressman Bradley will continue to argue about taxes.

They will also keep arguing over who is most to blame about the state of the economy.

But as these arguments are made, voters would be well served to take each assertion with a grain of salt.