Tester Calls on Burns to Tell the Truth About Taxes
Confronted with undeniable facts, Burns’ mouthpiece refuses to come clean on Burns’ record of raising taxes
Sen. Conrad Burns’ mouthpiece and Montana Republican Party Executive Director Chuck Denowh refused on Monday to admit the truth about Burns’ record of raising taxes, even when presented with evidence by a nonpartisan arm of Congress. Big Sandy farmer Jon Tester, Burns’ opponent in the U.S. Senate race, called on the junior senator to tell Montanans the truth about Burn’s tax record.
A report released this week by the Montana Democratic Party tallied 570 individual tax and fee increases supported by Sen. Burns over the last 12 years. The list includes higher taxes and fees on items including gasoline, airline tickets and even vaccines for Hepatitis and influenza.
Despite these facts, Denowh said, “Conrad Burns has never voted for a tax increase, period.”
Unsatisfied with Denowh’s false explanation, Tester on Tuesday called on Burns to come clean on his record of raising taxes.
“Montanans want a serious debate on taxes, and we can have one as soon as Senator Burns does two things: First, he needs to stop lying about his record and then he need to stop lying about mine,” said State Senate President Jon Tester. “Conrad Burns must have hoped that nobody would read those 12,000 pages of tax bills he supported. Now that they have, maybe Senator Burns can face the facts and he and I can have a serious discussion about whether tax cuts should favor working Montanans like I’ve proposed or whether we should pass cuts for the mega-rich and special interests while imposing a new sales tax on every Montanan.”
Details of Burns’ taxes can be found in a new report from the Democratic Party called “Never Say Never Again,” which is available online here.
The report relies on research from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which analyzes fees and taxes passed by Congress.
Posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 2:01 pm.
