Jim Geraghty writes:
Mark Critz, the Democrat running in Pennsylvania’s special House election, apologized for misstating the position of his rival, Tim Burns, on the flat tax and a national sales tax: But DCCC knows no shame. They’re running a new ad, with the same wrong facts on Burns’s position.
Factcheck.org calls the ad "quite misleading" and a "deception" because "it fails to mention that the FairTax proposal would also repeal the federal income tax entirely and do away with the Internal Revenue Service. It would also eliminate gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare and self-employment taxes. But anyone viewing the DCCC’s ad could easily conclude that Burns favored slapping a 23 percent sales tax on top of all existing taxes, which is not true."
The fact-checking group adds:
Burns isn’t really pushing the FairTax proposal very hard, either. In his 2009 interview, he said it would be impractical to implement it quickly, even though he favors the concept. Burns May 14, 2009: "I would love to ultimately see the FairTax implemented. I’m not at this point ready to say that I am an advocate of the FairTax right out of the gate. I mean, ultimately I would love to see the FairTax implemented in the United States. I’m just not sure that we can go from where we are today to the FairTax: I just don’t know that that’s practical. But I would love to see us get there."