Bush Campaign Lies
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Bush Campaign Lie #17: John Kerry Wants to Impose a 50-Cent Per Gallon Gas Tax
This is a beautiful, beautiful lie, because the Bush campaign frames it so well. They have recently released two TV ads which state that Kerry "supported a 50-cent a gallon gas tax". And they link to no fewer than 10 speeches by surrogates blasting Kerry for his "support of a 50-cent per gallon gas tax".
Gee. The way the Republicans are blathering on and on about Kerry's 50-cent per gallon gas tax, you'd think he was actually running on a gas-tax platform, or at least supported the idea. But no, there's no such tax mentioned in his platform, and no, Kerry doesn't support a 50-cent a gallon gas tax. What the Republicans have are a couple of Kerry's statements from March of 1994 supporting such a tax. That's it. And they know very well that Kerry no longer supports such a tax. How do we know they know? Because they list this issue as one of Kerry's flip-flops, along with a statement from 1996 stating that 'Kerry no longer supports the 50-cent [gas tax] hike'.
So, this is a particularly egregious example of bald-faced Bush campaign lying. FactCheck delves into the issue in greater detail, pointing out not only the lie, but some inevitable hypocrisy as well.
